How the Christmas Hamper Has Changed Over 20 Years of Inflation (IE)

How the Christmas Hamper Has Changed Over 20 Years of Inflation

A look at how our Christmas Hampers have changed since our first year of business through to our 20th year.

Over the last few months we have been busy creating and adapting news articles for online news websites. Most importantly putting together information that is also interesting for you to read at home!

The following article has already appeared in several publications in 2022 including My London, Dublin Live and Wales Online. 

Christmas is all about giving, sharing and the joy of being able to make someone you care about smile. While it's priceless, costs, expenses and taxes must be taken into account.

Have Christmas hampers suffered from 'shrinkflation', or are the 2022 catalogue offerings even recognisable from so long ago?

The findings are intriguing and since 'shrinkflation' was a new term, perhaps 'augflation' is the best way of describing this phenomenon. The process of improving value and quality through production efficiencies at a rate which exceeds the destruction in the value of the purchasing currency.

Basketsgalore is a family-run business that is well versed on family values. Each Christmas hamper it dispatches aims to bring happiness to both sender and recipient. Value and quality are not just words, they are symbiotic to the company's ethos.

With this in mind, let’s go back to see how a Christmas Hamper designed in 2002 has evolved in two decades.

Low Cost Christmas Hamper

The very first Christmas hamper created was the Christmas Traditional Celebration Gift Hamper. It’s refreshed each year to make certain it contains only the best there is to offer. Due to its look, quality and competitive price it’s a perennial hit with everyone during the festive season.

It's not yet twice the price, but it has got bigger with more teabags, more shortbread, more chocolates and more contents. Traditional Christmas Hampers are a forte of the company, and because they only pack for customers, the focus is on incremental improvement annually.

Mid Range Christmas Hamper

The Christmas Traditional Feast Gift Hamper is the benchmark bell-weather in the range. The traditional Basketsgalore Christmas hamper follows a core bakery theme of shortbread, mince-pies, Christmas pudding and Christmas cake.

First designed in 2002, back then at a price of just €98, it stormed into the top sellers lists. Incredibly the price has not doubled in spite of numerical retention of the quantity and spiritual retention of the quality. Price has been kept down by purchasing power - a definite case for the 'augflation' theory applying to the Christmas hampers.

The Signature Christmas Hamper

There’s no better example of the industry’s signature hamper than the Christmas Traditional Banquet Gift Hamper. A high-quality wicker lidded hamper filled with traditional quality foods at the next level up from the Christmas traditional feast.

Remaining in its classic wicker basket, it has been advanced by its palatable food contents. It is astonishing to see that in spite of it not doubling in price, the wicker has been retained and the quality enhanced. This is in spite of wicker prices doubling in 2020 and the quintupling of container prices in 2021.

Corporate Christmas Hamper

The Christmas Festive Celebration Gift Hamper is the quintessential corporate Christmas hamper with a twist of flair. Following the mantra of containing what must be included, but iced with excitement in terms of the best flavours rather than the most outrageous concepts. Again there is less than a doubling in spite of the addition of more items and the retention of the most expensive components.

To summarise; in spite of the sizes, quality and quantity of the Christmas hamper by Basketsgalore having increased, the prices have not kept up. They are lower in relative terms, when measured over the 20-year timeframe when an economist may argue that the loss in purchasing power of ones currency is policy.

If you’d like to check out other inflation-busting gift options available for Christmas or any other occasion, then Basketsgalore is your gateway to an extra happy Christmas. 

We are after all the best value Christmas Hamper Company in Europe if not the world!