Declining quality of free samples at major stations e.g. Leeds

[yorksrob]

Anyone old enough to remember commuting before the financial crash of 2008 will remember the glory days of people giving out free samples at stations.

Almost every other week they seemed to be giving away things - new chocolate bars, fizzy drinks, cheeze, frozen pizzas etc. This kind of froze up a bit after the crash, but you'd still occasionally come across a stand with something interesting. Some times outside the station door, sometimes inside.

Nowadays it seems to be nothing but pet food for some reason. We had the cat food people encamped at Leeds a couple of weeks ago.

Today they were there giving something out. Ooh I thought, is this something good ? "Dog treats" the person said. I don't even own a sodding dog.

 

[Iskra]

They do seem to be struggling to offload the dog food.

 

[yorksrob]

They do seem to be struggling to offload the dog food.

I wouldn't mind if we had the occasional human orientated giveaway, but nada.

 

[xotGD]

Adopted Yorkshireman complaining that he isn't getting stuff for free!

 

[Bald Rick]

Loads of decent stuff at Waterloo! Drinks, choc, ice cream etc. Also catfood for the more discerning commuter.

 

[Russel]

Anyone old enough to remember commuting before the financial crash of 2008 will remember the glory days of people giving out free samples at stations.

Almost every other week they seemed to be giving away things - new chocolate bars, fizzy drinks, cheeze, frozen pizzas etc. This kind of froze up a bit after the crash, but you'd still occasionally come across a stand with something interesting. Some times outside the station door, sometimes inside.

Nowadays it seems to be nothing but pet food for some reason. We had the cat food people encamped at Leeds a couple of weeks ago.

Today they were there giving something out. Ooh I thought, is this something good ? "Dog treats" the person said. I don't even own a sodding dog.

Tell me you're from Yorkshire without telling me your from Yorkshire!

Last freebie I had was a few cans of Pepsi Max at Euston a couple of years ago.

 

[milooo]

There were Krispy Kreme free samples today at London Liverpool Street. Unfortunately, it was cat food.

 

[nlogax]

Loads of samples being dished out at Waverley during festival season in August. I picked up two large bags of Cheez-It Snap'd. There were absolutely rank and inedible. I wish we could have the bog-standard Cheez-Its here, the Snap'd variety look and taste like radioactive waste.

 

[Tester]

Not much help here, but Switzerland is still good for such!

 

[yorkie]

Tell me you're from Yorkshire without telling me your from Yorkshire!

Last freebie I had was a few cans of Pepsi Max at Euston a couple of years ago.

He isn't from Yorkshire and even supports Lancaster City, which no-one who is from - or whose family is from - Yorkshire would do.

Kentsrob would be a more accurate username

 

[Tetragon213]

Loads of decent stuff at Waterloo! Drinks, choc, ice cream etc. Also catfood for the more discerning commuter.

The catfood is probably more palatable than the culinary disasters some TOCs try and pass for "food"

FWIW, New Street rarely, if ever, has anyone giving samples etc out, and neither does Euston; this may, however, be a byproduct of how woefully overcrowded they are even at the best of times. I also don't recall much being pushed at Sheffield in my time using that place.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I've had freebies from Euston before. It does seem less common now as you say.

 

[EYFanatic]

I know this is aimed at the UK, but I recently went to Amsterdam and on both sides of the station, Centraal Square and the Ij side, there was Coca Cola stands giving away free cans of the standard type. I shrugged it off at first but noticed there were six altogether and none of them could see the other.

My Yorkshire senses activated and I made a sweep of all of them and obtained twelve cans of coke, coke cherry and coke lemon which meant I didn't need to navigate the small Albert Heijn store by the tram stops and saved me money! (oddly, because I make a large number of visits a year, I have that firm's app on my phone)

#

On my return via Newcastle, there was a promotions thing giving away Walkers - though for what reason I do not know

 

[8ace]

They were giving away beer outside Brighton station this summer, unfortunately it was alcohol free so naturally I declined.

 

[EYFanatic]

They were giving away beer outside Brighton station this summer, unfortunately it was alcohol free so naturally I declined.

Alcohol free beer is, without a shadow of a doubt, the work of Satan and all his Lancastrian followers

 

[Bald Rick]

Alcohol free beer is, without a shadow of a doubt, the work of Satan and all his Lancastrian followers

I used to agree wholeheartedly, but then I discovered Alcohol Free Erdinger Weissbier, which after a long hot bike ride is very welcome.

I discovered this, as a freebie, in Leeds city centre, with two Yorksihremen adjacent, who each agreed.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I used to agree wholeheartedly, but then I discovered Alcohol Free Erdinger Weissbier, which after a long hot bike ride is very welcome.

In Germany they pretty much treat that as an isotonic (which it pretty much is).

 

[sabanda]

Loads of decent stuff at Waterloo! Drinks, choc, ice cream etc. Also catfood for the more discerning commuter.

Am I always in too much of a hurry to notice this or am I coming at the wrong time?!

 

[Bald Rick]

In Germany they pretty much treat that as an isotonic (which it pretty much is).

It says “isotonic” on the label!

Am I always in too much of a hurry to notice this or am I coming at the wrong time?!

They usually do middle of the day.

 

[Russel]

They were giving away beer outside Brighton station this summer, unfortunately it was alcohol free so naturally I declined.

I picked up some Brewdog in the yellow sticker section of Morriosns a while ago, drank it and wondered why it seemed so weak, looked at the bottle properly, alcohol free...

I almost took the second unopened bottle back for a refund!

 

[Fokx]

Manchester Piccadilly is usually quite good for samples and seems to be a bit of target station for marketing companies owing to the cities numerous advertising agencies and marking groups.

In the last year there's been energy drinks, coca cola, Liquid IV rehydration salts, Fabric softener, Cat Food, Nicotine gum, aftershave/perfume, Protein balls, coffee sachets, alternative milks, bacterial yoghurt drinks and Yoghurt off the top of my head.

 

[speedy1]

That fabric softener has a proper weird taste to it

And free samples? Mate, Poundland is in administration, can businesses even afford free samples??

 

[Acathater]

On my return via Newcastle, there was a promotions thing giving away Walkers - though for what reason I do not know

Johnnie Walkers I hope

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Yesterday at 00:12 ==

Alcohol free beer is, without a shadow of a doubt, the work of Satan and all his Lancastrian followers

I can't think of a Lancashire brewery making alcohol-free beer
though in it's latter days after the real Boddingtons brewery closed it did taste rather weak

 

[Starmill]

That fabric softener has a proper weird taste to it

And free samples? Mate, Poundland is in administration, can businesses even afford free samples??

Presumably the margin on some of this branded cat food makes it worthwhile eh! The stall I saw wasn't giving away a sample size either, it was a whole 2kg bag of cat biscuits or something.

 

[Acathater]

I picked up some Brewdog in the yellow sticker section of Morriosns a while ago, drank it and wondered why it seemed so weak, looked at the bottle properly, alcohol free...

I almost took the second unopened bottle back for a refund!

memories of a ferry back to Holyhead from Dublin years ago where a couple of drunks piled onto the train pleased as punch at their last minute duty-free purchase of multiple cases of........ShandyBass

 

[EYFanatic]

And free samples? Mate, Poundland is in administration, can businesses even afford free samples??

Not quite in administration just yet - subject to a management buyout possibility

I can't think of a Lancashire brewery making alcohol-free beer

Farmyard Brew does - therefore the work of Satan and all his dark magic which is, of course, forbidden in the blessed sunlit land of Yorkshire

#

Just remembered the strangest freebie I ever got - a bar of sugar free, diabetic friendly chocolate and a copy of the Bible at Stoke station in a tote bag along with "Scripture Candy", Christian Top Trumps and a t-shirt that said I loved Jesus

 

[Acathater]

Only freebie I ever got on the railways was an extract from "The Book of Mormon" from the evangelists on the Manchester-Chorley line. Unwanted but refusal would have kept them pestering me. Litter bins were full that day...

 

[styles]

The only freebies I can ever recall receiving have been when boarding the Caledonian Sleeper. I've had free chocolate and whisky before, and that's been in recent years. Though you have had to have been behind the gate line on the CS platform so not something any random punter could pick up.

 

[8ace]

Alcohol free beer is, without a shadow of a doubt, the work of Satan and all his Lancastrian followers

Too right, that's why I left the free "beer" to the great unwashed returning to Croydon.

I picked up some Brewdog in the yellow sticker section of Morriosns a while ago, drank it and wondered why it seemed so weak, looked at the bottle properly, alcohol free...

I almost took the second unopened bottle back for a refund!

If it had been in the booze aisle rather the than the yellow sticker section you'd have been in well with in your rights to sue under the trade descriptions act!

 

[Sun Chariot]

Anyone old enough to remember commuting before the financial crash of 2008 will remember the glory days of people giving out free samples at stations.

You were lucky; for 1990s London Liverpool Street on Friday nights, the only free samples were already on the concourse floor: dropped fast-food and alco-vomit...