JKR

Three things I like about the packaging for Selfridges’ ‘retro’ sweets:

1.     Aesthetically they are really nice. The simple packaging evoking the giant glass jars from which shopkeepers of old used to dispense sweets by weight into paper bags (helping deliver us Brits a global reputation for appalling teeth). The black strings, bright tags and yellow caps make these designs just ‘Selfridges’ enough and modern enough, with a light touch.

2.     These packs are a great example of the power of the brand. The actual sweets are of a generic and arguably cheap nature. I can pick up such supposed ‘vintage classics’ from my grubby local corner shop or in garish ‘penny dreadful’ packaging, for far less cash. But I wouldn’t want to gift them to anyone. Selfridges’ design is the definition of the “vessel is more important than the content” principle.

3.     Finally, if you buy a jar, I don’t think you are really purchasing sweets here – you are purchasing a totem of a visit to a cool store. That Selfridges the shop can sell itself in this way is payback for a decade of great branding that they have invested in.