From David Lees:-

I WAS astonished and disgusted by what I can only describe as a blatant example of exploitation on Mother's Day.

I went to a local branch of a well known Wirral chain of flower shops on Sunday, arriving at approximately 12.55pm. The price of flowers was already well in excess of normal weekday prices. At almost exactly 1pm, two or three shop assistants appeared and changed the displayed prices of the flowers, adding another £1 to the already extortionate prices.

On questioning the action, I was told, in no uncertain terms, that they were only following instructions and they didn't own the shop anyway.

This extortion, which is also repeated on other occasions like Valentine's Day, would not be permitted if general shopkeepers doubled the prices on general produce, such as boxes of chocolates, so why on flowers?

Is there no control over this exploitation, which is made even more outrageous as on Mother's Day it is mainly children buying flowers with hard earned pocket money?

I suggest that it is about time that people wise up and refuse to pay hard earned money for overpriced produce and also protect kids from being ripped off by unscrupulous exploitation.

The Laund,

Wallasey.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.