A UK-based chocolate enthusiast was left heartbroken after her £180 ($227) Lindt chocolate advent calendar ended up being a let-down.
Shivani Khosla (@khoslaa) is a lifestyle TikToker and her video earned over 6.5 million views. Among other things, her account features unboxing hauls of numerous so-called “luxury” advent calendars. While some calendars had bang for their buck, others, like the Lindt one, left Shivani less than impressed.
As she opened the doors of the giant box one by one, she had mixed feelings about what she found inside. For instance, in door six, one of the bigger doors, Shivani discovered some Crispy Bites. “I shouldn’t have got my hopes up. They’ve gone back down to [the] floor,” she quipped.
She also criticized the number of duplicates in the calendar, leaving her with “a gang of [chocolate] Santa Clauses” and “Santa’s whole sleigh of [chocolate] reindeer.” She also received only one bear from Lindt’s His and Hers chocolate bear collection.
As she went through the calendar, Shivani also added together the RRPs of these chocolates sold separately. The total came to £104.44 ($131.80), which is significantly cheaper than the calendar.
“I wasn’t expecting too much, but I did not think it would be worth this cheap,” she concluded. “I can’t lie. Now I’ve opened everything and priced it all up and seen that there are so many repetitive chocolates, it’s a scam. It’s a scammy advent calendar. It’s a whole scam, and I’m not happy.”
Shivani didn’t immediately respond to the Daily Dot’s request for comment via TikTok comment and email.
What do others think of the Lindt advent calendar?
Commenters were equally shocked by the advent calendar. “That’s a £75.56 difference!” one wrote. “You cannot tell me the cardboard is worth that much.”
A second noted that it’s “the repeated items that annoys me the most.” While a third asked, “Isn’t the point of a calendar that the contents are worth way more than the price?”
But while many commenters also noted that sales prices make these items even cheaper, others defended the calendar. “You’re paying for the experience,” a commenter said.
@khoslaa Replying to @Emma&Thor these are FULL priced by the way, a lot of websites have sales on each item, so its technically even cheaper 🤣🤣 #lindt #lindtadventcalendar #costco #costcofinds #adventcalendar ♬ Powerful songs like action movie music – Tansa
“So your not paying for production, extra materials, extra staff, logistics?” a second asked.
Along with the comments, other food bloggers had similar complaints over the advent calendar. In an interview with Metro, food blogging page UK Newest Foods said that the calendar was one of the “best and worst” they had come across.
“It’s the best because it’s AMAZING, look at it, it’s 5 foot tall! But it’s the worst as it’s terrible value for money, which is such a shame,” they explained.
“It cost £180 but I added the cost of the individual products up on the Tesco [a UK supermarket website] website as a rough guide, and the total came to £90.”
Lindt and Costco didn’t immediately respond to the Daily Dot’s request for comment via email and contact form respectively.
Update 12:15pm CT, Nov. 27: In an email to the Daily Dot, a Lindt & Sprüngli spokesperson said, “We strive to deliver enhanced consumer experience with advent calendars, creating excitement every day of the festive season. Please understand that we cannot comment on the price, which is at the discretion of the retailer.”
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