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Edinburgh sweet shop blasted for selling £10 bag of crisps hits out at critics saying ‘you can’t please everyone’

AN EDINBURGH shop that was blasted for selling bags of crisps for a tenner has hit back saying 'you can't please everyone'.

Owners of the sweet shop who came under fire for flogging pricey packets of Cheetos are insisting their store is not a 'tourist trap'.

 The shop came under fire for their prices
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The shop came under fire for their prices

Kingdom of Sweets, on Princes Street, Edinburgh, was accused of 'extortion' by one angry shopper who said the markup on products was 'unbelievable'.

The fancy sweet shop specialises in American import sweets and snacks and packets of Cheeto's, Flaming Hot Crunch, are on sale for £9.99.

But owners Krystal Hart and Kelly Manders have defended their decision to sell the treats at that price claiming products are 'flying off the shelves'

Kelly said: "You can't please everyone, if the Cheetos were on sale for £3.99 people wouldn't understand, and people don't ask the question either.


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"We import everything ourselves - there's import tax, there's sugar tax and the list goes on, we sometimes have to fly the product in."

The shop was blasted for selling cans of Monster Energy drinks for £3.99 - nearly a 75 per cent mark up on the cost in supermarkets.

In a Co-Op shop a three-minute walk away, the same high-caffeine drink sells for £1.15, or a quid if on offer.

Other expensive snacks include Harr's Jalapeno Flavoured Cheese Curls - which are priced at £6.99.

 Punters were asked to fork out a tenner for crisps
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Punters were asked to fork out a tenner for crisps

And some traditional British products also had big price tags attached - a Kit-Kat bar was priced at £1.99, more than twice what it is sold for in the same Co-Op shop.

But the owners said they are not a 'tourist trap' but a 'tourist destination'.

Krystal added: "We're not buying in the same quantities as Asda, we're paying a bit more and the products we have you cannot get them here.

"They are something people want but nowhere on the high street has them, so you can charge a bit extra to get them and the customer doesn't understand, we're sourcing them from a place we can't even go to to get them."

Kingdom of Sweets runs several stores around the UK on major streets including ones on Oxford Street and Leicester Square.

As well as American candy, the store also imports sweets from the rest of the world, including China, Australia, France and Spain.

Krystal said: "We sell things like Chinese Oreos, and it's Chinese people buying their own product.

"They're flying off the shelf and probably paying way above the price they're used to."


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The shop has been slated for selling marked-up chocolate from the UK as well, but they say they want to be a "one stop shop" for all sweets.

But Krystal said: "I think the misunderstanding is that these are mainstream products, but what I would say is go buy it from somewhere else and see, turn it around and you'll see they're not the same product.

"We're not forcing anyone to buy them and we're not saying you have to buy them."

"We've been called the biggest tourist trap in Edinburgh, I feel that people don't understand that we're everywhere we're not just in Edinburgh.

"We're not a tourist trap, we're a tourist destination.

"Tell me somewhere else you can get Flaming Hot Cheetos, I'm not necessarily talking about the internet, but they're not in local shops and I think that's the hype, we've got something here and now that other places don't have, and people want it."

Kelly commented: "We don't want to rob anyone, we want it to be an enjoyable place, we want it to be a one stop destination for sweets.

"You'd be surprised at how much people do buy."

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