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Crap at Christmas wrapping? Call a professional

1:14pm Monday 15th December 2008 in Top Stories By James Mill

One of crap wrappers at work One of crap wrappers at work

Have you ever thought your loved one’s perfectly wrapped gift bore the signs of a little professional help?

Now Croydon-based Firebox.com has devised a wrapping service so deliberately shoddy, you’ll believe they spent all those precious seconds lovingly mummifying your presents themselves.

The aptly named CrapWrap ensures your gifts are given a truly personal touch, complete with enough clumsily applied brown duct tape to gag a hostage, ripped paper and no fancy frills.

The company recruited 20 of its male forklift truck drivers and warehouse employees to wrap presents as badly as possible.

Kevin Smith, 29, holds the dubious honour of being the worst wrapper at the Croydon depot.

He said: “I am rubbish. We’re not given any instructions. I’m just asked to make a hash of it using lots of brown tape and making sure there are rips and untidy folds.

The £3.95 service has attracted over 500 customers since its launch last week.

Firebox PR Manager Claire Wood said: “We didn’t expect it to be so popular, and we did it as a bit of fun, but it went down amazingly. Customers think it’s hilarious.”

But to make sure all customers are laughing, a specific CrapWrap sticker identifies the package as an intended disaster and the company have had no complaints so far.

But as we enter a credit-crunch Christmas, isn’t paying for wrapping you could mess up yourself a little extravagant?

Miss Wood said: “Customers are happy to pay for a hilarious idea.”

MD of Firebox, Christian Robinson said: “Firebox celebrates its 10th birthday this year and just to show we haven’t lost our sense of humour, we’ve decided to give our customers an unusual, down-to-earth take on gift wrapping.”

• What do you think? Let us know in the comments section below.

Comments(24)

Hephaistos says...
2:18pm Mon 15 Dec 08

How very very sad that what could have been a humorous venture has to be coarsened by the inappropriate use of a four letter word.

"Bad-Wrap' would have served just as well.

A sign of the times I am afraid.




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Angela M says...
1:03pm Tue 16 Dec 08

Crap isn't really a swear word, is it?... Oh well, I suppose I must just be coarse! :)

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ANNE GILES says...
2:20pm Tue 16 Dec 08

Crap is a slang word meaning excrement. However, we tend to use it to mean anything which is rubbish.

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scoffer says...
7:20pm Tue 16 Dec 08

I thought this headline was something from Anne's blog!! only joking!! ... but someone did say your blog comments were removed - and this stuff stays ? how fair is that to Anne ?

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Brian Sewer says...
1:15pm Wed 17 Dec 08

Yes all the comments were removed scoffer;it was not fit for a family newspaper where many young school kids have a look in during school projects

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jonholmes says...
1:25pm Wed 17 Dec 08

Well, I heartily agree with Hephaistos, my ears are not toilets. Yet, unfortunately one cannot nip out to get ones Giro without being sonically assaulted with wanton use of swears. I say, less articles about prophane companies and more about those ruddy paedophiles (excuse my french)!!

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ANNE GILES says...
2:08pm Wed 17 Dec 08

scoffer wrote:
I thought this headline was something from Anne's blog!! only joking!! ... but someone did say your blog comments were removed - and this stuff stays ? how fair is that to Anne ?
Actually, I asked for them to be removed, because there is a sick person who hurls insults. My blog was fine. The sick person is now hurling insults at the Editor-in-Chief of the Croydon Advertiser, but I am sure he is a lot stronger than I am and can handle it. A senior police officer is going to discuss with this paper the best way of removing sick commentators. I am getting a lot of support there.

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scoffer says...
3:09pm Wed 17 Dec 08

Oh dear!! the police involved on here now ? drive-by shootings in Croydon with Crimewatch involved and stabbings ??... and a senior police officer is now drafted onto this newspaper to deal with a poster who has been hurling insults ? rofl!! dear oh dear oh dear... This has to be a scoop for the Sun newspaper to report on!!

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I hope not says...
3:37pm Wed 17 Dec 08

Well actually in fairness some people are committing offences with some of the comments that have been made. If people are also being threatened, or insulted, this can be a criminal offence, as can causing harassment, alarm or distress and it's right that the Police take action. It may be down the lower end of the scale to some people, but it is still breaking the law. Hope it gets sorted.

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Brian Sewer says...
4:23pm Wed 17 Dec 08

The blog comments were all removed because they both made unsuitable comments to each other that i wont repeat. gutter comments comes to mind

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ANNE GILES says...
9:52pm Wed 17 Dec 08

Harrassment is harrassment and is a criminal offence.

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Brian Sewer says...
10:16pm Wed 17 Dec 08

Yes i have been harrassed

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scoffer says...
9:56am Thu 18 Dec 08

No you have not been harrassed Brian... it's called a news forum with various views being put forward in a robost way - try having a look at the SUN's own forums - it's hostile and direct and sometimes **** right rude which probably reflects this modern world we all live in... the moderator then steps in and removes the offending articles... the same applies on here too - some people like to make a mountain of a mole hill because they are not taken too seriously at times - yawn... let's just keep posting on this wonderful Croydon Guardian forum - and thank the good people on the C.G. for their tireless work in making it a jolly good newspaper!!

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ANNE GILES says...
10:58am Thu 18 Dec 08

Spot on, scoffer. Merry Christmas. Re what you were saying about police being involved with the press - senior officers always meet regularly with the press to discuss articles about crime, etc. etc. What the Council, Croydon BID, police and myself are trying to do is to promote Croydon as a good place to live, study and work. I teach in adult education. Funding used to be easy - now many areas find it hard to get it. Therefore, our classes now have to be seen to be successful. This means plenty of enrolments and few drop-out rates - also a lot more paperwork in order to prove students are learning. Assessments, etc. If too many negative stories appear, and too many people put negative comments in, then enrolments could possibly drop, which would affect adult education totally. Negative comments prevent people from buying properties here, business from moving here, etc. etc. This is one reason why I have chosen to help out and to write positive stuff. There will always be people who don't like it - but what amazes me is that a lot of them don't even live here, so it's nothing to do with them anyway. You, scoffer, are a nice person and I am glad you like this excellent paper.

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Brian Sewer says...
3:04pm Thu 18 Dec 08

Ok scoffer if i have not been harrassed then no one else has.id like to see the police take somone to court on here for speaking there mind; then they would get sued for thousands

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scoffer says...
11:18am Fri 19 Dec 08

Thank you Anne!! I've read your post twice to make sure I fully understand where you are coming from - you think if readers coments are too 'negative' it will put people off from working there, studying there, or even moving there ?? - perhaps it will - but it's better they find out what it's really like rather than reading some glossy magazine produced by a group of bodies with tax payers cash, who only promote the things they want people to see... most people are savvied up now anyway - you can find out the postives and negatives of any area and weigh it all up.

People sitting outside coffee shops on plastic chairs drinking espresso's giving it that contential feel in the freezing cold sounds ever so 'with it' and relaxed... and quite right too!! but - what good is that when there is a SMALL minority ruining it for the majority with murders and stabbings in the same area ? who in their right mind wants that going on a few streets away. My daughter was spat on in the Whitgit centre by a youth who my daughter then confronted - he was in a group with other youth's and said there' nothing you can do about it - when she called security, they ejected him only for him to then come through another door a little while later... the security people just shrugged their shoulders and said, what can we do ? he is a problem to us!! Perhaps the newspapers shouldn't report crime in Croydon or anywhere else ? now that's a good idea - trouble is it sounds like Zimbabwe then!!

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Brian Sewer says...
2:04pm Fri 19 Dec 08

Merry christmas! we are going to have a smashing time in tarring and worthing this christmas exploring all the villages,, and on boxing day all those hunts! ha ha

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ANNE GILES says...
10:09pm Fri 19 Dec 08

Brian Sewer wrote:
Merry christmas! we are going to have a smashing time in tarring and worthing this christmas exploring all the villages,, and on boxing day all those hunts! ha ha
Poor little foxes. We had a family of foxes living in our back garden for several months - from the time the cubs were born until they were old enough to leave. Now they just visit occasionally. Hunting is an extremely cruel sport and only practiced by barbarians.

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scoffer says...
11:48am Sat 20 Dec 08

Oh dear... Anne is attacking our wonderful Royal Family now!! rofl!!

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ANNE GILES says...
11:01pm Sat 20 Dec 08

I used to be a member of the League Against Cruel Sports. Am still a member of the RSPCA.

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Touran says...
3:19pm Sun 21 Dec 08

Getting back to what Brian said earlier re: Blog :- i've stopped posting on there because of the abuse and aggresive nature,one feels uneasy, but I can confirm the disgusting tone of the comments that were left on there have been removed
Goodbye

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Brian Sewer says...
8:47am Mon 22 Dec 08

We love the hunts the ban is been ignored by everyone

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ANNE GILES says...
9:39pm Mon 22 Dec 08

I used to shout "murderers" whenever I saw people hunting.

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scoffer says...
8:48am Tue 23 Dec 08

And then Anne realised it was futile!!

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