Shoppers twig – £40 sticks can be picked up for nothing

HOMEWARE shop Anthropologie, which is renowned for selling expensive but sometimes unnecessary items, has been mocked for selling sticks for £40 a bundle.

Promoting the item, its website reads: “If you’re looking to bring a rustic quality to your home, then this bundle of birch wood is the perfect piece for you!”

The package can contain as few as 18 birch twigs at more than £2 per twig, leading to shoppers complaining that they could go out for a walk and pick up similar ones for nothing.

It is not the first time Anthropologie has been ridiculed for its obscure offerings, as it became the butt of a joke on an episode of the popular cartoon Family Guy. In the episode it was parodied for selling a ping pong table in the shape of Easter Island, as well as a telephone made from vintage phone book paper that did not make any calls.

Meanwhile, people have begun using social media to mock the twigs. Gem Redmond-mundy said on Twitter: “My garden’s worth a fortune!”

And Barbara Harnisch posted: “A LOT of birch twiggy stuff is available. My neighbour had a couple of logs stood on end in a basket outside her front door. Had some fake flowers, too. I am far too obtuse to understand.”

An Anthropologie spokesman said: “Our large (80cm) decorative branches are a lovely contemporary decoration for Christmas. Used with foliage real or faux they add drama into floral arrangements, which some people choose to invest in over traditional trees.

“For the £40 you actually get over 20 branches and even though £40 might seem like a high price tag, individually they are less than £2, and they are all natural birch wood that you can keep and decorate each year.

“At Anthropologie art and creativity are at the core of the brand so we love to encourage our customers to be creative. If you look anywhere for a Christmas branch at a florist a single twig is around £7.50, so this is not overpriced.”