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Retailers won’t shell out on eggs

by Ed Thornton

Click to enlarge

SIMON PENDRIGH/MEN

SIMON PENDRIGH/MEN

THE makers of the Real Easter Egg, which depicts the story of Jesus on its box, say that supermarkets have failed to order sufficient quantities this year, despite overwhelming demand last Easter (Real Life, 11 March 2011).

A statement from Church House on Wednesday said that one “major retailer” had reduced its order, and “in many of the UK’s towns there will only be a handful of eggs available to buy off the super­market shelves when they go on sale in January”.

The Bishop of Oxford, the Rt Revd John Pritchard, said on Wednesday that the supermarkets’ failure to order sufficient numbers of the Real Easter Egg could be because retailers were exercising “absurd caution” and attempting to be “politically correct”. He said that there seemed to be “a clear-cut agenda to keep credible products, with any connection to Christi­anity, off the shelves”.

He was concerned, he said, that children in this country “don’t lose the Christian story, which is part of their heritage. This is a simple way of making sure they are not dis­inherited.”

Bishop Pritchard urged Chris­tians to inundate retailers with huge orders of the Real Easter Egg, and write to supermarkets to complain.

The Bishop of Middleton, the Rt Revd Mark Davies (above), said: “It seems incredible that the only Easter-egg gift on the market which caters for the Christian community is re­jected or marginalised by our big­gest retailers.”

www.realeasteregg.co.uk

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