Tesco logo on a branch of the UK supermarket
Shoppers have thoughts on the situation. (Picture: Getty Images)

It’s only September, but Christmas treats are already lining the shelves in supermarkets such as Asda, and Sainsbury’s

M&S has also launched several festive products, and Quality Street recently unveiled its new limited-edition tin for 2024.

Tesco beat many retailers to the punch though, with the company stocking tubs of festive favourites like Celebrations from early July. 

Shoppers were baffled to see the products in the middle of summer, and they’ve been left baffled once more after spotting a sign placed next to a display of tubs of Cadbury Roses.

An image of the sign was shared to the Tesco forum on Reddit, by u/I_Love_Cricket_. It shows a stack of the chocolate tubs, with a sign featuring a rule for purchase. Customers wanting to buy the sweets are told they can only buy a maximum of 10 tubs each.

Unsurprisingly, people were perplexed by the idea of anyone needing to buy more than 10 tubs of the chocolates. But many soon took to the comments to share deeper commentary on what they thought was going on.

One user, known only as u/ImpressFantastic7259, clarified that they had seen people buying too many tubs. They wrote: ‘To be fair people do buy more, the other week someone ordered like 3+ pallets of Celebrations and other tubs. Filled a large panel van completely.’

A different user shared that their local Tesco had limited the number of tubs you could buy to 20 per person, after ‘someone apparently tried buying 100’. And a fellow employee from a Tesco Express store said that a customer had requested 120 Celebrations tubs that very same day.

Others claimed that the issue was all to do with people purchasing the tubs for £4.50 from Tesco on the discounted Clubcard price, and then reselling them elsewhere for a higher amount.

u/Pretend-Jackfruit786 posted: ‘People are 100% selling them on Amazon for £9.99 each. F***ing crazy that people are actually buying it at that price too.’

Stacks of Christmas sweets tubs, including Celebrations, Quality Street and Cadbury Roses
Tesco put festive sweets out very early this year.(Picture: Richard Baker / In Pictures via Getty Images)

And u/forzafoddia85 agreed, saying: ‘It’s cheaper for small retailers to buy from Tesco when on clubcard price than it is from their wholesalers so they bulk buy and increase their profit margins.’ Some gave the examples of corner shops doing this. 

A different person, u/tkaxzyk1991 suggested businesses were stocking up on the chocolate tubs early to give them as gifts, adding: ‘Companies buy them as gifts for customers at Xmas. If there’s 140 tubs per pallet, priced at £4.50 now then they go up to £6 at Xmas… they’ve saved £210 per pallet by buying now instead of at Xmas.’

Metro.co.uk has contacted Tesco for comment on the rules around buying the festive treat. 

It’s not known how many stores have a similar policy in place to limit the number of tubs shoppers can buy, but it has been confirmed that it’s not a blanket ban in all Tesco stores.

Only certain branches in the UK will have this rule, and the limit on the numberof tubs you are allowed to purchase will vary.

According to The Express, ‘in certain locations, purchase limits on specific items might be enforced to ensure all people can access their needs, and to manage space on the company’s Grocery Home Shopping vans’.

They add that any restrictions in place are not linked to any nationwide shortage, but are there to maintain ‘fairness’ for shoppers during periods of heightened demand.

This isn’t the only rule change Tesco has made of late, as the supermarket also recently announced a change to the way Clubcard holders can collect points.

Have you been affected by the limit on tubs of Cadbury Roses in Tesco?Comment Now

The retailer is currently offering customers a chance to earn double points over the next months, and you don’t even have to leave your house to do so.

As part of Tesco’s partnership with Evri, the supermarket offers customers the chance to earn points every time they send a parcel with the delivery company. 

But now, in a new rule change, you can earn double points for every parcel you send with Evri between September 9 and September 30. As every £1 spent on Evri.com, will allow customers to collect two points.

Therefore, the more parcels you send, the more points you earn to turn into vouchers off your Tesco shop, or to use with one of the Tesco Clubcard Rewards partners, such as Disney+, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, PizzaExpress, and RAC.

You need a minimum of 150 points to claim a voucher, which you can do by signing into the Tesco Grocery & Clubcard app, or by visiting the ‘My Clubcard account’ tab online at tesco.com.

To start earning points this way, people just need to add their Clubcard number on the Evri basket page and select ‘collect points’. These will then be credited to your account within 14 days.

However, it is worth noting that there is one small catch to this deal — you can’t use an Evri discount code and apply your Tesco Clubcard to the same order. And you can only claim the points on parcels sent within the UK via the website. Any returned or cancelled parcels will be excluded, as well as any orders made on the international Evri site, and on the Evri app.

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