Saturday 14 November 2009

Love it or hate it? The Marmite Pop Up!

Marmite are the latest brand to jump on the pop up bandwagon with a Regent Street pop up shop through November and December.

Inspired by the idea of "over 100 different Marmite inspired products" we dropped in yesterday to check it out.



The window and internal displays are fun - a tower of Marmite jars, a Love Hate wall art of jars and lids and an old-fashioned record turntable slowly rotating yet more jars. But we found the selection inside pretty disappointing.



Mugs and tins sport Warholised versions of the familiar Marmite logo in a range of pastel colours. If one counts all the colour variations and sizes of tins, that's no doubt where the "100 different products" claim comes from! A shame they don't have mugs with the logo in it's standard colours... I might just have bought one of those!

There are a range of T-shirts - not bad but certainly over-priced.



And a very small selection of Marmite snacks (though we noticed the absence of Marmite twiglets and the new Marmite bar we'd recently encountered).

The biggest disappointment? None of their special editions of Marmite are available. Pete's developed quite a taste for the Champagne edition so was hoping to pick some up here.

Upstairs is a small room that looks like a school art room. On the wall are Marmite art installations, including a huge wall of Love or Hate stickers which visitors choose and put up. And a table with marker pens too. Much more fun that your usual visitor book so I did, of course, join in!




Visitors can pause for a snack here - as long as they're happy with tea and Marmite on toast!

And that's about it. It takes only a few minutes to check out the shop and realise there's really not much on offer at all.

If you're a Marmite fan, and passing, you might like to pop in for a moment. But I wouldn't make a special trip for it myself.

7 comments:

Debs @ DKC said...

Interesting to read. That's the trouble with living in Spain, I get to miss out on things like this LOL.

Tell Pete I have a half empty jar of champagne marmite if he wants it; we can't stand the stuff and I particularly hate the smell although Barry is gradually working he way through it so it does'nt go to waste!

Tom said...

Okay, I Give... What the heck is Marmite?

Kavey said...

Hi Tom
It's a spread made from yeast extract and very popular on toast and in sandwiches. It's like a completely salty/ savoury version of molasses or black treacle!
And people really do either love it or hate it... not many who are simply indifferent!

Steve S said...

Marmite is poular in the UK and New Zealand, and in Australia where their local variety is called Vegemite. The UK invented it, though Australia cloned it very soon after.
The best thing about watching Americans eat it is that they think it is chocolate spread and put huge amounts on the toast (you only spread it VERY thinly) and the look on their faces when they take a big bite is priceless
-Steve

ElendilPickle said...

>>The best thing about watching Americans eat it is that they think it is chocolate spread and put huge amounts on the toast (you only spread it VERY thinly) and the look on their faces when they take a big bite is priceless<<

Some of us know better!

Pei - teanamu eat.drink.tea said...

I give Marmite to my hens, Aretha and Martina, to disguise the worming medicine and they absolutely loved it! Its v good for them too.

talkie_tim said...

Now, there's a good point. What happened to the Marmite Cereal Bars? I blagged a half dozen when they were sampling them at the train station, and can't find them anywhere since!