This is not the first time I bought something because the
packaging made me laugh. The item was screaming for my attention, fighting into
the corner of my eye, on a wall behind the cashier in a convenience store.
It is nearly a year since the Co-Op changed their logo back
to their old 1968-93 “cloverleaf” design, making everything old new again. [Link] Since then, the logo has been rolled out across all its products, as much of a
stamp of its values as the Fairtrade logo the Co-Op helped introduce twenty
years ago. The packaging on each product range has also been refreshed, with a
panoply of colours and designs but, because the Co-Op does not have its
equivalent of a cheap-smart-value-choice-bargain-basement range, I haven’t seen
any product that only uses the Co-Op logo and its official shade of blue…
…until I saw a pack of Co-Op Playing Cards, which I bought
for £1.49. What made me laugh was how little design was actually needed: you
have the Co-Op logo, white on a blue background, and the words “Playing Cards”
underneath it. The dotted lines above and below “Playing Cards” is the only
flourish there is. This is then repeated four times around the box, making
itself perfectly clear to you.
The only change is on the back, where it confirms that you
have bought a pack of standard playing cards, including two Jokers; that it was
made in China, for the Manchester-based Co-Op Group; that the pack complies
with European Union “CE” safety, health
and environmental standards; that the pack is not suitable for children under
three years, for reasons not stated – it may be healthier for them to eat the
cards than making an early start in developing a gambling problem; and details
on contacting their Customer Services department, in case you have been sold a
non-standard pack, or to receive details on where to send any superfluous
Jokers.
Opening the pack, the face of each card uses the standard
format developed over the last five hundred years, along with two nicely-drawn
pictures of a Joker standing on top of the world, dropping his deck onto the
surface. There is an extra card explaining how to play Go Fish but,
disappointingly, the exact same rules are printed on the other side, which
could have been used on the rules for Gin Rummy, Spit, Whist or Oh Hell.
The corners of each card are finely rounded off, so meaning
each card will remain identical to your opponent, no matter how worn they
become. They have good action in your hands and, instead of a linen-type
surface, they have a flat, shiny finish, which may make shuffling a little
easier, and provide better exercise for your fingers over time than a pair of
hand grips.
The greatest surprise of all is when you turn over your deck
– instead of the standard Persian-rug-like design, the new-old Co-Op logo,
white on blue, is on the back of every single card. I am not sure if this pack
was meant to be a promotional item that was put on sale by accident, or whether
the gambling connotations inherent in the cards is gallows humour on the part
of the Co-Op, following the sale of their banking arm, but I have never seen a
well-known brand name used in this way before – until I found out that Nintendo
made playing cards before Donkey Kong and Super Mario arrived.
Marks out of 10? I have just written a near-six-hundred word
review of a pack of playing cards…
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