Hey there everyone!
I was in town the other day, a rare event for me; the littlest hermit, and I popped into the pound shops there.
In case you haven’t heard of them, they are just shops where everything in them is £1. Simple.
What they sell can be split into two groups really.
The first is branded stuff which could be something expensive if you’re really lucky or just the usual you’d find in supermarkets.
Sometimes they’re in small packs that aren’t worth the money and sometimes you might find foreign versions of brands that might not be released in the UK, mmmm Apple Burst Tic Tacs.
The second is own branded stuff which comes under many guises and “company names” depending on what section it’s in and on most occasions is a load of old plop that breaks in a few seconds.
Now, my town is awash with pound shops and I can confirm that the items in question today were being sold in quite a few of them, that and the lack of a proper brand name leads me to believe that they were made by the pound shop.
So…are they a load of old plop?
Behold, the Keep Fresh 2 Tier Clip-Lock Lunch Box.
You can see why I had to give them a go.
These little fellows would be a good few quid if they had a brand name on them or were made in Japan.
Of course if they were, we would be expecting them to be made of good quality plastic.
They hold a really decent amount at 590ml a section, over a liter in all for the two tiers.
All this for just one glorious pound.
“Keeps food fresh”
I’m not too sure about this one, to me it sort of implies that it’s air tight which actually does keep things fresher.
It’s not for this price though of course.
I guess it keeps things fresher than if you put it in nothing at all?
It’s microwave safe, freezer safe and dishwasher safe on the top shelf which are all things I wouldn’t really expect these to do since you would think they are made of plastic thinner than a thin piece of cling film and wouldn’t survive those processes.
I’m impressed.
One icon I missed out was the pretty bizarre “Suitable for all foods” logo.
I’m waiting for the “Not suitable for sesame products” bento box logo.
I’ve heard they puff right up on contact.
Red VS Blue, the struggle of ages.
These two have really cute fold out handles which is a nice touch but I don’t think they would get any use.
They seem quite sturdy with the clips holding the whole lid on but I wouldn’t trust it fully with anything just in case.
I’m sure you would put these in at least a drawstring bag or something so your lunch isn’t news to everyone anyway.
We’ve all heard of the lunch thieves of old London town.
Another nice little touch is the tab that each box has just in case you can’t open it.
We noticed you used extra plastic where it wasn’t needed and we salute you!
As for the quality of the plastic, the whole thing is quite cheap, no surprises there.
It isn’t the best you can get and the boxes weren’t moulded that well so there is the occasional sharp side or small piece of plastic hanging off but that’s to be expected.
Despite this, it is actually a lot better quality than I was expecting and though it might not last you years and years it will do the job and I reckon it would do it on a lot more than just the one occasion before it falls apart.
So now, the big question.
Ever since I saw these in the shop I was itching to find out if 2 tiers could be 3 or 4 with all the tiers clipping together.
Ta-dah!
They fit together quite nicely indeed making it a really useful piece of kit to use for picnics and transporting food.
They would also be really good for storing household things, maybe your jewelry or that assorted stuff shoved to the back of a cupboard somewhere.
Potentially, these could be stacked with just about any amount of tiers!
So all in all I’m pretty chuffed, for £1 each you really can’t complain.
I have seen a lot worse quality for more!
If you’d like to try out a bit of lunch on the go but don’t want to buy anything too expensive in case you don’t fancy it, it’s a great starter and the square shape of them will make fitting it all in easy.
If all else fails, you can clean it out and put in knick-knacks, a win win situation.
I approve!