Paperchase has admitted to being ‘a little red faced’ after the stationery firm printed the wrong year in its 2018 diaries.
Several of the popular items show the year 2108 – 90 years in the future – from the middle of March onwards. Yet rather than repulping thousands of the misprinted diaries, the store has decided to slash 25 per cent off the price and sell them to customers.
In a message to customers, the stationery company said: ‘We don’t want our customers to be disappointed in any way, but we also didn’t think it was right to throw away lots of diaries that are otherwise still lovely and still useful. ‘So we’ve made the decision to keep it on sale at a reduced price because otherwise it would be such a waste.’
Four faulty designs include a magnetic cover. Among the erroneous designs include diaries with gold stripes, another with embossed owls, diaries with embossed stars and a purple design showing a heart filled with butterflies. Instead of asking for £12 for the diaries, they will be sold at £9. And a holographic snakeskin with a light-up 2018, aimed at teenagers, was supposed to be sold at £16 but will instead be offered for £12.
Paperchase has not revealed how many of the faulty diaries it has in stock but a conservative estimate of 10 of each design for its 130 UK stores would mean it has 6,500 to sell – although the true figure could be much higher.
Estimates suggest the firm could lose around £20,800 by selling the diaries at a discounted price. But it could save Paperchase a huge £85,000 than if it were to destroy the diaries.
