Greetings 2000

This is a pretty handy place if you’re stuck for one of those oversized cards that everyone can sign or you’re hankering for a tacky plastic horseshoe. Actually it is a pretty good shop. For my friend’s big birthdays (most recently the 21^st milestone) I pop in here to get massive badges which usually say something like ‘I’m 21 today buy me a drink’.
I saw a gift bag in Greetings with ‘Keep Calm and [insert pithy remark]’. I shouldn’t have been surprised really judging by the nature of the shop but that new surge of ‘Keep Calm’ stuff just gets my blood boiled.
This place is rather cheesy but we shouldn’t take ourselves too seriously. Swap the tasteful black and white photo card for one about belching which (hopefully) comes with in-​built sounds as you open it.

The days leading up to Christmas, Mothers Day, Fathers Day or Valentines Day are annoying times, and particularly if you decide to buy your cards in WH Smith, which not only seems awfully over-​priced these days, but also happens to have the slowest moving queue system in the history of the world.
Greetings 2000, then, is a welcome alternative. Yes, it gets dangerously busy on 13^th Febuary, or 23^rd December, but it is nevertheless a cheap and cheerful way to fulfil the societal obligation of handing over cash in exchange for a decorated piece of cardboard so that you can scrawl something on it before giving it to another human being, so that they can look at it before sticking it in a drawer, or the bin, a few days later. Aside from the cards this shop also does a decent line in numerical candles, bunting, balloons for every occasion, and all manner of party-​related stuff.

I have lots of friends with birthdays that fall in the period of February to May. That particular time of year can be expensive for me. In chains of well-​known national newsagents you can now expect to pay the price of a small gift for a greetings card.
At the now positively historically sounding ‘Greetings 2000′ you can pick up cards at a bargain price, either singularly or in bulk. At around £1 they aren’t going to break the bank. They don’t have the best jokes, the best graphics or the best lines, but therein lies the beauty, as you have can get kudos for kitsch at cut cost.