A Block of Hope For Sale



(London, England) Hope goes for £1 per block.

A supermarket will this week start selling "hope" alongside its baked beans and bananas, in the latest initiative aimed at persuading the cash-strapped public to give more money to charity.

Wooden blocks roughly the size of box of Maltesers branded with the single word "hope" will be interspersed with groceries at branches of Budgens in Crouch End and Belsize Park in London in a pilot scheme. Shoppers will be urged to take them to the till where they will be charged £1 per block which the retailer will forward to the Alzheimer's Society – the block is returned to the shelf.

The tactic is aimed at countering a national slump in charity donations.

It would be interesting if a store starts selling blocks of change to accompany the hope.