So, my weekly slice of life series didn’t quite turn out that way. Life got in the way, but I’m back! This week I want to tell you why I will never shop at Hobbycraft again. I’ve always quite liked Hobbycraft, they have good craft items for the kids, reasonable prices and good workshops. All that changed this week though, if you’ve seen the news you may know why.
What happened with hobbycraft?
On Friday evening as I was getting ready for bed, I decided to check my spam email folder. There was an email from Hobbycraft with the title ‘Important information: Product recall….’. I don’t buy things from hobbycraft very often but opened it out of curiosity. By the end of the email I was in floods of tears. It began by telling me there was an important recall of their Giant box of craft. This was making sense, I had bought several of these for my boys over the years, as well as gifts for others.
The recall was for products sold between 2016 and 2026. That’s right, it’s not a typo. This recall was for craft sets from a 10 year period. Someone probably choked on a bead was my first thought. I read on. The records show that I have purchased the affected product within this period. I scroll further down the email.
Urgent product recall
The email goes on to say that this product presents a risk to health. The sand in these boxes may be contaminated with ASBESTOS! It then goes on to say asbestos is a banned substance. Even at low levels it can be a risk to health. Then it shares that the health effects from inhaling small fibres occur many years after inhaling them. Already most parents brains are in meltdown mode. The next sentence says that testing so far shows it is only trace asbestos. Is that ok then? Will our children’s lungs have been damaged or not?
What should you do with this asbestos contaminated sand you may ask. The next bit of the email detailed exactly that! Hobbycraft have kindly agreed that if you take it back to their store they will give you a full refund. I’m not sure how easy it would be to find sand from a craft box you purchased 10 years previously. Perhaps as well as our travel expenses to get back to Hobbycraft, we could travel back in time and find the sand vials. If you can’t get to a store then you are advised to double bag it and put it in your household waste. Asbestos in your household waste. Poor bin and landfill workers.
Contact information is then provided, I am yet to contact them but will update with their response when I get it. Finally at the very end of the email there is a single line. ‘We sincerely apologise for the concern this may cause and thank you for your understanding and prompt attention in this matter.” Well that makes it alright then. It sounds like the most sincere apology I have ever heard. I’m sure you can hear the sarcasm dripping from my voice. Hobbycraft, being as you have exposed my children to asbestos, I am sorry but a single line at the end of an email simply won’t do. I would at least have expected the CEO to have signed off the email, rather than a cheery, yours sincerely, Hobbycraft.
What now?
First of all I thought, just because I bought it doesn’t mean I had a contaminated batch. I checked the box I currently have in my house. IT WAS FROM THE AFFECTED BATCH NUMBER. There was no sand though, so they have either already used it and the potential damage is done, or I binned it at the time because I hate sand or glitter 😂. If you do have these sets the sand is in little tubes that look like glitter, so you may not notice it is sand first away.
Being as the information provided from Hobbycraft was as much use as a fart in a colander I decided to look into it myself. From what I have read, I think it will be ok. My mind immediately jumped to my children developing asthma or some asbestos related condition in later life. Then I decided to find out what I could. The government website, says either a large amount in a short period of time or small amounts over a long period of time is likely to cause damage. This has helped put my mind at ease for now. Please do your own research if you have been affected.
Why I will never shop at Hobbycraft again
Firstly, I think their negligence in using sub par products is sheer negligence. These things do happen though, yet the way they have dealt with it afterwards has been appalling and shocking. I think it is obvious if you tell a parent you have potentially harmed their child they are going to want to know what is being done about it. It doesn’t actually seem as though anyone is going to be held accountable. I think there will be a few requests for information using the freedom of information act after this. As well as this, parents expect more information about potential harm or where to find it. Importantly though, parents deserve an apology, not a half arsed one, but a genuine apology. They have put thousands of children at risk with this product and their current apology is simply insulting.
Due to the way they have dealt with this, I will never grace Hobbycraft with another penny of my money.
What about the rest of the week?
I can’t say there has been much exciting about my week. After being busy with work and university I was looking forward to getting back into a routine. So is everyone else by the look of it, so getting onto a class at the gym was less likely than an apology from Hobbycraft.
The boys were with their Dad this weekend and I planned to do so much. In reality I was completely wiped out and spent most of the day on the sofa watching tv. I did feel guilty about it at first, but then realised I needed it. Today I caught up with an old school friend which was lovely. We have known each other since we were 5. Despite living down the road from each other we haven’t seen each other for months. I am trying to be more social this year, so this is a good start!
A couple of weeks ago I had been talking to the boys about biting their fingernails and how it can cause an infection. My youngest has NEVER bitten his nails. After this talk he decided now would be the perfect time to start. You can all guess what happened next, later that day his finger was red and a little swollen. A few days later he had pus under his nail, and we were on to the doctors! I think it’s ok with the cream we have been using, but it hasn’t completely cleared yet.
Book of the week
I am finally back on the audiobooks after getting some new headphones. They aren’t great but at least they mean I can potter and listen. I decided to go for a straightforward romance and asked my book club for recommendations. Someone mentioned Paige Toon books. So I decided to listen to ‘What if I never get over you’. I know I do rate books quite harshly, but nothing seems to really resonate with me. This book didn’t resonate with me either sadly. It is a typical romance full of misunderstandings and miscommunication. I would class it as a palate cleanser of a book really, did the job, but forgettable.
The book for my book club this month is Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. I am quite excited to get going with it. I’m not sure I will get through it within a week though!
That’s all!
Hope you have had a good week. I need some dinner inspo for next week, so if you have any yummy meals please comment and inspire me! See you next week ❤ If you want to see any other weekly updates you can see them here.
