Priest cross with bun sales

Easter eggs are on sale for months on end

A Derbyshire priest is taking on national supermarkets in a battle to stop the early sales of hot cross buns and other traditional Easter treats.

Reverend Tony Bell says selling the special buns and eggs long before the actual festival is "cynical exploitation" by supermarkets.

The 54-year-old priest, who has parishes in Ault Hucknall and Scarcliffe in Derbyshire, was shocked to find hot cross buns on sale in his local Sainsburys supermarket on 2 January.

He said the early sales are eroding Christian traditions and putting profit first.

It is an intrusion when retailers intervene and set the trend

Reverend Tony Bell

"It is sending out a message that the market forces are stronger than God," the priest said.

He wrote to the The Guardian newspaper in response to a letter from a reader saying that the buns were on sale virtually all year round.

The letter writer, Doreen Walford of Harfield in Middlesex, said: "If they want to sell the buns year-round, why don't they make them without the crosses?"

The buns, a sweet raised pastry marked with two crosses, are traditionally sold at Easter to celebrate the festival.

Mr Bell said it is up to consumers to tell supermarkets that they do not want the Easter treats in the shops so early.

He added: "I am not for getting kids as fat as possible and rotting their teeth."

Year-round sales

"It is a cynical exploitation of the consumer."

A Sainsburys spokesman said hot cross bun sales are solely a result of consumer demand.

"For the last two years, both white and wholemeal hot cross buns have been sold all the year round and are extremely popular products," spokeswoman Elizabeth Young said.

Easter Sunday is on 31 March this year

"The traditional Easter eggs will not start going into the stores until after the first week of February."

"Obviously Easter is early this year and the timing is the same as in previous years."

But Mr Bell said: "Between now and Easter we have Shrove Tuesday, Mothering Sunday and Valentine's Day to celebrate - surely we don't need these Easter products on the shelves for three months."

"We need social order in our lives and we need to observe certain things together, but it is an intrusion when retailers intervene and set the trend."

The supermarket critic said the retailers could make amends by donating more money from their profits to national charities.