Among many marketing gambits, Mahabis, once-ubiquitous purveyor of upmarket slippers, linked up with publisher Penguin last year to pair its comfy footwear with a randomly selected Modern Classic paperback.
Someone may, therefore, have received for Christmas some pricey new slip-ons and Samuel Beckett’s grim tale The End. Unlike the drawn-out fate of Beckett’s narrator, though, Mahabis’ nemesis came suddenly.
On December 20, it was pumping out a self-serving survey “revealing” that people find it hard to relax. As late as December 27, its chirpy Twitter account was promising a disappointed customer it would restock its £69-a-pair “classic” slippers in the next two or three weeks. Later the same day, the company went into administration.