Most shops are just landfill waiting to happen.

Didn’t clothes shops in the past change their lines once every 16 weeks and now it’s every 4 or something like that.

It’s really bad. The electricity it uses. BBC had a very good article on their news site about it yesterday.

I buy soap from tk maxx too.

I like the shop's concept of selling off good stuff cheap(ish). Got my good quality frying pan for 60% off because it was no longer a fashionable colour. I think it might be back in vogue again (sage green), or maybe back in and then back out again... its a pan, lives in a cupboard, who cares...

Oh sorry! Yes I agree with that bit too!

I agree with you @SummerDaytoNight

The seasonal stuff should go - things should be more expensive. I was in one of these shops last week and they had kids playsets that were 99p. I couldn’t believe how it could be only 99p!! It had come from china. Surely even the shipping would cost more per item let alone the manufacture. All plastic tat.
I think there is a place for fashion but agree it should all be more expensive and made to last. The lifetime of white goods also infuriates me- it’s getting less and less!

That's definitely a bit much! I decorate for Christmas, and I do have a small number of Halloween tings like a clay pumpkin lantern that you put a candle in, but I wouldn't decorate for Easter or V Day too!

Charity shops depress me so much. I like to buy what I can second hand but every charity shop has shelf after shelf of utter shite that nobody wants. An ornamental kitten holding a love heart saying ‘nan’. A massive canvas of some random skyline all faded at the edges. A ‘live, laugh, love ‘ cushion in some god awful fabric. You get the idea.
I don’t have a problem with seasonal stuff if reused. My Christmas decorations are put away and reused. Every year I add a few new bits but considering I also use my grandmas ornaments from the 70’s I don’t think that’s so bad.

We certainly didn't have much spare cash - that's why we cared for & reused our stuff- including the poundshop decorations.

And I'm sorry, I simply don't believe that the majority of people buying seasonal stuff & redecorating annually are doing so because it all needs to be replaced!

they're doing it because it's a trend they see on SM & because they don't think critically about it & for a host of other reasons - not because they're so poor they buy in b&m and that means it disintegrated (because that's simply not true)

Stop making excuses for all the people who want the latest mirrored side tables & crushed velvet furniture to replace last seasons black leatherette because it's 'trendy' to them.

I don't.
But I don't look down my nose at people who do, unlike most pps on this thread.

I bought myself some plastic plants back in 2019, when I left my husband. I got them to cheer up the very bare flat I’d moves into and I still have them.

I later had them scattered around a house I was selling (and added some larger fake plants I borrowed from my office) and they functioned well in breaking up areas that looked a bit empty. Obviously they weren’t the only thing that sold the house, but it definitely looked better with them than without.

I could have had (and indeed did have) some real plants, but I moved country and they had to stay behind, while I still have the plastic ones. I’m fairly rubbish with real plants, so plastic plants serve me well. I’m not sure why you would single those out as particularly bad.

Is it? I didn't know that - not that I've ever used it. Isn't it just a web thing? How's it bad for the environment?

Telling people to spend less money is virtue-signalling? OK then. Or to keep their clothes until they are falling apart rather than replacing every 5 minutes?

Changing your decor every year or filling your home with plastic tat bought for every "celebration" is EXPENSIVE! It is a CHOICE to buy all this nonsense. You cannot simultaneously complain about cost of living and buy those plastic dancing santa ornaments and seasonal bedding.

Sadly I know two people who do. Neither of them in my circle of friends. One was an ex-colleague who I knew I didn't like years before she (very defensively) told me she spends about £200 every year on entirely new decorations. She's not rich.

I said I thought that was a waste of money - she disagreed.

I absolutely agree.

But this is only feasible (as mentioned earlier in the thread) if you have the capital to buy the good, quality items in the first place.

Yeah, but you know WHY there's so much stuff everywhere? It's because people keep having multiple babies! There's a lot of stuff but there are a lot of people to buy that stuff, which is why there's so much stuff....and so on.

Everyone wants to save the planet but no one wants to give up having cars, children, or holidays!

Agree. Especially regarding the seasonal stuff. I often go to our local TK Maxx for nice hand soap. Their 'homeware' section always has literally tons of seasonal shite in it. Who the fuck wants a Halloween Doormat? Are people switching mats with the seasons? Or an Easter Egg Mirror? At the moment they have a full pink and white china plates/mugs/bowls/jug set covered in easter bunnies. FOR WHAT? FOR WHEN? Easter Sunday?

And the reduced for quick sale is loads of unsold Valentine shite. Dog bows with love hearts/toothbrush holders with 'Be Mine' stamped on them, Happy Valentine's Day duvet set. What? WHAT?

Utterly soul destroying.

I do think it's cheaper to buy good quality items as they last so much longer

Agree with this. Page after page of virtue signalling, all coming from a place of having the privilege to afford choices.
How MN posters love looking down their noses at those who shop in B&M and HB, and if it can be incorporated with performance environmental concern, so much better.
'Plastic tat', 'seasonal tat' over and over again.
Such rampant snobbery.

@GloriaHeart

in the 1970's series The Fall and Rise of Reggie Perrin- Reggie (Leonard Rossiter) opens up a shop selling all kinds of shite called "Grot" but to his dismay it proves wildly successful!

I mean, that's a bit negative and judgemental. You don't know that the people buying that stuff don't need it. Maybe their dress or shoes are wearing out and they need new. Maybe they don't have very much and this is a special purchase. 🤷‍♀️ It's slightly odd to assume that everyone who buys things is being irresponsible with no eye to consumerism or careful spending, because you really don't know.

Literally nobody is saying you have to. You know very well that we're talking about those who throw it all away and buy new tat every year.

The seasonal stuff is the worst. Going into the range or Poundland or wherever and the mountains of tat for Easter/valentines/halloween/Christmas is out of control

@NursieBernard It's very easy to be 'holier than though' but, how many of the people saying about plastic tat and the like don't own a car or don't fly abroad for a holiday? I do what I can but I certainly wouldn't want to preach about anything when I'm not perfect myself.

Exactly! I think middle-class lifestyles are some of the worst offenders, with big houses, big families (more than 2 kids), big cars (often Chelsea tractors), and multiple foreign holidays each year. But as long as they don't shop at B&M, it's OK!!

It's like I always say: Everybody wants to save the planet but nobody wants to give up having cars or children. 🤷‍♀️

I've never owned a car at age 50 and have never had kids, and I don't really like travelling, so I'm 😇. Haha! I do have a lot of possessions, but I keep them and use them forever.

This is probably going to shock some people, but I have over 100 Gotz and American Girl dolls. They're made of vinyl. About half were bought second-hand and half new. They also have a lot of clothes and accessories, some of which are new but many bought secondhand (or thirdhand, who knows) on Facebook Marketplace and eBay. The dolls are all in good condition and very much in-demand over here in the US. I aim to keep them for many years and then, when I'm old and doing Swedish death cleaning, donate them to a toy library.

I suppose eventually they will end up in landfill, but not until they've given decades of enjoyment. I can't work out if a collection like this is good or bad. Good, because they're being used (and remember half are secondhand already), but ultimately all this stuff ends up in landfill even if it takes decades to get there. In my defence, some of the dolls were already twenty years old by the time they came to me! (I know which dolls were made in which years.)

Or maybe it doesn't end up in landfill. Maybe it gets recycled. I should read those books I linked above.

I mean, just to take a doll as an example - but you could extrapolate this to anything - the doll exists, and whether I take care of it or someone else does is immaterial really. If you imagine its journey, it goes from factory to store to someone's house, stays for a while, and is then either sold, donated, or thrown away. These days, I think it has a much better chance of being passed on than thrown away, thanks to the circular economy. Some doll collectors buy really beaten-up dolls cheaply, restore them, and then sell them. They are given new life, haha!

It's true that we have lots of plastic tat from places like Temu, but it's also true that people restore, donate, and re-sell more than ever before.

So, if most products are unnecessary, then an awful lot of jobs will go, and an awful lot of tax will go with it.

So you want a future with really high unemployment and a government with even less money for things like the NHS and social care?

Can you help me understand how you see this working?

What are the consequences on nature, emissions, waste, pollution as you see them?

Because as I (and frankly all published science) see it, we literally cannot continue as we are.

Keen to hear your perspective on this.