#landfillcore...so depressing 😞

[Badvocthebad]

I've been irl shopping recently and, of course, ads all over SM...
The absolute tat being sold in all shops with an "autmnal theme"!
Pumpkin cushions, pumpkin mugs, highland cows (?) on everything from socks to pjs to blankets...
Its all mass produced, plastic crap, probably made by children in sweatshops. (Polyester is plastic for those who aren't aware)
The world is burning. Literally. The over consumption is killing us all slowly (some of us not so slowly..)
I'm not against buying things you need (although how much of what what we buy do we really need?) <just spent a year clearing out 2 relatives houses....trust me, you don't need 2/3 of what's in your home>
Just this week I've bought vintage 100% linen napkins and some dinner plates from vinted. All as new, but used. (I don't use plastic or paper napkins)
Cost me about £25.
Plastic tat is killing this planet, plastic grass is killing the pollinators (they die, we all die...)
It's just so...depressing. It's why I don't really do irl shopping anymore. Even clothes are all polyester/viscose/acrylic messes.
I'm currently in the process of de cluttering my house/loft. I don't want my kids to have to go through what I have over the past few years (this is the 3rd house I've had to clear in a decade)
By 2032, there will be the largest weather transfer in history.
The boomers are dying out and there houses and garages and sheds and lofts and cellars which are full of stuff which will be saturating the market.
It's a sunny Sunday morning here and- yet again - I'm going to be doing a tip run to give things to the re-home section.
I know some will say "well, its free will"
But..is it? Really? When we are now bombarded with ads and insta worthy houses and influencers flogging the latest highland cow merch from b&m?
Aren't we all just being played?
Sorry, bit of a rant for a Sunday morning 😬😕

And it’s not just easily led or less intelligent people the algorithms work for, they work just as well on high net worth (dreadful expression) consumers.

I always eyeroll when I read posts from people claiming that they "aren't taken in by advertising". Companies wouldn't spend all that money on it if most of us weren't at least susceptable to some of it.

i was in the south of the US about 3 years ago and came across the single use plastic tableware in more than one hotel. Breakfast at a large hotel with a few hundred rooms ( and not cheap ones) all served on plastic every single day and chucked in huge bin liners to be thrown. I was shocked to be honest.

This is very clearly not what the OP is talking about.

Agree that companies wouldn't spend billions on marketing if it didn't work. All online sites are designed to get you spending, as soon as you click on many it offers you a discount for signing up to a newsletter or for "one day only", just clicked on Shein and it's offering me 45% off, second item half price, buy 4 get 30% off. Temu the same - free shipping, flash sale, free returns, best value, etc etc.

I find clothes shops deeply depressing - a sea of cheap polyester sold for expensive prices to line someone's pockets. I was brought up to think real wool was bad and itchy and old fashioned and synthetic wools were "better", so it took me a while to change my values. I would have seen wool as too expensive before, but now I just buy less. I think so many of us are brought up to believe unethical consumption is normal and somehow good, and it takes a while to challenge that.

Absolutely 💯

My late aunt had more clothes, bags and shoes than one person could ever wear/use.
After she died it all went in a skip - she was a heavy smoker and everything stank 😕

Definitely

It's that dopamine hit, I guess?

I agree we are being played.

Come the 31 August, we are bombarded with pumpkin, ghost and spider ornaments, toilet roll holders, bedding, bath mats, even jewellery. Is it pretty? Sure. Do we need it? Heck no.

And that's before the Christmas panic begins.

I used to be a sucker for seasonal stuff like this. And now I have way too much stuff and have to rope in my partner to help me clear it. It's such a waste of money.

The average Shein customer is a 35 year old woman who spends $100 a month. So it's not poor people, and it's people who should know better. But it's like shouting into void because they just don't care.

I attach a screenshot of a recent article from the Times about a major clothing retailer. Notice that their customers want clothes that cost £30 - so short life synthetic jumpers and plastic shoes and bags. They ascribe this to cost of living crisis but I’m fairly certain they know their customers are making multiple purchases. Anyone want to guess who this is? Clue it’s not Primark or New Look

I agree 100%. We are being played, and yes - even intelligent caring people are not immune to being played. This thread has made me empty a M&S shopping basket that had 1 pair of (no doubt viscose, made in China) trouseers in in, so well done! Although I need trousers 😂

My husband hates shopping with me because I 'ruin it' by loudly proclaiming that it's all plastic crap bound for the landfill, and we'll be struggling to get rid of it in 18 months time. But it's true

Unfortunately that first YouTube video is AI.

I lived in Japan for several years, started watching that video a few days ago, and immediately grew suspicious when the first Japanese word was mispronounced (the entry area to a Japanese house is a genkan. The video says genken.) then the mistakes just started piling up...

The content is also a pile of nonsense.

It's true that the Japanese can have a beautiful aesthetic, but Japan is ALSO filled with crap for sale and in people's homes, just the themes are different: Hallo Kitty and Doraemon (cartoon robot dog) tat, trinkets for hanging off your bag or phone, mementoes from shrines or places you went, single use plastic packaging and crappy plastic toys aimed at children...

There is also a large amount of obligatory gift giving, often of things that are type or quantity that pretty much guarantee waste, it's just at different times than in other countries. Mid-summer, for example.

Every week over an inch thick numbers of comic books came out that were immediately discarded once read. Though this might have changed now that everyone is staring at their phones all the time...

There were also virtually no second hand stores, though this has improved a bit. The second hand book store chain Book-Off being an example. But when I was there, I and my fellow students furnished our homes with perfectly usable stuff that was just thrown out: televisions, cookware, bicycles, vacuum cleaners, the works. Pretty much the only thing you couldn't get was tatami, as the regulation was that it had to be cut in half before being discarded.

The students from the Philippines were the most enterprising- they actually filled shipping containers with this stuff and sent it back to the Philippines for re-sale.

All that said, the traditional Japanese aesthetic is wonderful. It's just mostly not in people's homes, or if it is, it's cheek by jowl with piles of tat.

I have never travelled long haul or owned a car. Have a quite small flat. Outwear my clothes. Buy a lot second hand.
Must admit I don't feel to bad if I buy a Halloween decoration in Poundland.

Lets also not forget the plastic tat is probably full of pfas which causes cancer (like plastic grass), and is probably shedding microplastics that end up in our brain, lungs, organs, men's testicles, etc. Literally everywhere.
So is it worth inhaling microplastics and increasing your risk for cancer just to have a plastic pumpkin in your house for a month?
We get a real pumpkin at Halloween and carve it. Then at christmas I forage in the woods for foliage (pine, yew, holly) that i make into a wreath. Everything biodegradable.

I know that my above post was about Japan, but I also lived in India for a while, and did translating and interpreting work on the side. This was long before Shein, Temu, etc. The Internet was barely a thing at the time.

One of the jobs was interpreting for the buyer of what was essentially artisanal tat for a major French department store. It worked like this:

A middle man met with the buyer. She told him what the next seasons colours, materials and themes were going to be.

The year I did it the colours were to be blue, green and silver, the material was to be wood and metal, and the theme was to be 'natural'.

The middle man had a whole bunch of artisans lined up in different spaces round the city. They each had a trestle table with samples of their products. The middle man got on the phone before setting out, and told the people who had things made of glass, rattan, wares that were in orange, red, yellow, etc. to either pack away the unwanted stuff or, if they had only unwanted stuff, to pack it all away and leave before the buyer came.

Then the rest of the day was spent looking at the products. A lot of the things that looked "typically Indian" and the buyer was interested in, she would show the middle man a picture of the same product and tell him the per item price she could get it for in Mexico or, in some cases, Vietnam. Then she would see if he could make a better offer, obviously this affecting the profits of the artisan.

In addition, artisans in India were offering products that looked typically Mexican and Guatemalan. Rugs and pencil cases, for example.

Remember that this was for a large FRENCH department store.

The next year I was in SHEFFIELD. Every single shop selling artisanal tat had things in blue, green, silver, etc. etc. (all the themes and materials) and nothing else. And a lot of it was made in Morocco - allegedly.

Summary or tl/dr:
Yes, we indeed, we are all being manipulated - or at least that is the attempt - even on stuff that is hand-made. And I'm sure it's far worse now than it was then.

This sort of thing also explains why something like the Asda handbags mentioned above can happen without them even knowing which country it's coming from. Easily being sourced from multiple locations.

I do feel the tide is turning. People are much more aware of throwaway consumerism and it is out of fashion.

I hope you're right

We do that, too. We make a solstice wreath.
I feel utterly rage filled when I see "gardens" with plastic grass...this summer it would hsve been too hot to stand on!

Over the road has plastic grass and plastic plants with lights in plastic pots. The plants have faded to blue and it just looks horrid. Ecological nightmare.

Part of that is the change from event decorations to “seasonal”, so rather than just Halloween /spooky decorations with ghosts on in shades of black and grey, there’s lots more “autumn general” using pumpkin motifs (not pictures of carved jack o’ lanterns), falling leaves etc.

Last Christmas I noticed much more “winter general” designs, snowy scenes, blankets and cushions with pictures of undecorated fir trees, so not explicitly Christmas trees. “Winter spice” candles not “Christmas”, stuff you won’t feel the need to put away on 12th night.

Not sure if that’s a trend aimed at less religious people or more consumers not wanting stuff that’s only to be used for a couple of weeks. (I do think I fall into that, I’m not buying blankets to be used for a couple of weeks, but some nice patterned blankets for snuggling up on the sofa throughout November to Feb while it’s colder, yes I’ll buy those and then I want to spend a bit more to get ones that will survive the wash and I can pack away and bring out for the next few years.)

@FirmSnake
Over the road from me they've taken up all thd grass and chopped down a tree. Same on the corner...a gorgeous magnolia gone

I know. I went to TK max last week and it was crammed with autumn decorations and massive Halloween decorations. People can only be throwing it away. I’ve got a massive house and a double garage but I still can’t imagine storing Halloween crockery and Frankenstein cushions and skeleton ornaments.