To be really annoyed by M&S’s LittleShop?

[CraicMammy]

www.marksandspencer.com/c/food-to-order/little-shop

It’s such a waste of plastic and the cardboard shop costs £10!

No one needs this and it’s such a waste.

M&S say you can return the plastic toys in store to be recycled into playground toys, but that will ultimately end up in landfill presumably. And it assumes all items are returned for recycling, which with the best will in the world is overly optimistic.

You receive a collectible for each £20 spent, there are 25 items to collect. So you will need to spend at least £500 to get them all!

When the World is unable to safely dispose of the plastic we have created already, we don’t need more. Poor show M&S!!

I get what most of you are saying and it is an unnecessary addition of plastic tat. However, I do have to wonder why all of those frothing over this aren’t also boycotting petitioning the majority of toy shops who sell masses of plastic toys day in day out. If you actually wanted to make a difference I would have thought these would be the places to start? And I also assume that none of you buy any plastic toys for your children ever either?

I was surprised to see this promotion too.
Lidl ran a promotion here (Ireland) for the last couple of years where they gave out free seed pots.
I really like that idea. We planted all the seeds in indoor pots and grew lots of herbs, salads and tomatoes.

The ones I got were cardboard. I don’t understand who they are marketing to. They are too small for toddlers a massive choke risk. My 7 yr old was a bit confused by the teeny box of steak pie. It’s too small for playing with.

However I do love the mini shopping basket.

I think £20 and over for a teeny thing is weird. The whole concept is weird to me. Who asked for it? No one.

WhiteDust - it is complete hypocrisy and I agree their marketing dept are treating us like idiots, especially after their "plan A". think they must have binned that and are now on "plan C"; screw the planet.

DobbyTheHouseElk 75% of them are plastic, and yes they are a choking hazard - especially the percy pigs made of plastic foam in a sweet packet just like the real thing pbs.twimg.com/media/D_hw3A_XkAE3u7e.jpg

There are only 8 shops in the whole of the U.K. that have the recycling boxes for these toys. They have no plans to introduce any more so you may find your closest store with the recycling available is too far.
YANBU!

It’s bizarre. Someone has put a lot of effort into it - there’s a whole game!

I had to google this . Are there people really happy to spend 25 quid to get a minuscule model of a bag of Percy Pigs? I know that includes your shopping, btw! But as a draw to keep people spending, does it actually work??

Bahahaha. This crap promotion was an absolute hit in Australia, but that's probably because it was run in a proper supermarket with quality and standing similar to Tesco. Once kids clapped their eyes on the little pieces of tat, their parents were in for a world of pain. Then the adults took over the obsession and it really got to hightened levels of stupid. Hopefully the people who spend copious amounts in the M&S food Hall will have better luck staving it off

I don’t understand who they are marketing to.

Me either, the size of them is baffling. If they were full size at least they could be used in play kitchens, and would survive years of play. But these are more suited for dolls houses.

I refused mine the other day. The cashier was mystified “Don’t you know a child who’d like it?”. Petition signed and tweeted.

I've always found M&S to be total hypocrites on the environmental front. You have to beg for a paper napkin in their cafe because, you know, saving the planet and then you go into the food court and everything is triple wrapped in plastic on polystyrene trays.

Well my toddler loves them, she has a couple that she plays with in her kitchen - so if anyone has any they don't want or would normally say they didn't want them - send them my way! Will happily pay postage - we don't shop at M&S that frequently!

hmm seems very irresponsible re the current climate around plastics. I'd have thought that McDonalds would also have considered not putting large bits of plastic in their Happy Meal giveaways by now. Thankfully my two have nearly grown out of the Happy Meal stage but it does infuriate me on the few occasions we go to McD's that we come away with a load of useless plastic tat that they play with for 5 mins.

My first thought when I saw the campaign was - Are you serious? Really bad timing M&S

@PinkSpring, normally I’d say you could have mine and fill your boots but the more people who refuse them, the more likely they are to realise this has spectacularly backfired. So I’ll carry on saying no.

Yes , my first thought was all that plastic !
My sparks card points goes to marine conservation . I like to support the underdog.
Plan A. There is no Plan B. Remember that !

I really like them! We got 3 the other day and the prawn sandwich and the Percy Pigs were especially cute.

As has been said, Coles in Australia ran this promotion a while back as well. It's fun, sure, but it does just mean a heap more tiny plastic things.

However - and I agree entirely that supermarkets should stop doing this - I get angrier and angrier at all the actual toy manufacturers doing exactly the same fucking thing with all their mini-plastic shit things, "collectibles", of which there are 100s.
Just. Fucking. Stop.

And stop with the "hidden" mini toys as well - not just because they're frustrating, but they're also piles more mini-plastic shit that nobody needs in their lives.

It’s not obligatory to get them.

I find this is an odd cause to have latched on to. There are so many areas where masses and masses of plastic being used wastefully I’m not sure why Marks are being singled out for this. It’s seems a bit out of proportion.

It's bonkers but as pp s have mentioned, the Australian supermarket Coles did this promotion and although many people objected, a lot of people loved it.

But if you think the claim that they can be recycled is bad enough, Coles didn't even go that far. They responded to that question by saying that people won't throw them out, so they won't need to be disposed of. So they thought this tat would become family heirlooms passed down through the generations?

Even more tone deaf, Coles ran this promotion two weeks after getting rid of free plastic bags in their stores (and of course patting themselves on the back for doing so).

when coles ran this in australia last time they ended up on beaches as far as bali [[https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/feb/13/a-legacy-of-plastic-waste-coles-launches-new-collectables-series ]] and now they are running the same campaign at the same time as M&S

M&S are being singled out for this because of their "plan a" marketing, they now seem to have moved on to "plan c" screw the planet!

I've never heard of the scheme until this thread, but actually I think they're cute and would work well in small world play. Far, far better than fad collectibles that fall out of fashion in the blink of an eye - hideous pink plastic lumps with giant eyes, with basically zero play value. At least children can use these miniature food items in all their small world play throughout their childhood.