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!!

They won’t last through anyone’s childhood. They’ll be down the back of the sofa or sucked up in the hoover inside a fortnight.

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.

I agree.
It's hypocritical to shop in M&S food hall (or any other supermarkets with their ridiculous amount of plastic waste) and then start/join a campaign against them for producing freebies which are only as wasteful as the stuff you have just put in your trolley to buy.

YANBU

Totally out of touch with the current climate.

The video is worth watching, had me roaring with laughter it's so awful.

WhiteDust a lot of the plastic in the food hall can be recycled at home using household recycling, but 75% of the little shop items can only be recycled by returning to store - big difference. We have to start somewhere or should we all just give up and watch the mountain of plastic grow?

WTF?! This???!!

m.youtube.com/watch?v=ci8T1pQXGog

Furryslipper - the problem arises because you get FAR MORE than you need. And because people like to collect the whole set (oh yes, they do) then you keep getting them, ending up with multiple copies of the more common ones.

Now, we have kept all of ours because the boys like to play "shop" with them and have them in a supermarket trolley for that purpose - but lots of people won't, they'll just bin the spares.

upple even funnier when you change the lyrics "big shop, little shop, plastic tat, screw the planet, off their trolley, plastic tat"

Is it a teeny tiny trolley, Thumb? .

My child loves this. Far more environmentally friendly than an Argos plastic kitchen, which, admittedly, she doesn’t have to have, but a wooden one would be pricey. I like it.

They are too small for play, I don’t understand it at all.

Although I’m still loving the toy basket.

I know you are all right, but I did still think they are cute and I fancied getting one for myself to put on my desk.

(My kids are adults)

I will never grow up.

Totally agree with you OP. No need for it and we all know where it goes. Totally unnecessary

I’m mystified as to how it’s better than an Argos plastic kitchen. It’s all plastic.

Alsohuman

The kitchen itself is cardboard.

I think it is HORRENDOUS. I also hate the advert. It's ridiculous.

Not sure how anyone could support this really, it is ultimately both plastic rubbish, and I wouldn't hugely want DC pestering me to spend £20 a time to get whatever mini M&S branded mini food they'd seen in an advert or stuck in eye view everytime you walk in the store. Not exactly the friend of those on a budget and I'm quite sure any child that wants them would be equally happy with something else or cheap toy food from elsewhere. It's pretty cynical IMO- particularly the 'add on' sales they are closely angling for with the mini trolleys, baskets, shop etc. All are cheaper elsewhere and all that aside, it is hugely wasteful.

Obviously they're cute but just because something is cute doesn't mean it serves a purpose or we 'need' to have it. The one in my local had kids poring over it when I visited, saying aww a mini colin can we get it, can we get a real colin . Very low of M&S to turn to pester power, profits must be bad.

Whenever I walk into an M&S store I'm astonished by the amount of plastic in the foodhall. With growing awareness, I think they might soon start missing out on a chunk of customers unless the change their ways. It'll soon only be the types who put their bananas in plastic bags left...

I hate that the toy basket is twice the size of the trolley and totally out of proportion. The trolley is fab though and lifts up and the back!!

misses point of thread

To those who are saying something along the lines of “Vilifying M&S for producing a small range of toys is ridiculous when every single shop on the high street is selling mountains of stuff nobody really needs.”

Agreed, but two wrongs don’t make a right; and the plastic items being given away in this campaign are marketing materials, not toys.

M&S say on their Instagram page that the campaign is targeted primarily at adults.

The items are tiny, they are not realistically going to be a significant part of any child’s play. The signs in store say that they are unsuitable for children under the age of 4.

The M&S sustainability policy states that 79% of plastic goes to landfill, it’s reasonable to assume 79% of these items given away in this campaign will too, more so perhaps if the PP is correct that there are only 8 recycling points in the entire country!

I am not anti-plastic where the item has utility, these items do not. They are a marketing gimmick, no more. For a company that fanfares its environmental credentials to pursue a plastic heavy marketing campaign is hugely hypocritical and that I why I started this thread.

@dontgobaconmyheart, I agree with everything you say but do people on tight budgets shop in the M&S foodhall?

The items are tiny, they are not realistically going to be a significant part of any child’s play. The signs in store say that they are unsuitable for children under the age of 4.

My child has been playing with them for days.

I agree it’s plastic tat. But anyone here who buys their children dolls, prams, slides, ball pools, a plastic kitchen from virtually anywhere else, play castles, plastic dogs and dinosaurs, etc., is buying plastic tat. If you’re a wooden toys only sort of person, good for you, but I doubt that many of those commenting here actually are.

Jesus wept. Its just a bit of fun for kids! Do your kids not have plastic toys? Plastic toys everywhere but this is the one thing to get worked up about? Seriously? What about shitty vegan plastic leather that is everywhere these days? Replacing real leather, which is much better. Why arent you complaining about that?

I am not anti-plastic where the item has utility, these items do not.

People ( like the previous poster Hercules have children who will play with these toys.

As for them being too small... Sylvanian Family kitchen set anyone?!!

Sorry the second comment was was in reply to The items are tiny, they are not realistically going to be a significant part of any child’s play.

Sylvanian families are quite popular aren't they?