Dismayed by comsumerism

[goneveryquiet]

To think that this is mockery of the highest level.

In a country of food banks and poverty a well know department store has opened a shop selling fake food as toys. It's sold out and people are paying £50 for a chip with a cute smile.

AIBU that we have lost touch with reality l? Consumerism gone mad?!

Gotcha! X

Just wondering how they can make such a broad statement that people who spend £50 on a toy won't give to charity

Mostly cause I wouldn't consider £50 on a toy the realm of the ultra rich, just the "living comfortably and can splurge a little sometimes" category who are usually some of the biggest donators, people who can see how close they are to needing the help themselves and donate to them

But we're not really a country of poverty and foodbanks, are we?

And neither are we a country of Marie Antoinettes saying, "Let them eat £50 toy food" which is how you seem to want to paint things.

I guess it depends how you frame it.

If you say it's people buying fake food as a plaything for their children while other children go hungry because their families can't afford the real thing then yes, it seems insensitive. Not quite as bad as posh oiks burning £50 notes in front of beggars though.

But you could also argue that any toy that replicates the real world is insensitive to someone somewhere, and most of us aren't going to agonise over every purchase to decide if it's appropriate to buy, they just want to give their kids the latest thing, and sadly that's nothing new in this consumerist world.

I do think rampant consumerism needs to be addressed though as our poor planet is littered with so much unnecessary stuff, but I think there are more important aspects of this to address than types of toys.

And Lego are selling houses when people are homeless!!

So you are getting all worked up about a department store selling expensive toys. Like they have been doing for over 100 years?

Honestly, how do some people get the day with so much shrieking and pearl clutching.

Sick?

What, like ill with a physiological condition? Or distrurbed like a serial killer.

Do enlighten us about with which of those two categories is appropriate for someone buying or selling children’s toys.

And then going on Facebook to post about it.

Or better still, coming on MN and telling everyone about how virtuous they are. Like this post.

@EatTheGnome People buying those toys have worked hard for their money

I will politely remind you that people who can't afford the £50 fake food toys have also worked hard for their money, and in many cases, moreso by doing physical and dangerous manual labour work.

People spend money on all kinds of toot. Some of them are billionaires. Other people starve. It's not ideal but it seems to be how most people want things to shake down.

It's not the people buying and selling. It's just the idea of it. OP is right, about pieces of toy food being sold for £50 while children go hungry

Everyone spends money on shit every now and then.

I don't begrudge anyone spending £50 of their own money on something that brings them a bit of joy.

I didn't say they haven't.

Why are you acting like it's a dig? You work hard for £50, I work hard for £50, millionaires work hard for £50.

people in China work hard for £2.50.

We all have the right to choose how to spend our money.

Children going hungry in this country is an indictment on the parents. Usually single parent families with feckless dads.

You should get out more if you think that’s ‘sick’.

You would need some medication for that sickness if you travelled to elsewhere in the world.

I know, it's embarrassing!! 😂

Um, nearly all toddlers play with fake food as toys.

Mine certainly had a vast quantity of plastic pretend food for their play kitchen.

I got theirs second hand, but surely this is normal?

I really don't see how this is consumerism. It helps toddlers do imaginative play and learn the names of food.

That's not true. There have been single mothers with illness or disability having their universal credit cut by a third for months after missing a jobcentre appointment

Have you seen what some young top level footballers spend their money on?!!

Perhaps don't concern yourself with others frivolities. It's futile and makes you look a bit very daft.

My dd brought a massive jellycat bunny for close to £100. She also wears £2.50 Nike Airs from Vinted and I worked for minium wage as a teen in a factory lifting 25kg bags of veg. Just because we are / was relatively poor doesn't mean we can't ever have some nicer end random shit. That bunny will be treasured forever.

This is another race to the bottom posts.

Don't buy toy food as someone can't buy real food.
Don't moan about the food bank economy beans as some countries don't have food banks.
Don't moan that you don't have a food bank as people are living in famine.
Don't moan about your famine as you could be dead
Don't moan about being dead as some spetm and eggs never get fertilised
Dont moan about being a unfertilised sex cell as you could be a iron atom would has been a rock for the age of universe
Don't moan about that as you could just be a neutron

Won't someone think of the neutrons!!

I hope everyone who is outraged about this doesn't have more than one pair of footwear. That rubs in the face of shoeless people. By not buying any more shoes, it directly helps the shoeless. Fact. Like boycotting Jelltcat directly feeds the poor. That's how it works don't ya know.

Toys we should ban because they might be "insensitive" to some

• Baby dolls, because some women can't have babies
• Doll's houses and Lego house sets because some people are homeless
• Toy cars because some people can't afford to run a car
• Toy food because some people are hungry
• Toy animals because some people are allergic
• Toy money because some people are poor

How is it any different to those ridiculous shoes that cost thousands or a car that cost a million sure the items have changed but think back how many things in the past have been for the rich? It's not new

JellyCat spread joy..end of 😊😍 expensive joy but joy nonetheless 😂

I’ve just had a look online. It’s very cute. I was particularly smitten with what I think are mushy peas. If I had the disposable income, I would buy them.

I have just been reminded by DS that I donated 12 Christmas jellycat to the women's refuge in Oldham for the kids. What a dreadful person I am. Hangs head in shame.

You can't have done. People who buy expensive toys don't give to charity. Apparently

🙄😒🙄