Most shops are just landfill waiting to happen.

[SummerDaytoNight]

I mean, all are to a point, but I’m talking about the non essential ones.

Our society is engineering its own collapse. We only need food, health, house basics and clothing. And I suppose, technology.

Fast fashion could go. Housing should just be the essentials.

My friend took me into a shop called sostrene grene. It was lovely, but nothing was essential. Most shops are like that.

The horse has bolted, but I wish we could limit the unnecessarily stuff and just have the basics. Im not talking Amish level, but there’s no need for all this waste. It would be so much better if only the essentials were produced.

At the point of production, it’s already basically landfill.

I had no idea people really bought new Xmas decorations ever year. Is that really a thing? I don't think I know anyone who does that. We usually buy one new decoration for the tree when we get the tree.

But that's not what was said...

"my coffee table is about 9 years old and from B&M"

OP may have no intention of getting rid of it - it could last for another 29/49/99 years. Just because it came from B&M doesn't mean anything, it means the table is 9 years old, not that it has exceeded its life expectancy.

People do take care of their furniture which is probably exactly what OP does.

It’s just posters being - deliberately ? - obtuse. I don’t for a minute believe people reading don’t know exactly what is meant.

It's an old friend!

Agree. I think there is often some inverted snobbery around this issue.

I have the time and money to make ‘good’ choices. Many others don’t.

I've been on a bit of a "don't need, don't buy" mission for a while, along with trying to avoid products with excessive packaging (but here come the Easter eggs... a lot less plastic in their boxes these days though!)

My son was invited to a birthday party recently and I bought the birthday child a book and sweets rather than a cheap plastic toy. Of course, my son came home from the party with a plastic party bag containing cheap plastic stuff, so it feels like an uphill battle.

I agree, we’re completely oversaturated with “stuff”.

I don’t know how dragons den exists- surely there isn’t anything left to invent?!

It speaks volumes that shops like the Range and B&M are getting a tough ride on this thread yet John Lewis and marks and spencer aren’t… surely they sell just as much plastic disposable crap… just at a higher price point.

She said she had lots of furniture from B&M and then went on to refer to the 9-year-old coffee table as though that was a particularly notable example. She was trying to use that as evidence that stuff from B&M isn't cheap tat - but a table lasting 9 years tells us nothing as of course it should last that long! And it's not really the point of the thread as references to B&M on this thread are just shorthand for the type of shop that sells the stuff the OP is talking about. A lot of stuff sold by B&M is just normal household stuff but that doesn't mean they (and Home Bargains, The Range, Poundland etc etc) don't sell a huge amount of utter shite.

Tat raises revenue and helps keep the economy afloat.
VAT brings in over £150 BILLION pounds a year. The only time it dropped was during covid when no one was buying.

We need new years, valentines, mothers' day, Easter, fathers' day, summer parties, tiki bar garden set ups, Halloween, Christmas etc. Same with hen nights and baby showers.
All this stuff has VAT, all this stuff has import tax etc, etc, etc.

Lower purchase based taxation income for the government = higher income based taxation (both paid by us, but purchase based is a choice)

Eid, Diwali.......

We only need food, health, house basics and clothing. And I suppose, technology.

We need entertainment as well. Nobody wants to live in a world with nothing other than basic essentials.

B&M sell reusable bags with the slogan "I can't be trusted at B&M" printed on them. They aren't unique in having this strategy but they are pretty much admitting that they want to legitimise people's spontaneous purchases of tat by the fact that the person also bought the clothes pegs/loo roll/cleaning products that they came in for.

Nobody “needs“ a lot of this crap. They just don’t. As others point out the VAT position is a policy choice. That probably would need looking at for meaningful change to happen.

I agree but this is capitalism- sell stuff people don't really need & encourage them to either change it frequently or be sure it has in built obsolescence.

Not read the whole thread but shops like Home Bargains and B&M depress the hell out of me. I went at christmas last year and the humungous plastic candy canes and absolute tat they were selling and so much of it. All the plastic shite for the garden. I very rarely go shopping anymore. We don't need so many versions of 1 thing. I appreciate choice but its ridiculous.

The message I'm getting from this thread though is NOT TO BUY STUFF, but there's an element of posters saying "we have to buy unnecessary tat because we're in poverty". The difference is whether things are essential or not.

I remember my mum mending my navy PE knickers over and over because she couldn't afford new ones. She did not buy anything unnecessary just to get a "boost" as mentioned up thread.

I'm not sure what point is being made here - the total amount of VAT on one good quality item costing £20 is the same as on 4 bits of tat costing a fiver each.

I agree, but I think there are far worse examples than søstrene grene, definitely have far less plastic in there than other places. Plenty of household things like cups and plates which serve a purpose, and lots of creative things like paints and canvas, not essential but are people not meant to have hobbies? Also, lots of wooden children’s toys. Again should children not have toys. Where do you draw the line?

Have made a concerted effort to cut down on plastic tack and fast fashion and will explain to the kids why we are not buying certain things or from from certain websites. Have just been to søstrene grene though and bought eldest DD some equipment for her jewelry making hobby though!

We were only saying exactly the same thing at lunchtime, we’ve lost track of the simple life and just want more and more. We buy countless time saving devices but we still never have time to actually ‘live’.

Plus the tat associated when the home nations (mainly England) are in the World Cup and Euros.

Though glad one thing I have not seen much of the past few footie tournaments are those flags which clip on top of car windows. They are dangerous. A friend was driving down an A road and one of those flags on the car in front snapped off. Snapped off with a sharp point. Though it hit the edge of the top of the windscreen. It could have caused serious injury if the flag pole pierced the windscreen.

Think flags, chairs, cups, blow up hand things etc.

Then advertising from Currys and AO "get your new tv for the footie". Anyone who buys a new TV because of a football tournament are sad. I forgive if its broken. Only reason why I bought a new TV is because of dead pixels spreading out which was annoying me.

@SonoPazziQuestiRomani

My point is the govt encouraging purchasing of shit nobody needs. Expensive or not , a lot of it isn‘t needed in the first place. Other than for GDP.

I’m really noticing the aggressive push to buy from US companies and China to maintain their Ponzi scheme economies. Hugely creating a negative impact on smaller countries local skills and trades not to mention landfills.

But the absolute worst of the tat isn't even really good for GDP because the money goes straight to China and/or Jeff Bezos...

Everything ever made is destined for landfill. Your house is just a temporary holding facility for it.

Our economy is built on consumerism so there needs to be a fundamental shift in culture that's never going to happen.

Sessional tat isn't as big an issue as fashion. We are all guilty of something that's for sure. But there's such a love of Temu etc and cheap plastic tat. I think the next generation will wise up just like the uni age kids right now who don't drink in the same way my generation did at uni.