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.

Do you say you don't care because you think there will be no consequences for you and yours?

Because if that is the case, all the evidence (and there is a lot of it) says you are mistaken.

Probably. When I was a teenager in the late 80s and 90s, there was the spring/summer range and the autumn/winter range. If you went into Chelsea Girl, Miss Selfridge or Topshop in November, you'd see the same stock that they had in October and September. Now it's all about churn and selling more and more stock.

Clothes in general have got a lot cheaper - the reason why in the 90s we didn't all have 20 pairs of jeans was the cost. I remember buying a pair of jeans in a not hugely expensive shop in about 1993 for £18. That was equivalent to 5 or 6 hours wages at the time for someone working part time in a shop. 5 or 6 times minimum wage now is £50 or £60 and you can buy 4 or 5 pairs of jeans for that in Primark. So people are spending the same amount in proportion to their income, but expecting much more volume of "stuff". Rather than just being happy with 1 pair of jeans, and doing something else with the rest.

I've never understood nursery furniture.
So very small wardrobe for when your child is too small to use it anyway, then you have to replace it in however many years.
As you said, just buy a proper size in the first place.

try a charity shop.
I have a local one that sells all its glasses for 10p each.
Some are amazing quality, really lovely.
Also means you use "nice things" on a day to day basis and don't get annoyed when they break.
£2 for a tumbler now seems extortionate to me!!

Won't you be getting less, because it'll get more expensive?

Oh - if you're in the UK, you mean China will send more to the UK because it can't send as much to the US?

I hate Trump, but if the Chinese tariffs mean less plastic tat coming to the US, that seems like a good thing to me, seeing as I live in the US!

Maybe all countries should put tariffs on low-priced non-biodegradeable plastic from China, and then it would force them to produce more responsibly.

I’m pretty frugal and it’s not difficult to do. If I had to buy furniture now, I’d take a trip to our Salvation Army store or British Heart Foundation. All in good condition.

I like charity shops, yes I have to avoid the Live Love Laugh rubbish, but there are quality garments to be had. Church fairs also yield up treasures.
I make my own cards, reuse wrapping paper and my Xmas decs stretch back so far they include some of my mother’s from the 50s.

I’m horrified at the rows of plastic in the supermarket, nothing is being done about it for all the talk. I’m so ancient I remember my mother using a cardboard box of soap powder not only for clothes but for washing the dishes. It’s a pity Terry towelling nappies don’t make a comeback too. Disposable to me are disgusting, apart from emergencies or travelling.

@Pictue Your post made me think of cutlery. My parents were careful with money and bought a secondhand caravan for our family holidays. They then bought some very cheap cooking utensils to use in the van. I use that fish slice, bread knife and slotted spoon several times a week over 60 years later and they are fine.

Class - !! I didn’t see that series !!

This! I'm actually finding this thread both oozing with entitlement and very short-sighted.
Traders like B&M, Shein etc exist because many people don't have much money yet still like nice things. Not sure why that seems to be an alien concept!?
Add in the fact that the world is not a very nice place right now, and little things like Jellycats bring people joy, even if just momentarily.
Anyone is within their right to reject any/all of the above and live a more 'green' existence.
But we must stop judging those whose lives we know nothing about.

I find B and M and Home Bargains brilliant for laundry/cleaning products and lots of food items.
I avoid the homeware aisles entirely because I don’t personally want Halloween cookware, valentines cushions or Santa bedding.
It feels like we’re being groomed into thinking this is the norm, so we will spend. Think Christmas Eve boxes, Elf on the shelf and buying the whole family matching PJs for a photo shoot. Instafication.

Clothes in general have got a lot cheaper - the reason why in the 90s we didn't all have 20 pairs of jeans was the cost. I remember buying a pair of jeans in a not hugely expensive shop in about 1993 for £18. That was equivalent to 5 or 6 hours wages at the time for someone working part time in a shop. 5 or 6 times minimum wage now is £50 or £60 and you can buy 4 or 5 pairs of jeans for that in Primark. So people are spending the same amount in proportion to their income, but expecting much more volume of "stuff". Rather than just being happy with 1 pair of jeans, and doing something else with the rest.

I don't quite agree with that, in the late 90s I have excellent quality clothes & shoes from the high street. For the quality the price was right & my wage was pretty decent, many wages have stagnated since the 00s.

well I'd like to see a society which doesn't have shopping as a "hobby".
Rather than so many people being employed in retail there should be a shift to experiences, food, drink, crafts, lectures. comedy, ....

Vote with your wallet

US will get the same amount of Chinese tat as it will be imported to the UK, repackaged and sold to the US as tat "assembled" in England with 10% tariff.

Nope.

You can spend loads of money if you want to without buying shite.

Buy good quality local produce, eat in local restaurants, get a coffee in the new local caf, buy plants from an independent garden centre, get takeaways direct from independents, go to your local theatre and cinema.

You really don't need to purchase landfill to spend money.

I think the shop you mentioned is one of the more responsible ones actually so that’s a bit unfair.

I agree there is definitely too much plastic tat. However, I think you need a balance. I personally like a bit of seasonal tat but I tend to reuse it and add to it each year for xmas, Halloween and Easter.

This! I'm actually finding this thread both oozing with entitlement and very short-sighted.

I do think there is a thing where people may spend more on house accessories because they can't decorate as they are renting. Same with parents who go overboard with easter eggs or Christmas because at other times of the year they have to cut back. On the Easter egg thread I was quite shocked at some of the amounts whereas my dc get 1 and some small ones to hunt. But my dc have been on holiday, days out etc and choc is not a big treat to them.

@MrsWinslowsSoothingSyrup I agree with you and didn't explain myself well. But I think that we are encouraged to buy cheap tat nowadays because it will soon need replacing and therefore makes bigger profits for somebody.

Totally agree. Very depressing.

100%.

I heard a fella on the radio a few years ago, who’d published a book on landfill. Just tried to google it but couldn’t easily find it. He’d been given access to various landfill sites and wandered among the rubbish to see what people chucked and expected to be buried. He said the most depressing thing was the seasonal stuff: Halloween, Christmas etc. People buy stuff, throw it away and then do exactly the same the next year and think nothing of it. He said, in millennia to come, it’ll be like strata, showing the passing of the years.

I never throw anything away that can be reused, donated or sold. We’ve become so toxic to our environment that people view that as being a hoarder. There are so many people who say: “just throw it”. When my kids where little some people I knew got rid of all their baby stuff (cribs, cots, pushchairs, clothes etc etc) only to have to buy new when they had a subsequent child.

I wish people could be taken to landfill sites. I honestly think there’s a disconnect and if they could see what they expected to bury and the scale of it, they’d be appalled and never throw anything away again. As someone who doesn’t eat meat, I feel the same about factory farms and abattoirs. If most people saw where their meat comes from, and how it’s slaughtered, they’d never eat it again. But people turn a blind eye and don’t consider it.

The shops grow to meet a demand though. I’ve bought a very sustainable cast iron casserole dish and a couple of houseplants from B&M. The casserole was like a fancy le Creuset one - at a fraction of the cost - and will be passed down to my DC, and the houseplants cost a lot less than in other stores, and are growing beautifully in my house.
I did go into Söstrene Grene when it opened near me and found that it sold a load of stuff at £££ which I could have ordered from SHEIN at a tenth of the price they were charging! But I do agree that it’s purpose as a retail establishment isn’t clear…

It affects us though. We live together all of us on this planet. I reserve the right to judge things that harm our society and our planet. Your attempt to stop me making value judgments based on evidenced harm is equally entitled.

It uses vast quantities of energy and water. Data centres use as much energy as Japan. https://news.mit.edu/2025/explained-generative-ai-environmental-impact-0117

I'm quoting your post in case @IcedPurpledidn't see it.

@Mightymoog I do get stuff from.charity shops too, I got a teapot and milk jug from one!
Charity shops are getting more expensive, especially for clothes. This may then encourage people to get clothes from primark and shein rather than the greener option of a charity shop. In fact I saw a primark top for £5 in a charity shop, it was probably cheaper originally.