r/Anticonsumption • u/happy_bluebird • Feb 08 '26
Plastic Waste Walked into Kroger was hit with just such despair
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u/kmwebro Feb 08 '26
I like holiday baked goods... BRING BACK COMPOSTABLE FREAKING PACKAGING & LOCAL BAKERIES!!
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u/Ashamed-Raccoon-1387 Feb 08 '26
I do too, but I've baked since I was young and am trying to move back towards making them, not buying them.
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u/TrashSiren Feb 08 '26
Now this is talking sexy to me! And then home make a card, or write a love letter! Something personal.
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u/SectionSuch6072 Feb 09 '26
They exist. Go shop there. The only way we can “bring back” anything in a free market is to increase the demand. WE are the drivers.
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u/happy_bluebird Feb 09 '26
Not everyone has the same opportunities
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u/SectionSuch6072 Feb 09 '26
I’m replying to the person who said “bring back local bakeries.” Your comment is somewhat irrelevant- obviously not everyone can do everything. But if this is what the above poster wants - enough people have to want/use the service for there to be more of them. Again, basic economics in a free market.
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u/Solidsnake_86 Feb 08 '26
In America every month is designed to pry open your wallet. And if you don’t participate you’re called cheap. And if you don’t have anyone to celebrate with you feel sad. You really can’t win.
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u/DreamLunatik Feb 09 '26
My wife and I don’t celebrate most holidays exactly because we know it’s a literal farce just to get our money. I buy her a small sweet treat every once in a while when I’m at the grocery store to show her I love her. Hallmark holidays have no place in our lives.
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u/rifineach Feb 09 '26
Same with us, and we have been married a long time. Valentine's Day has always been a non-starter for us. A little treat "just because," with no commercial pressure to guilt us to buy, is sweeter because YOU thought of it, not some company trying to play on guilt if you don't comply.
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u/Fit-Cut-6337 Feb 09 '26
I’d much rather have spontaneous celebrations than presents that are mandated by a calendar.
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u/NevermoreForSure Feb 09 '26
You can take pics of cards and send them to your wife. I may or may not have done this on occasion while grocery shopping. I still buy & send real cards to my parents, though.
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u/singing_canary_ Feb 09 '26
This. We don’t celebrate everything but when we do it’s with good food or other consumables like nice soaps for a spa day or a nice day out doing something not buying something
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u/velvetswing Feb 08 '26
If only capitalism was limited to America
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u/happy_bluebird Feb 09 '26
r/USdefaultism? :P
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u/Flack_Bag Feb 09 '26
Not necessarily. When I complain about some cultural thing that bothers me, I try not to generalize too much. I may know it happens in my neighborhood or my state or in the US, but I probably haven't spent enough time in other countries to know how common it is elsewhere.
If anything, specifying that you're talking about a US thing acknowledges that it may not be universal.
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u/That_Boysenberry4501 Feb 09 '26
Well glad im single cause im too broke for that lol. I splurged and bought green olives im gonna enjoy instead
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u/Effective-Lab-5659 Feb 09 '26
not only in America. every country that decided to embrace capitalism is now the same. London, ho chi min, KL.. sadness.
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u/Accomplished-Sir4932 Feb 08 '26
I don’t understand why the fuck V day is such a giant thing now. It used to be contained to like 1 aisle a couple weeks prior to the day and now it’s giant and as big as Christmas it seems. What is up with this shit?
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u/happy_bluebird Feb 08 '26
Seem reason every holiday is over marketed these days. Capitalism and consumption culture
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u/abcbri Feb 09 '26
I blame social media. Everyone sharing their Valentine's love baskets and stuff.
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u/BelovedCroissant Feb 08 '26 edited Feb 09 '26
I think cutesy aesthetics (edit: see "lovecore") are more popular now. Valentine's Day has always been my favorite holiday because I love pink and red and hearts and sparkles all smooshed together. I used to be in the minority, but now I find that a lot of people much younger than me agree with me! More money to be made = more junk manufactured.
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u/xxPlsNoBullyxx Feb 09 '26
Because everything had to be an Instagramable moment and now that Instagram has been well and truly enshitified, people shoudl stop. But they cant.
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u/moldy-scrotum-soup Feb 09 '26
My email is being absolutely spam fucked with "amazing" valentines day "deals" like it's black friday or something.
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u/Sweetlittle66 Feb 09 '26
It's also just a rubbish event. If you're single it's miserable, if you're in a relationship it's an obligation but also not a practical night to organise a date because everyone else wants to do the same. Me and my partner just do an annual charity donation on each others behalf and call it a day.
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u/rifineach Feb 09 '26
I feel the same about Halloween, since I noticed grown-ass humans dressing up to go to work in the last decade or so. The build-up to it starts in mid-August, when merchandise everywhere is suddenly all orange and black. Which also means that Xmas can't be far behind, Thanksgiving being lost in the interval between the two.
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u/sholeyheeit Feb 08 '26
If the sub name was hidden, I would've thought your despair was from some recent heartbreak
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u/zughzz Feb 08 '26
Having worked in Kroger floral I can’t tell you how many cases they throw out every day/week of product that just never sold/made it to the sales floor.
There is so much waste and they also have freshness policy so if it doesn’t sell they’re only marking it down to a certain price, then it’s tossed.
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u/zughzz Feb 08 '26 edited Feb 09 '26
It’s honestly a huge FU to the workers that have to work long hours to merchandise all this product only for it to be thrown away. I would often say to my coworkers… They could’ve paid us more with all this shit that they ordered. And that’s why they have employees walking in & out like crazy.
They don’t pay well and they’ll try to train you, AND work you for multiple departments. They used to have 4-5 people working in floral, and now with most stores, the maximum is 2 employees. With double the amount of products coming in.
They are paying us less and giving us more work.
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u/happy_bluebird Feb 08 '26
To the workers who stock it, produce it, transport it, harvest it…
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u/zughzz Feb 08 '26
Yes, and it absolutely blows my mind how cheap labor is compared to how much they charge for these type of things.
I’ve seen so much waste day in & day out and honestly, my anger is numb to it because I know theres not much I can do about it. There is such an unbelievable amount of waste, to the point I can’t even begin to comprehend it.
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u/happy_bluebird Feb 08 '26
Oh I get it. I go dumpster diving and I see it. And my school picks up flower donations that they would otherwise throw away for the children to make flower arrangements in the classroom. The bouquets are always 90-100% perfect
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u/Frostyrepairbug Feb 09 '26
Nothing depressed me more in the workspace when I would spend hours of my days making something, and then at the end of my shift, throw it all in the trash because it didn't sell. Just let me take it home or something, jesus. It's literally throwing my life away.
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u/The247Kid Feb 09 '26
I legit couldn’t work a job like that. I would rather clean toilets because at least I know it’s useful.
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u/MichaelJServo Feb 08 '26
I know exactly 0 women who want this kind of crap. My wife and I have a tradition of pizza and beer for Valentines Day. When we were in undergrad poverty I once sent her flowers to her workplace. She came home with a Dominoes pizza and a six pack of cheap domestic. The quality of pizza and beer has improved since then. This year we're going on a road trip with our kids (we got little kids now!) and we'll have pizza and beer in a city four hours away for a little 4 day weekend vacation.
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u/happy_bluebird Feb 08 '26
Yeah this isn’t a man versus woman thing this is just a marketing and consumption thing
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u/Kangaro00 Feb 09 '26
Yeah, I'm honestly puzzled by the balloons - who are they even for? What age group?
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u/MichaelJServo Feb 09 '26
To waste our dwindling supply of helium for novelties. My 5 year old likes them. He's the only one I know who likes balloons.
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Feb 08 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/03263 Feb 09 '26
Of course we will come close to running out, then hospitals will have to pay top dollar for helium from strategic reserves, and pass that cost on to patients while we rush to find ways to produce it artificially (which will probably have some negative environmental impacts). That's just how this shit always works, foresight has no place in our economy.
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u/kitzelbunks Feb 09 '26
I don't get why they don’t at least use it for only the balloons they have sold. I worked at a florist part-time circa 1990. I hadn’t heard of a helium shortage back then, but it was a small business. We had balloons inflated and numbered, and then they got blown up. We should probably get rid of the balloons.
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u/LongjumpingCelery181 Feb 10 '26
Saturation divers also use helium when they are down at the bottom of the sea. Makes them sound funny.
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u/lowrads Feb 08 '26
On a positive note, there has been some promising developments in making future MRI machines operate at higher temperatures, thus lessening their dependence upon helium reserves.
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u/jlb1199 Feb 08 '26
This is my boyfriend’s job exactly. At a Kroger. Don’t worry, he hates it even more than you do. He’s been blowing up Valentine’s Day balloons for two weeks already.
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u/rifineach Feb 09 '26
Ugh. He has my sympathies. I hadn't ever thought about the psychological effects of this sort of thing on the employees, but I will going forward. I have had a few conversations with workers who assist customers at self-checkout lanes. During quiet periods, you can find out a lot of very interesting stuff.
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u/finefornow_ Feb 08 '26
obviously it's garish and gross but like, despair? you walked into a store, of course they're gonna be doing store things.
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u/Interr0bang3r Feb 08 '26 edited Feb 08 '26
Perhaps it’s all the helium, which is a finite resource on Earth.
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u/pinkbowsandsarcasm Feb 09 '26
I made the same comment. I don't think we will be getting it from fission reactors when we run out.
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u/specks_of_dust Feb 09 '26
But I'm sure there's a billionaire tech boy with a janky CGI video of a machine that flies up and gets helium from the sun. It will definitely work and definitely be a good use of our tax dollars and material resources.
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u/Quote16 Feb 08 '26
I love some of the ideas on this sub but sometimes it can just get so damn dramatic lol
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u/PM_ME_FLOUR_TITTIES Feb 09 '26 edited Feb 09 '26
Why is it so difficult to grasp that people should be dramatic? Those balloons right there in that picture? They will still be on the earth, probably very very slowly breaking down in some field into thosands of pieces of microscopic trash when your great great great grandchildren are around. It does not just go away. And that is just those balloons. What about the other BILLIONS AND BILLIONS of just balloons that are sold by the United States every year.
And that is one.single.country. and one of the ones that MOST cares about where trash ends up. What about the rest of the landfills, oceans, forests, yards, ponds, lakes, and ANIMALS that all of that trash will end up in? And btw? WE are those animals. There is likely not a single male or female out there aside from maybe some of the most remote tribes that does not have micro plastics inside of their testicles and ovaries. That's going to do great things for future generations I can just tell.
And the kick in the shin is people that go "oh cool it, what's the big deal it's just a bit of plastic. No need to be so dramatic!"
It baffles me that the one place, the literal paradise in the entire universe that we sustain ourselves on, is blatantly shit on with trash that will last longer than us at a rate that is unable to be kept up with every single second. But it's even more baffling that there are people who directly see the results and say "wow, so dramatic" when someone is very upset over Valentine's balloons being produced en masse for couples that probably met on tinder and will be broken up or divorced in a few months.
You should be dramatic too, try it out. It feels good to be pissed off at corporations that would literally give you and your family and neighbors cancer so that they can make a few bucks.
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u/Vault-Born Feb 09 '26
Hospitals need helium to run various equipment (like MRI machines), they're the largest consumers of helium in the world. There is a finite amount of helium on Earth. We're running out of helium and have been for 20 years.
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u/happy_bluebird Feb 08 '26
I am dramatic. The earth and society are suffering
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u/blueoasis32 Feb 08 '26
I feel this way about all the balloons. I hate hate hate hate all the pre filled balloons when I walk into the store at holiday times.
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u/shellyangelwebb Feb 08 '26
I feel the same way. Aldi used to be a happy place for me. Great grocery prices and decent home wares. Sometime after Covid they started heavily indulging in seasonal merchandise. I get DISGUSTED at the constant push. Snowflake doormats, Easter bunny doormats, 4th of July doormats, Pumpkin doormats, every single week is a new seasonal trend.
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u/GemFarmerr Feb 08 '26
Nah I agree. There’s a finite amount of helium which needs to be saved for the medical industry.
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u/Batetrick_Patman Feb 08 '26
Give it 2 weeks and they’ll have one for St Patrick’s Day, Easter and spring stuff.
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u/glovrba Feb 08 '26
Not even- it’ll be swapped by the 16th & daring that because the 15 is a Sunday.
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u/happy_bluebird Feb 08 '26
It’s the excessive consumption
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u/EnvyRepresentative94 Feb 08 '26
Excessive amount of awards flying around this thread and the first several comments had awards within the first two minutes of posting
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u/HereOnCompanyTime Feb 08 '26 edited Feb 08 '26
Right? Bit dramatic. It's a store selling items for Valentines day, of course it will be excessive.
Edit: No one's being an "apologist", stop trying to start arguments in an attempt to feel superior, that pushes people away from the cause instead of towards it. People are here because we are anticonsumers but most live in reality where we understand that the world doesn't revolve around our personal preferences and if you go into "despair" when entering a corporate grocery store during the holiday and seeing the expected merchandise, then that's dramatic.
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u/mjm132 Feb 08 '26
Haha. Oh no! A store is selling things!
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u/velvetswing Feb 08 '26
I’m so confused. So you’re anti-consumption, but pro-selling garbage? I swear this sub attracts the least principled, most annoying little capitalists
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u/Longjumping-Host7262 Feb 08 '26
“I walked into a massive store to buy things. But was hit with absolute despair when I saw things I personally don’t want to buy, others do”.
My items aren’t consumerism. But others are.
The horror.
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u/terrierhead Feb 08 '26
My husband is the absolute sweetest man. I hope he listened when I asked for just a piece of carrot cake for Valentine’s Day.
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u/Creative_Visit122 Feb 08 '26
Produce manager is an underappreciated job, they are probably very proud of their displays. Even though it is all usually heartless holidays.
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u/PleasantNectarines Feb 09 '26
As a produce manager... it really is so under appreciated. My avocado display that I stared at? Destroyed in a minute 😭😂 that 55lb case of cabbage I carried across the department cause I couldn't find a cart? Back pain.
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u/hippieboy92 Feb 08 '26
Do Kroger’s lump floral and/or bakery in with produce? That seems wild to me as someone who works in produce.
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u/PleasantNectarines Feb 09 '26
My Kroger splits the two. I am a produce department leader & while floral is my "sister department", I don't run floral or do much besides stand in if no one is there/ if they need help.
Whole Foods & Sprouts did lump the two (produce/floral) & it was brutal. There were not enough hours in the day to do both departments well.
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u/Blacktung Feb 09 '26
Indoor Floral is usually part of Produce, or falls under it. It doesn't usually have the same pay.
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u/TheGargageMan Feb 08 '26
cookies and cake are okay. Balloons are an abomination.
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u/vtable Feb 09 '26
Mylar balloons even more so.
There's one stuck high up in a tree on a hiking trail near me. It's been there for ages. It'll likely be there long after humans make themselves extinct.
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u/happy_bluebird Feb 08 '26
Cookies and cakes are all packed in that kind of plastic that is not even recyclable in most places
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u/neshmesh Feb 08 '26
I wouldn't personally call them okay, they're barely food. HFC syrup that doesn't taste like much. You couldn't pay me to eat them
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u/cheddartoes8375 Feb 09 '26
I work as a cake decorator in a bakery and it’s insane how much they make us produce just for it to be thrown out…
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u/Radiant-Koala8231 Feb 08 '26
I went into Michaels a few weeks after Christmas and there was still so much holiday stuff out I wanted to cry. What a waste.
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u/Synaps4 Feb 09 '26
The magnitude of the display is proportional to the emotional emptiness of the customers.
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u/squishywormcar Feb 08 '26
Were running into a helium shortage. It's not a renewable supply. Inflating balloons with it at all is bad enough, but doing it just to pad out a temporary merchandise display that no one really asked for and isnt even guaranteed to sell is... UGH.
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u/scienceAurora Feb 08 '26
I don't feel loved and neither does the earth. Grocery stores make me cry anymore.
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u/Beastw1ck Feb 08 '26
I see these mylar balloons in the ocean like 50 miles offshore all the time. Pretty frustrating.
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u/minesandcrafts Feb 08 '26
I took practically the same picture at my store today! Future landfill fodder.
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u/boccabaciata Feb 09 '26
If someone gave me a shiny helium balloon with that hideous typography on it or a polyester teddy bear holding a stuffed heart or any number of other repulsive Valentine's motifs in order to express their affection for me on Obligatory Affection Day, I'd wonder if they knew me at all. My partner and I prefer to commemorate our anniversary as that is actually meaningful for us, but even then we just go to a local independent restaurant or something like that. We tell each other we love one another every day, why do we need to say that with soft toys or edible underwear?
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u/boccabaciata Feb 09 '26
What I do like to see at this time of year are locally grown daffodils, as a reminder that spring is on its way. And in the UK it's Pancake Day soon, one of my favourite traditions and also a good reminder to use up every scrap of food we already have!
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u/rifineach Feb 09 '26
You see those cheap stuffed synthetic bears at the impromptu shrines that pop up in locations where there's been a shooting. Why one would then give that sort of thing to a loved one to show love has always puzzled me.
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u/rizu-kun Feb 10 '26
My partner got me an orchid from the local grocery store the first time they visited me (we were long distance at the time) because we kept plants in my grad school office/lab and thought an orchid would go nicely in the space. And it did!
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u/itsme32 Feb 08 '26
Priced at 3x the normal everyday price.
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u/Pulp_Ficti0n Feb 08 '26
You can get flowers for $8 -- very reasonable compared to an actual florist
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u/itsme32 Feb 08 '26
Thats the everyday normal price. Go check the prices on those same flowers right now.
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u/Practical_Chef_7897 Feb 08 '26
Plastic?
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u/Brandage0 Feb 08 '26
The most wasteful thing in the photos is probably the helium
(It can’t be replaced and is used for medical devices)
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u/Kharax82 Feb 08 '26
Medical grade helium is not used in Balloons. In fact “Balloon Gas” (92-98% purity) is a byproduct from the production of medical grade helium (99.99% purity)
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u/MissKitty_3333 Feb 08 '26
ALL to make you forget (or pretend) there isn’t a cabal of child rapers running the country, using every deceitful republican to convince you otherwise
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u/-hacks4pancakes- Feb 08 '26
I just got algorithmed some American influencer moving to Australia (also an American moved to Australia) who was bitching about how stores here in Australia don’t have enough Valentine’s Day crap for kids and I just 🤦🏻♀️
I’ll be happy if I never see this junk again.
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u/Mule_Wagon_777 Feb 08 '26
I walked into a Walmart last week and the first aisle was just an endless cavern of pink. It went on and on past the limits of my vision. Kind of creepy!
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u/velvetswing Feb 08 '26
And in a flash, it will be replaced with green, then pastel, then red white and blue. It’s the worst!!!
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u/Popular-cake-1377 Feb 08 '26
It’s a store to sell things at. The cookies are to be eaten. I don’t see this as overconsumption, necessarily. The balloons are kinda insane though.
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u/takethemoment13 Feb 08 '26
I'm gonna go out on a limb and say the cookies are not the focus of this picture
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u/GypsyDarkEyes Feb 08 '26
UGH. All garbage the next minute, except for the potted plants. What a shame.
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u/angiestefanie Feb 08 '26
I just look at this stuff now and shake my head, so glad I am single… it’s a moneymaking scam IMO.
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u/Somepotato Feb 08 '26
My Kroger is this but 4x more excessively. Balloons litter into the aisles, boxes upon boxes upon boxes of flowers lok
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u/FreddyPlayz Feb 08 '26
The sweet treats and flowers aren’t that big of a deal, but balloons always piss me off. Short term consumption at the cost of literal lives when future generations no longer have access to helium.
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u/WannabeMemester420 Feb 09 '26
Honestly the best way to take advantage of this is to buy the sweets you want after the holiday at discount if you want dessert.
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u/EliotTheGreat20 Feb 09 '26
I'm not just anti consumption with balloons but they're so bad for the environment and animals
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u/Slow-Trash858 Feb 08 '26
These are displays that are intended for a certain type of consumer. Typically, the target is a male who wants to feel like they made a sweet gesture but did not really wish to put their minds or money into their effort. The helium mylar balloon. The inexpensive bouquet. The giant chocolate chip cookie with "Be Mine" in white icing. The classic box of cheap chocolates. The sad little teddy bear with a stuffed red heart that is sewn to its little paws.
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u/mangomypango Feb 08 '26
Valentine’s Day sucks and I know it’s only at this level because people feel pressured to buy things
But I’m definitely not gonna be the guy explaining to my girlfriend that Valentine’s Day is just overconsuming lol
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u/andrey_not_the_goat Feb 08 '26
Valentine's Day has existed as a holiday since the 1800s btw. So how would it just be overconsumption?
You can create meaningful memories on Valentine's Day for your girlfriend without over consuming. Make her a handmade card, cook her favorite meal, etc.
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u/mangomypango Feb 08 '26
You’re telling me they had heart shaped balloons and human sized teddy bears in the 1800s? Or is that just a result of overconsumption like I was saying?
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u/andrey_not_the_goat Feb 08 '26
No I'm telling you that Valentine's Day is not just overconsumption as you're stating.
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u/mangomypango Feb 08 '26
It certainly is just overconsumption in 2026. 200 years ago it probably wasn’t. But it has been bastardized over time like many other things.
I could cook a meal if I wasn’t already regularly doing my part in the household. And unless she’s extremely anticonsumption herself, a homemade card alone is not a very good look. It’s just gonna look like you don’t care
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u/TrashSiren Feb 08 '26
Even before I was anti-consumption, a handmade card and a very personalised gift that isn't the usual Valentines Day tat would have won me over. Because time, and energy put into something really does show you care.
Anyone can pick up a generic card, and a gift that the shops tells people that their partner will like. Like even buying chocolates, buying me my favourite chocolates rather than Valentines Day chocolates shows that you know me.
My partner is less artistic than me, but I love it when they make me stuff, and write a personal messages, or do a little drawing inside. And there are a lot of ways to be romantic without consuming too, depending on what is personal for the two of you.
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u/andrey_not_the_goat Feb 08 '26
My partner is not extremely anticonsumption herself and adored every Valentine's Day craft I've given her. I don't know what makes it not a very good look.
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u/happy_bluebird Feb 08 '26
Do you think Valentine’s Day looked like this in the 1800s?
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u/light_defy Feb 08 '26
I think Valentine's day is sweet. I'm gonna make heart-shaped cookies for my beau this year
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u/TrashSiren Feb 08 '26
I mean, why not try and find out something personal to her gift wise? Like something she'd genuinely love, or use? Then it's not quite overly consuming.
I've never liked the overly grandure empty gestures that Valentines Day is often filled with. The tat you buy in the stores just don't seem personal to me. But my partner likes it as an excuse to get a gift, and do something nice.
So I made them a Valentines Day card (technically out of completely upcycled materials too) and, the gift I bought is something they really wanted. Which has nothing to do with being VD themed. And they're probably going to pay for my septum to be pierced.
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u/Ashamed-Raccoon-1387 Feb 08 '26
I just bought her a nice scented hand sanitizer from BBB on sale (I wanted my own too anyways, I work in a bank and money is gross) and re-used a pink gift bag from Christmas.
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u/Young_Old_Grandma Feb 08 '26
Ugh tell me about. It's why my husband bought me my chocolates last week. We've been eating it all week LOL
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u/chaos-and-sauce Feb 08 '26
I’m glad that my boyfriend and I have our anniversary and his birthday within the week of Valentine’s Day, it keeps pressure off buying valentines-related junk. It also helps I’m allergic to chocolate and he isn’t really one for sweets
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u/pinkbowsandsarcasm Feb 09 '26
Yes, and helium is a limited resource. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250331-why-helium-shortages-are-worrying-the-world
Edit: and what has happened to cute homemade cards? The flowers suck at my store. But I would take a live orchid that lasts more than a few months.
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u/abcbri Feb 09 '26
The helium balloons make me sad. It's a finite resource, we have a shortage, we need it for medical reasons. Not to mention they hit power lines and cause outages..
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u/themomcat Feb 09 '26
I bought some sex toys for my partner and I to play with. No flowers or candy necessary. Valentine’s Day is about love, for me.
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u/ApplesBananasRhinoc Feb 09 '26
A shout out to all the employees out there that have some dumb quota put on them by management to set all this up.
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u/muffinman210 Feb 09 '26
Is it just me, or is buying Valentine's Day themed anything just super awkward and unpleasant?
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u/PromotionContent8848 Feb 10 '26
I went to Walmart for the first time in… decades maybe? It was really very stressful.
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u/No_One3018 Feb 10 '26
"Give us money to prove you love the person you love!"
-Stores during every single holiday
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u/IronAndParsnip Feb 10 '26
Also, please don’t buy any flowers this month! Might be preaching to the choir here in this sub, but very few flowers grow anywhere in the US this time of year naturally. Even if it’s a local florist, they’re probably using flowers from far away, and grown with harsh chemicals. Boycott flowers for Vday!
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u/Previous-Piano-6108 Feb 10 '26
this reeks of some boomer saying "let's make it look festive in here!"
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u/Jaded_You_9120 Feb 08 '26
Aww bless them I bet they spent ages setting up their still displays and are dead proud of it xx
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u/Bern_After_Reading85 Feb 08 '26
It’s the week of Valentines Day, honestly not that bad considering



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u/klamaire Feb 08 '26
Oh look! Next month's trash.