I love Target.
Seriously.
Love.
Target.
And I’m going to go out on a limb here and bet that you love Target, too. Are you with me? And how about the Dollar Spot? Fun stuff abounds. And for just one dollar. A single smackaroo. Uno dinero. It’s almost all a girl in her right mind can do to resist the temptation.
Shopping the dollar spot is a good thing, if:
1) You’re buying things you need, love and will use.
2) You’re buying things you need, love and will use.
3) You’re buying things you need, love and will use.
At least that’s what I tell myself (over and over and over) when the magnetic force pulls me unwittingly in the direction of the Dollar Spot.
Case in point:
I picked up these little gems on a recent trip. It went something like this…
Do I love it? Check.
Will I use it? Check
Do I need it? Uhhh…well…(and the justification begins)…I’m sure I don’t have any other ribbon in this color…at least not ENOUGH and if so I can always use more…and besides it’s just a dollar and look at how cute it is and there are SIX different spools of ribbon.
Plop! Into the cart three packages go.
I get home, delighted with my thriftiness (and my ability to resist all the other delicious-and-only-a-dollar-goodies.) I tear open the packaging so I can touch my ribbon. I unwind the roll…and just as I begin unwinding…I’m done. Huh? My unrolling stops just as quickly as it begins, halted by the tape holding my precious ribbon to the cardboard spool…already? Yes. Already.
Now don’t get me wrong, as I was going through my need it, love it, use it questioning in my mind…I did stop and check to see that I was only getting 12″ of ribbon per color. (And, I’m not a man, so I have a pretty good idea on how long 12″ is.) But boy-oh-boy, compared to the packaging involved, 5 strands of 12″ ribbon just doesn’t stack up to much.
Literally.
Now…do I think the ribbon was over priced? Let’s see. 72″ of ribbon for $1 is about 1.4 cents per inch of ribbon … doesn’t seem too bad to me, really. So it’s not the price. It’s the packaging. The ribbon was simply over packaged. And that frustrates me. Especially considering I used to be a Packaging Engineer. (Uh, yep, there really is such a thing but that’s a whole other story.) But as a former Packaging Engineer I know there is no need for all this packaging. (And I realize it doesn’t take a degree in packaging to figure that out.)
Doing what I do now, I see lots (and lots and lots and lots) of dollar store junk goodies heading straight for the landfill. (And don’t get me wrong … most of this is from the dollar store not the Dollar Spot.) Things like treats from goodie bags…well intentioned purchases that break after a single use…and in this case, even though the ribbon will makes its way onto a scrapbook page or another fun project, I’m sending perfectly good trees to the landfill in the form of packaging designed to sell product. It worked on me. I bought the ribbon, in part, because it looked so delightful thanks to the pretty packaging.
The message: proceed with caution when entering the dollar store and the Dollar Spot. Think to yourself: do I need it? Do I love it? Will I use it? If the answer to any of these questions is “no”…walk away from the Dollar Spot. You’ll save a buck (or two or three) plus you’ll help the environment and possibly even save time later de-cluttering your home spot.
This isn’t to say that when the answer to all three questions is yes, that you can’t find some good deals in the Dollar Spot. Yep…you most certainly can. And tomorrow I’ll be hopping off my soap box to share a very useful (and unpackaged!) Dollar Spot find. I’m sure you can hardly wait … so be sure to check back tomorrow 😉
I had the same issue this week with the scrap kit my MIL gave me from Sam’s…would have made more sense to wrap ’em on a piece of thin cardboard!
Love your blog and your great ideas … hope you dont mind i have added a link on my blog to yours.
Justification is a GOOD thing! LOL, great idea!
Ha! I have those same packs of ribbon sitting in my pantry right now. I haven’t opened them yet, but I’m not surprised to see that the quantity is so small and the packaging so overdone. Your landfill comments are spot on (no pun intended).
I am with you. So many things are poorly packaged.
I thought the same thing when I opened mine (I only bought 1 though!). I wrote to Target about it (along with a few other things), and have gotten no response (didn’t suspect I would). I do LOVE the ribbon and LOVE Target too (except a few things!).
I recycled my cardboard pieces with all my other cardboard recycling….that helped me feel a little better about it!
First, I love Target too. And since I’m in Canada where there are no Targets, I love it even more when I get a chance to go there. Second, thanks for the reminder to be careful of packaging, and also for the justification. I am such an impulse shopper, so I really need to go through the “Do I love it, Will I use it, Do I need it” steps.
I was JUST thinking about this during the weekend. I almost got suckered by the Dollar Spot. The stuff is soo cute! However, I refrained. I bought some of those small bowls for mixing paint and things and some of the $1 scrapbooks for my goddaughters. However, now you’ve gotten me thinking more about the buckets again! LOL!
I too bought some ribbon from the $1 bins at Target the last time they had those little spools. And yes I realized when I bought them it wasn’t much ribbon-but still thought it was a good deal.
Hmm…what could we make out of the little spools?? I have no idea, but I am sure if I put them in the “arts and crafts” bin the kids could find some creative use for them!!
I already recycled my spools … but you got me thinking. They’d make great wheels on a craft car or truck. A couple years ago my son would have gone nuts with this. Thanks for the idea, Tiffany!