#the candy at the dollar store is $1.25

[wraith-the-rock]

Hello!

I’m Elias and I like writing and world building and stuff like that. I’d like to think that I’m not horrible at it and am, in fact, pretty good at it. (Proof? well… uh- trust me?)

So, if you need help making a world or character for a story or rpg of any flavor I’d be super happy to help!

If you want someone to look over your writing and critique and give feedback, I can also do that!

If you think I did a good job, feel free to give me some money. (You absolutely do not have to, but that would be nice) Just dm me on here and we can talk and stuff!

If you want me to write you something, I can absolutely do that! But I would probably request some money or a trade of some kind :D

Thank you for your time!

[tamtron]

Bro, Faygo is so good, I drink that stuff way to much... Ty dollar store for having 4 packs of the best flavor (cotton Candy) for 1.25 🙏 and I would like to thank the sketchy store near me for having pineapple watermelon too... eurhg

[hellyesbro]

since you're getting nosebleed pic asks already i dont feel as awkward saying this but when you posted that my first thought was 'ah yes power is in fact my coolest mutual'

ehehehe like. Its crazy I walked away from that fight adrenalined out of my mind and then had the most INSANE moodswings of my life when I came back down but now I'm kind of a (more paranoid) baseline as in I feel normal at home and noided outside but I used to feel noided outside all the time so I'm also stoned as hell because I've been smoking less weed so I forgot my tolerance is waaaayyy lower but its 2am so thats like, fun instead of stressful.Oh yeah I was saying I'm noided as fuck when I'm outside but I used to be SUPER noided as a teen bc dudes were like. always sexually harassing me. So its something i'm well aware I can heal from so I'm kind of zen about that. I owe my roommate like 5 dollars because I accidentally made her butane can explode everywhere like 20 times because I'm dumb as rocks and forgot how to refill a butane lighter. you gotta press the nozzle in like CRAZY hard. SO at first I was convinced her lighter was just broken, so I went to the illegal corner weed store (philadelphia is a wonderful place, there are many stores like this but most are subtle abt it. These guys are SO open about it and they get shut down and reopen like every other week) to get a new lighter and it looks like a grenade (I'll edit this post on app and add a vid later, too lazy to upload this to my pc (i'm on my pc because im dumb as rocks and couldnt figure out how to privately answer asks on mobile so I thought I could figure it out on pc but I still cant)) and used that to operate my roommates dab rig and smoke my other roommates dabs. I wasn't stealing I asked permission. I used to steal a lot but theyd always get pissed off which was jarring to me because I've only ever lived with partners so I'm really used to just us stealing shit from eachother and nobody bats an eye except we called it "sharing". but then it ran out of butane and I couldnt get it refilled either and I went full panic mode and wasted a fuckload and then i suddenly remembered how to refill it correctly so I refilled both lighters and they both worked so I did not need to spend $8 on a novelty lighter but the girl at the register was cuuuuuuute, Also we got snax on the way home at this super cheap corner store that also illegally sells weed and loosies so we got 24oz bottles of soda for $1.25 each and they have 75 cent plastic wrapped pastries and 99c cotton candy its fucking junk food heaven im incapable of gaining weight but my teeth want to kill me and i think im at risk for developing diabetes (dw im like really happy these days) but I digress. Thanks for checking in!!!!

[marshallpupfan]

New Marshall Merchandise #57... or #32... or #29, I've Lost Count!

You know, I started posting these updates a few years ago, back when many of my followers were curious about anything I added to my collection. Some of them have gone quiet, possibly moved on or lost interest in PAW Patrol. I'm not sure if my current followers have any interest in these updates. At this point, I just post about these now because I enjoy showing off new items of my favorite character. 😇

And new items, I indeed have! Many of these I've collected over the last month or two, as finding new items hasn't exactly been too easy lately. Most major stores are still selling Jungle Pups and Mighty Movie toys, so hopefully anything new will pop up soon enough. Despite that, I have managed to find a few interesting things!

I first found out about this little figurine when it popped up on Ebay, but nobody would sell it without the other pups (Chase, Skye and Rubble... sadly, no Rocky or Zuma). Someone on Twitter told me they seen some at a Dollar Tree, so of course, I tried checking all the stores I have near me. It took a while, but one finally got some in! Best of all, it's only $1.25, so that's cool!

Hey, you know what else is cool?

Accidentally finding another piece of merchandise I didn't expect to see! I'd actually seen one of these on Ebay earlier the same day, but I thought it was a part of some set. Much to my surprise, Dollar Tree also had it, and also for $1.25. It's not the most impressive of the bath squirters I own, but I'm still happy to add it to my collection!

Ha, look at the label! Chase, Marshall, Skye... and Zuma! Well, it makes sense, given he's the water pup, but I still didn't expect that. Nice to see him on a label for once. :)

I'd actually seen pictures of these online a few times over the years, although they were typically branded as Christmas candy. I never could find any at the stores near me, but then a friend said she seen some at Walgreens. I searched around and finally found one... the last one they had left, in fact! Score! And yeah, I likely won't eat it... it'll sit in my collection along with that other Easter candy I got. lol

...huh, I just noticed it's cracked around the neck. I don't think it was like that when I bought it. Guess I somehow did that. Oops... but it still looks cool, right? Maybe I can find one to replace it when they show up again next year... if they show up again next year. 😅

I seen this at a garage sale for $1. How could I say no? Besides, just look at Marshall on this thing! Too cute, as always! 🥰

Actually, this was yet another lucky find, since I've seen these on Ebay for like $10 (with $5 shipping or so). The fact it's practically in perfect condition is also quite awesome. Living in a small town has it perks!

Last, and it's the priciest item today. I seen this while helping my folks with their shopping at Walmart. They had a few, but they were all Marshall. I wasn't going to get one at first, due to just how big it is, but my mother knows I collect practically anything of Marshall, so she bought it for me. Indeed, I'm already having trouble finding a spot for it, but no doubt I will... eventually... along with the other items on my table. Remember my last few updates? Yeah... most of those items are still sitting there, too. I'm running out of room! lol

That's all for now! I actually do have a few more items coming in the mail, so I'll have a few more things to show off soon enough... Valentines plush dolls, in fact. Ones I expected my local Walmart to get, but they never did. Otherwise, a friend of mine in the UK has offered to send me something I believe is only being sold in her country, so I'll get to add another imported item to my collection soon! I always love doing that, so I'm looking forward to getting it!

As for the Rescue Wheels toys, I've no idea when they'll show up. Maybe in June? July? Whenever the USA finally puts the episodes on their schedule. Now that I think about it, they'll probably be the last toys based on the original designs, huh? All future merch will likely use the new style. We better enjoy it while it lasts, I suppose.

[rainyfestivalsweets]

Slim Pickins

9/1/24

Ever seen those reels or tik toks that tell you to run to the dollar tree?

Ya'll. Is dollar tree sponsoring just an epic shitton of those videos?

Because I was just there and it was terrible. It was the last of the 3 stores in my vicinity that I hadn't visited yet.

So you know I have some some hauls there before, on the hunt for some healthy shit. Pickles, banana peppers, a hidden gem here and there (True North 4 packs, iykyk).

It is barely worth mentioning today. I did pick up some sf hard 🍬 candies & some little bags of Russell Stover sf chocolates (portion control). The only other notable item was a couple cans of G Fuel. And consumer alert- watch the caffeine content in those. Idk if they all are, but some are 300 MG caffeine.

What else did I get? A 6 pack of pretzels. Again, small bags = portion control. Especially for me with carbs. My activity level is pretty high tho so I am trying to give myself on watching the carbs but.... I am starting to think I have a gluten intolerance from some recent lab work.

I got some drink mixes too, but I am pretty sure they are cheaper at walmart. (Confirmed- $1.08 vs 1.25)

Sf Cherry jello 🍒 4 pack

Some coffee. Jim Beam Bourbon Vanilla small bag.

Green tea.

But I swear I looked for some things that people keep saying to run to the dollar tree for ...and didn't find shit. No fun lotions. No quantity of health food.

You also have to watch out because at $1.25 some items are cheaper at walmart, or in packages too small to be a deal. See the drink packs above and the tuna and salmon below.

I did see a pack of freeze dried strawberries and 1 other freezer dried fruit. But the price point on that should be ... a 6 pack like the pretzels or at least a 3 pack. It was a 1 serving bag.

This time, I knew to pass on the tuna & salmon, spices, and certain other staples. They did have nuts but I passed on those because I have some already and too many nuts can make a deficit become a surplus really fucking fast. And I have been plateaued for a bit now.

The plus side is that the store was well kept and maintained, and it was busy so you know product turn over was high.

I remarked on the store being busy and the cashier said, "Yeah, we are always busy the first of the month." That broke my heart a little because the food picks were pretty damn sparse and like I stated earlier- cheaper elsewhere. If people are on food benefits, those little cents add up and it might mean they don't have transportation to Walmart or a grocery store.

I picked up a couple cans of spaghetti sauce, turkey gravy, & white cheese sauce. I thought about getting some pepper stir fry- which I think is a good price still 🤔 but I think my freezers are full right now.

Alot of their other freezer stuff was .... just pre packaged garbage. I think the pepper stir fry was the only vegetable in sight.

Sometimes saving money means not buying stuff at dollar tree even though all those influencers are highlighting their products. If it isn't a good deal and won't save you time or actual money, it's ok to pass. It's OK to walk to the dollar tree. And be skeptical. Price check.

Also beware of items that have higher prices. I think the reason I used to like them is because I didn't have to think about the price so much just see and grab. But that is when everything was a $1, before the 25% price hike. 🤔 but now they have $3 items and $5 items. Be skeptical!

An example of a time/energy/diet saver is when you are in desperate need of lunch and you are in a sea of fast food places. You see a dollar tree and boom, you could be saved: A jar of pickles, a pack of tuna = $2.50. Spring for a beverage for 3.75 total... that is still beating out most fast food places for a meal... or some of them even a plain ass little burger. Idk about ya'll but without a veggie just a burger doesn't really satisfy me right now.

An "I'm craving something sweet" could be those freeze-dried fruit packs or sf jello, a beef jerky & a beverage. It's totally worth it if it stops you from going into a different store and being inundated by all the various high calorie prepacked garbage.

[discocandles]

Okie, lil story from this evening:

So, i was craving junior mints and was like "well its like 9:45. Ive got enough time to get to the dollar store and get my shit before it closes" And so i went and got my candy. But as i was heading out of there i saw a stand of dc rebirth comics. For $1.25 and i was like "god if this bitch wasnt closing in less than 3 minutes i would have gotten back in that line with some comics." But i had to abandon them :(

[jim-fetter-illustrations]

You want a great black friday deal, go to Dollar Tree!

I've researched this Black Friday thing and According to Adobe Analytics data, discounts this holiday season will hit record highs of up to 35% off the list price.

Somehow with all the marketing hoopla out there 35% off a price that has been steadily gone up over the last year, and then slashed by 35% isn't really saving all that much after the pandemic raised prices across the board to outrageous highs.

It's like Egg prices being raised over 70% during the pandemic, and now you see them at still 40% higher than they were on sale at that higher price?!?!?!

Black Friday is becoming a traditional hoodwink and industry wants you to think it's a damn good deal they are doing just because they want you to get a good deal?

When is the last time industry gave a damn about anything concerning your finances,.............. Never is my guess!

It's OK I guess, but if industry wants to draw my attention they better pull out all the stops and have a 75% to 85% price off to get my ass off the couch.

Lets face it, the pandemic gave industry a reason to fuck us all using the tragedy as their crutch!

I'll just wait till after Christmas to get the real deals from marketing's blunderous mistakes, because after Christmas they will want to recoup as much cash as they can from sales gone bad so the whole lot goes to the Dollar Tree Store, where industries great deals that flopped go to die, Lol

Like those $5 dollar bags of candy going for $1.25 three days after halloween, Lol.

When merchandise reaches the Dollar Tree store you know that's as cheap as it's gonna get, Lol

[zoot580]

Old Man's Store: Where A Dollar Was Gold (National Candy Day)

Sharing a fun memory for those of you who grew up in the time of penny candy stores...

Penny candy. Now THAT is a term that brings back memories.  Something kids today know nothing about.  In fact, it’s a bit of an oxymoron, because you sure as sugar can’t find any pieces of candy for a penny anymore.  If you’re familiar with and near a Dollar Tree store, where everything is a dollar (actually $1.25 now – thank you, inflation), you can at least find some of those familiar candy…

[thexblushingxwitch]

A little video to show what y’all can get at Dollar Tree for only $20! A great way to get many and affordable items to celebrate Mabon this year.

-Crochet has become a hobby of mine. I’m planning to start a shop for enchanting crochet bandanas and more, but I want to perfect it before I even set up a shop. Dollar tree had little colors to choose from but I was lucky enough to find these colors! It might be different for others, but I found these next to home goods and craft sections of the store.

- I saw this pomegranate colored candle holder, and I knew Persephone would love it. I found this item at the candles section.

-I work with color magic a lot throughout the year, this velvet bandana is perfect for my rituals and as a protective veil! I found this item at the hair accessories/ hair care section.

-Inkedgoddesscreations (From IG) like myself is a busy witch. Her podcast for Mabon magic helped me a lot. She is a strong person who believes that you can use fake plants/flowers for your practice. For me personally, it’s easy to maintain and I can reuse it for next year without worrying about when it’s going to go bad and stink up my room, and there’s no worry for critters (I am not a big fan of bugs in my house😅). These were only $1.25 each bunch! I got a few of these by chance because everyone else got the fancier ones earlier, but I don’t mind! I’m a big “plan ahead” type of person, so my pumpkin and plants decorations are going to carry on into Samhain. I’m so happy I found a small pumpkin that’s perfect for my altar space.You can find these at the fake plants/flowers section.

-I was super lucky to find these small brooms that I’ll turn into Besoms that’ll be for Mabon, Samhain, and Yule! They’re by the candle section, and were “hidden” away at the very bottom shelf with the potpourri products. They’re heavily scented of pumpkin and cinnamon, I LOVE IT.

-Lastly, of course snacks for my deities and to celebrate the Chang dog this season. Caramel apple chips were in the healthy snack section, pumpkin spice Oreos near the cookies, and “Halloween” cotton candy were near the main Halloween decor section of the store.

I hope this helps others who want to celebrate Autumn but don’t know where to start, or need help budgeting their seasonal haul. I usually research a week or two in advance. Sometimes I like to catch popular items but in the end stick to the basics; Your senses will never fail you to feel the magic of the new season in the air.

.Scent (scented brooms/candles/potpourri)

.Taste (seasonal snacks)

.Sight (colorful items associated with the season)

.Feel (making something to honor the season, for example I’m making bandanas with colors associated with autumn, and finding the coziest feeling of yarn helps with my anxiety😅)

.Hear (music playlist or a cd that you feel like brings autumn vibes)

[meanwhileinstasiville]

A dollar store story

So I didn’t start drinking coffee until I was 30 or so. And after I learned by accident that it stops and even prevents migraines when drank regularly. They began in the 8th grade after a sort of “roll over accident” that destroyed the helmet I was wearing; the real ones where you can’t see and all that, cluster headaches I guess those are sometimes called.

We have a Dollar Store now, where Sprouse used to be. A store that services those in abject poverty *below* that of Latinos, where a unit price of a dollar (now 1.25) is rich living for people drawing breath beyond their means. For the holiday season, it needs to be mentioned that you don’t want to see women frequenting a business like that, because it means they’re feeding and clothing their kids basically out of the goodwill. Somewhere between where dollar razors and/or pregnancy tests are worth hundreds of dollars to the sex trade, and also, where people “reup” on things that they’ve been priced out of by things like marijuana and alcohol. (I didn’t get that until I started drinking coffee because it has a sort of “poisson” distribution frequency roll off; And I get headaches anyway even without caffeine worries).

A “hellsite” meme about Japanese radishes going “about 28 feet” calorie wise is a good primer on what group of people dollar stores really serve. Also a great way for Latinos (you don’t see them in the background, but they’re there) to understand where drug trade cartel strategies can be applied to things like food and water. Do they want to be able to baste a turkey (with a roasting pan) or open a can?

Socks or a shirt. When I was there last night, the place was overflowing with people stocking up (and also stalking, if you count the one remaining once proud Arizona mob family heavy making his rounds in there) on decorations. After posting a sort of lengthy diatribe about fascism, it should be clear what crew the dollar store is meant to serve. 

Ashland was once a sort of “white utopia” and the sort of thing with a legend that reached deep into minority communities, “I hear in Ashland...” they might be heard to say. And in earshot of ailing multigenerational *and* poverty stricken whites all to eager to decry “Uncle Tom”, and hoping for that two car garage on a McDonalds salary. These are the people of the Dollar Store. As a sort of aside, many years ago I visited the place with what might be termed a “diamond class sex worker on vacation” looking for raver candy. A family unfriendly Aesop, to say the least. A person like that *can* spend money, but they never have to, and going back much further, I entered that place the *very first time* after a church service with one of the wealthiest families in town.

(”You can only afford staples through slave labor”, what the super-thrift stores are really saying) Ethically sourced? Can’t afford it; look at fruit growers forever ago. Fair trade? You might have dirt and cardboard or be peddling sand in a desert. 

Things are bad enough that the guy who actually runs it, both resembles and also functionally lives as a Latino. For an aged white guy. Who can often be found parked outside of so-called “southtown” market, when he’s not around. And not nearly a mile away. Speaking of the mason-dixon line, with a van parked outside of it (in case things get really bad and you have to live in there). Business owner/operator he might otherwise be called. I don’t mean to diarize forever, but I have to wonder what people living hand to mouth will do in the absence of these places. Even people living in homes they purchased. With mortgages or without. Around the “turn of the century” a little over one hundred years ago, Catholics would never stand for this kind of institution because you’d find child labor right beneath the surface, and I’m sure they’d rather outreach. Because this is an old problem.

Doesn’t look good when white people can’t afford to live in what was a former “white utopia” where they subsist on terms that could be disagreeable to blacks in the inner cities (with no transportation costs that come with rural suburban living).

An important part I left out of the fascism story, maybe the most important part, is that people have to “want you to have money in exchange for work”. They as a triumvirate as it sort of stands here, have to want money in *your* pocket. Same as pre Magna Carta Europe had to “want” citizens to have food, and tools, and shelter, and literacy. “Not the kind of person we’re looking for” has a heavy historical burden.

[kayla1993-world]

Are you really getting a deal at your favourite dollar store?

In a comparison of 17 everyday items, a CBC Marketplace investigation has found prices at Dollar Tree were the same or higher in a price-per-unit analysis than at Dollarama or even Walmart, meaning Canadians may not always be getting the deal they think they are when shopping at popular dollar store chains.

"As the name says, everything here seems to be a dollar, more or less. Right? Even though it's not," said Markus Giesler, a professor at the Schulich School of Business at York University.

Marketing and store layout may contribute to the perception of the best deal, when it may not always be the case.

"The way they present the merchandise to us makes us buy more than we absolutely need," Giesler said. "That's also, honestly, the trap that many consumers fall into. Myself included."

Dollarama has over 1,400 locations across Canada with products ranging from just under $1 to around $4. The company announced this week that it plans to sell some items for as much as $5. Dollar Tree has about 230 locations selling goods for $1.25 or $1.50.

The test aimed to compare identical items, but the stores often sold products in different sizes. In that case, they broke the price down per unit.

Froot Loops at Dollar Tree cost $1.25 versus $4 at Walmart and $2 at Dollarama. However, the package at Dollar Tree was only 87 grams compared to 345 grams at Walmart and 230 grams at Dollarama; converting to price per unit means the Dollar Tree product ends up costing more per 100 grams.

"There is a discrepancy between what these stores communicate, what they message and what they deliver, and that's something that's not always known to unassuming consumers," Giesler said.

Two test shoppers and the Marketplace team went to Dollarama, Dollar Tree and Walmart for a list of the same products in toiletries, snacks, food, cleaning supplies, toys and pet food — though they found sizes often varied.

Giesler said shoppers need to know their size comparisons.

A common tactic at dollar stores, he noted, is carrying just one type of product — one brand of toothpaste, for example — making in-store comparison shopping difficult.

Dollar stores rarely sell anything for $1 anymore and many of those stores are based in lower-income neighbourhoods with more newcomers to Canada, he said.

"Often we're talking about vulnerable consumers, lower-income families and families who actually need every penny and need every dollar," he said.

"They signal, 'We make affordability and the Canadian dream happen.'"

In the end, Dollarama fared well in Marketplace's test, always edging out Dollar Tree on prices and within pennies of Walmart in that comparison of 17 items.

Dollarama sent Marketplace a statement that said it aims to provide competitively priced everyday products at low fixed price points year-round without sales or promotions.

Seven products that were more expensive in a price-per-unit comparison at Dollar Tree were: Froot Loops, Pringles, KitKat, Whiskas Perfect Portion cat food, Starburst candies, Colgate toothpaste and Crest 3D white toothpaste, which worked out to more than $6 per 100 millilitres.

Dollar Tree had some wins in the Marketplace test: Smarties (at 75 grams as opposed to 45 grams) and Lever 2000 body wash had better prices than its competitors.

In a statement, the company wrote that they considered the Crest 3D White toothpaste a travel-sized item, and that consumers continue to shop at Dollar Tree for the extreme values they can find.

Two popular kids' items — Hot Wheels cars and Play-Doh containers — were both slightly more expensive at both dollar stores than at Walmart.

"When we walk into a dollar store, we're not really thinking of doing the value equation or the mathematics in our head," said Prof. Mark Lee of Ryerson University's Ted Rogers School of Management.

Instead, he said people are "thinking more about the dollar," which anchors buyers to a concept that's not much to spend, but shoppers often spend more than intended and rarely leave a dollar store with only one item.

In a pricing win for dollar stores, both offered pregnancy tests for $1.25. Walmart had one for more than $8.

All three brands are in Health Canada's database of licensed products approved for efficacy and safety when used as directed.

Dr. Dara Maker, a family physician at Women's College Hospital, says she recommends dollar store pregnancy tests for her own patients who are trying to conceive.

"If you get a positive dollar store pregnancy test result, you are pregnant," Maker said. "It is very rare to get a false positive."

There were some products, like one-litre juice boxes for some brands like Minute Maid and Five Alive, that were just pennies apart at each store.

Experts said there are things consumers can do to ensure they get a good deal at the dollar store, like comparing prices and sizes.

"Do your research whenever you can. Compare and contrast even when the comparison cannot happen on the shelf itself within the aisle," Giesler said, suggesting that price comparison apps can be useful.

[maryanntorreson]

The steep price we pay for cheap chocolate

Thousands of years ago, the Maya people of Central America believed that chocolate was the food of the gods.

The Maya — who helped pioneer cultivation of the cocoa tree, along with the Toltec and Aztec peoples — even used cocoa beans as a form of currency.

Fast forward to today, and chocolate is considered less of a rarity and more of an anytime treat. “Somehow the ancients understood that chocolate was special,” says owner and CEO of Seattle Chocolate Company Jean Thompson in her TEDxBellevueWomen Talk. “Today, chocolate is the inexpensive darling of the candy aisle.”

Worldwide people consume over 7 million tons of chocolate each year, with North America and Europe leading the way. In the US, the average person consumes 12 pounds (5.5 kilograms) of the sweet per year, while the British, Germans and Swiss clock in at over 17 pounds (8 kilograms).

But while chocolate brings so many people so much pleasure, its widespread availability comes at a high price. Growing and harvesting cocoa harms the environment, farmers and farm workers — and as global temperatures rise and weather patterns shift, climate change will dramatically reduce the land where cocoa can be grown and hurt those who rely on it.

The hunger for chocolate and the desire to grow more cacao are helping drive climate change — and climate change is hurting cacao

Chocolate is made from cocoa beans which come from the pods of the Theobroma cacao, a tree that requires extremely specific climatic conditions to thrive. Africa is the leading  producer of cocoa, followed by South America and Asia. In fact, all chocolate is grown in a narrow band within 20 degrees north and south of the equator. This also means the land where cacao trees can flourish is limited.

Our ravenous demand for chocolate is driving people worldwide to clear forests for cacao farmland. In the Côte d’Ivoire, for example, more than 80 percent of the country’s forested areas have vanished between 1960 and 2010.

With suitable farmland dwindling and demand for chocolate projected to rise two to five percent each year, cacao plantations are also encroaching on protected lands. In the Côte d’Ivoire, an investigation by the environmental nonprofit Mighty Earth found that almost half of Mont Peko and Marahoue national parks were lost to cocoa plantations since 2000. In Indonesia, 1.7 million acres of forest — home to elephants and critically endangered orangutan, rhino and tiger populations — were cleared for cocoa plantations between 1988 and 2007. In Peru, which saw a five-fold increase in cocoa production between 1990 and 2013, satellite images revealed that thousands of acres of Amazon rainforest were cleared for cocoa trees.

What’s more, this deforestation is helping drive climate change, which in turn is hurting cocoa production. Tropical rainforests have some of the highest carbon storage capabilities of any ecosystem on Earth, so they release massive amounts of carbon into the atmosphere when they’re cut down. “A single dark chocolate bar made with cocoa from deforestation produces the same amount of carbon pollution as driving 4.9 miles in a car — an outsized impact for a small afternoon treat,” according to the Mighty Earth report.

As carbon emissions continue to rise, so will global temperatures and the incidence of extreme weather events. That’s more bad news for cocoa, which is highly sensitive to climate changes. According to current projections, the cocoa belt could see a 3.8°F (2.1°C) increase in temperature by 2050, and hotter temperatures and drier conditions will severely reduce cocoa yields.

During the 2015–16 season in Ghana, for example, the Harmattan winds that blow across Ghana from the Sahara Desert between late November and mid-March came early. The drying winds and low rainfall resulted in a poor harvest and withered cacao pods — a preview of how cocoa will respond to a drier, hotter world.

Other major threats to cacao trees are pests and diseases, which already account for 30 to 40 percent in annual cocoa losses. In 2018, for instance, the Côte d’Ivoire had to destroy 100,000 hectares (250,000 acres) of cocoa trees to stop the spread of swollen-shoot virus, an infection that can decrease yields by up to 70 percent and kill a tree within two to three years. Scientists predict that climate change-related weather patterns could increase the incidence of pests and diseases and further threaten cocoa harvests — and the people who depend on it.

The average cocoa farmer earns $.50-$1.25 USD per day, keeping them impoverished and fueling child labor

While the chocolate industry is worth more than $100 billion dollars (and growing), more than 80 percent of cocoa comes from 7 to 8 million small family farms who can barely afford basic necessities. “Smallholder cocoa farmers also have virtually no control over global market prices and are at the mercy of price volatility,” according to the Fairtrade Foundation. “Inequality in the cocoa chain means farmers are trapped in extreme poverty and can’t afford to invest in more progressive farming methods.”

Cocoa farmers in the Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana — thought to be responsible for about 60 percent of the world’s cocoa — earn only 3 percent to 6 percent of a chocolate bar’s retail value. That puts their average income between $0.50–$1.25 USD per day — well below the international poverty line, or less than $1.90 per day.

And even though the amount of farmable land continues to shrink and farmers’ costs have risen, their incomes have stayed the same. In fact, cocoa farmers in the West African cocoa belt are poorer now than they were in the 1970s and 80s. “Seventy-five percent of the people in the Côte d’Ivoire rely on chocolate, or cacao, for their livelihood,” Thompson explains. “With today’s chocolate prices, we ensure that they will remain poor forever.”

These financial pressures have led to abusive labor practices. “Child trafficking generally occurs when planters are searching for cheaper sources of labor for replanting,” writes Michael E. Odijie, a research associate at the University of Cambridge, in The Conversation. “The number of child laborers in the Ivorian cocoa industry increased by almost 400,000 between 2008 and 2013.”

The major chocolate brands have pledged to eliminate child labor and slavery in their supply chains, but in 2019, The Washington Post reported that Hershey, Mars and Nestlé couldn’t guarantee their chocolates were produced without child labor. In fact, The US Department of Labor estimates that 1.48 million children are still “engaged in hazardous work” in Ghana and the Côte d’Ivoire. Reports from the University of Chicago research group NORC show that child labor has increased over the past decade despite companies’ pledges. As a result, many children in cocoa communities are working on farms instead of going to school because their families depend on their income.

We consumers have the power to promote industry change by increasing the demand for ethically-produced chocolate

Chocolate lovers have the purchasing power to push the industry to change, and their first step should be to take a critical look at companies’ labor and sourcing practices. “Capitalism depends on the demand and supply of a product in the food industry,” said Alastair Gower, founder of artisan chocolate maker Chocolate Tree, in a TEDxGlasgowCaledonianUniversity Talk.

In 2018, for example, US-based Mars Wrigley committed $1 billion to funding farming communities and protecting forests over a 10-year period. Similarly, Hershey Co. established Cocoa For Good, a program that aims to eliminate child labor and sustainably source their supplies. However, West African cocoa producers have accused the same companies of using unethical buying practices to avoid paying premiums that would boost farmers’ incomes, keeping farmers in poverty and perpetuating the cycle of child labor.

In addition to buying from chocolate companies that pay cocoa growers living wages, consumers can also protect farmers and their livelihoods by supporting companies that source their beans from sustainable farms. One promising method is agroforestry, or growing cocoa crops under a forest canopy rather than in large plantations of exclusively cacao trees. In agroforestry, cacao is planted amongst other rainforest trees, which provides them with shade, protects them from wind and soil erosion and allows for cultivation without deforestation.

“Cacao trees cultivated in this approach appear less vulnerable to pests, and the soil better retains its ability to support cacao over the long term,” according to the US NOAA. “[Agroforestry] offers one more advantage: Carbon that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere when forests are cleared isn’t. It remains stored in the trees.” A 2009 study found that cocoa agroforests in southern Cameroon stored an average of 243 metric tons of carbon per hectare (2.5. acres).

Existing farmland can also be rehabilitated by improving soil health and replacing older trees with new seedlings — but these aren’t silver bullet solutions. “On some farms, even with rehabilitation, renovation and shade trees, cocoa’s days are numbered,” writes University of Edinburgh carbon management professor Dave Reay in the book Climate-Smart Food. “In these drier, already-marginal cocoa areas, many smallholders now grow food crops, such as maize and vegetables, in rotation with their cocoa to supplement incomes.”

But it’s important that environmental initiatives shouldn’t come at the cost of farmers’ livelihoods. For example, an estimated 1.5 to 2 million cocoa farmers live and work in protected forests in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW). Because new forestry policies that aim to protect these forests will likely result in the forced evictions of thousands of farmers and their families, who are left without shelter, food or education, HRW recommends compensating farmers for lost property and crops and assisting them in finding new occupations.

The next time you’re in the mood for chocolate, here are some tips to help you satisfy your sweet tooth while also looking out for farmers and the planet:

Don’t stop buying chocolate. Millions of people depend on cocoa farming to earn a living, and giving up chocolate will hurt them.

Shop smarter. Look for chocolate that is independently certified by the Rainforest Alliance, UTZ or Fairtrade, groups which monitor environmental and labor conditions. By changing your purchasing habits, you’ll also signal to companies that consumers want ethically-produced chocolate.

Get used to paying more for chocolate and eating less. Ethically produced chocolate is more expensive, so you’ll need to change how you view chocolate. Instead of viewing it as a cheap, plentiful commodity, think of it more like a good coffee or wine — something that’s worth paying a little extra for.

Avoid waste. In the UK alone, nearly 20,000 tons (18,000 metric tons) of chocolate and sweets are discarded each year by households, resulting in an estimated 90,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions and contributing to deforestation.

Do your homework. Check chocolate company websites to see if they list their supply chains — but don’t take their PR and press releases at their word. Websites like The Good Shopping guide, Ethical Consumer and Shop ethical! can help you dig deeper.

“It’s going to take newfound and widespread respect, understanding and appreciation of chocolate to elevate cacao and give its farmers the sustainable and prosperous future that they deserve,” says Thompson. And it can all start with the chocolate that we buy.

Watch Jean Thompson’s TEDxBellevueWomen Talk here:

Watch Alastair Gower’s TEDxGlasgowCaledonianUniversity Talk here: 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gulnaz Khan is the Climate Editor at TED. Find her @gulnazkhan

This piece was adapted for TED-Ed from this Ideas article.

The steep price we pay for cheap chocolate published first on https://premiumedusite.tumblr.com/rss

[bestfundraisingideas-blog1]

The Business of Fundraising – Lower Prices, Higher Profits

Find out how you can boost your fundraising profits by lowering your prices.  Big retail stores do it, and you can too!

How often do you find yourself buying more than you need because of a “2 for 1” or “Buy One Get One 1/2 Off” sale?  Or shopping at a store you wouldn’t normally shop at because when you spend $35 or more, you get 20% off?

Many retail stores benefit from offers like these because they encourage people to buy more than they normally would.  It also benefits customers because although they’re buying more at one time, they often save money in the end.   You can use this to your advantage at your next fundraising sale and end up making more by charging less!

Let’s use lollipops as an example to see how you can come up with a fundraising offer for your next sale:

Each lollipop costs you $0.25.  You sell them for $0.50 each.  That means you’re making a profit of 50%, or $0.25 on every sale.

You might consider selling them for $0.50 each with a special offer of 3 lollipops for $1.  Basically, you’ll be selling 2 and giving away 1 free.  If each lollipop costs you $0.25:

–  $0.25 x 3 lollipops = $0.75 (your cost)

–  $1.00 (selling price) – $0.75 (your cost) = $0.25 (your profit)

Hmmm…. The offer was great, but the end profit doesn’t look so good.  In fact, that ends up being only 25% profit!

Let’s try it again.  This time we will sell lollipops at $0.50 each with a special offer of 5 lollipops for $2 – or “Buy 4, Get 1 Free”.  Each lollipop still costs you just $0.25.

–  $0.25 x 5 lollipops = $1.25 (your cost)

–  $2.00 (selling price) – $1.25 (your cost) = $0.75 (your profit)

That looks much better.  And your profit with this offer would be over 37%!

This offer is good because $2 is an easy, round number that people can reasonably spend, 5 lollipops is a realistic number of lollipops to buy, and the offer is still profitable for your fundraiser.

With this offer, most of your sales will probably still be for just one or two lollipops, and since you sell those at the regular price of $0.50 each, you will still make 50% on those sales.  However, the offer is good enough that many people will buy more, thereby boosting your sales.  For example, someone buying 3 lollipops could think, “Why not add just one more and I’ll get another one free!”  Also, people who were just going to buy one could see your offer and decide to buy five as a treat for friends or coworkers.  Around the holidays your offer could pay off big with people buying 5, 10 or even more lollipops for friends and family.  Each sale of 5 lollipops will only be a few extra cents, but those extra cents add up to dollars pretty fast!

Lollipops are a great product to use, but you can also come up with special offers for products like candy bars, beef snacks, wristbands and most other direct sale fundraising products.

A great tip for any product is to buy online at the eFundraising Store because shipping is free so you won’t have to subtract shipping costs from your final profit.  Also, at the online store you get quality products at wholesale prices, so you can cut costs without cutting quality, and that’s always good for sales!

Check our Guide on Website about Business Fundraising

Read more Fundraising Ideas

[bowsetter]

It’s Time We Began Pricing Things in Satoshis

What can you buy with a virtual pocketful of satoshis? Why, anything and everything. Whatever goods or services you can purchase with BTC or BCH you can purchase with their smaller units of account – the satoshi, or ‘sat’ for short. With 100 million of them to every bitcoin, satoshis are as divisible as they are versatile. But for satoshis to thrive, the Bitcoin community needs to start using them to price products. Only then can the simple sat start to shine.

Also read: Eight Historic Bitcoin Transactions

Bitcoins Are Scarce But Satoshis Are Plentiful

Digital scarcity is all relative. It’s drummed into us that there will only ever be 21 million bitcoins, and thus the vast majority of people will never own a whole BTC or BCH. This isn’t a problem, since each bitcoin is divisible into 100 million sats, but from a marketing perspective, this is a major issue. Most people who’ve heard of Bitcoin know that you don’t have to buy a whole bitcoin. What they probably don’t know, however, is that simply through switching from bitcoins to satoshis, it’s possible to price a wide range of products, from candy bars to guitars. Before that can happen, though, there’s work to be done in raising awareness of sats and their many applications.

Knowing that there will ultimately be 2.1e+15 satoshis in existence – that’s 2,100,000,000,000,000 – is an interesting statistic, but one that isn’t relatable to everyday use. Knowing that 25,000 sats equates to $1 at the time of publication, however, provides a firmer basis from which to begin pricing items using satoshis. The very act of referencing the U.S. dollar, however, raises a catch-22: for bitcoin and its subunits to become a pricing benchmark, they need to free themselves from the shackles of fiat currencies.

Samourai has already done so, removing fiat currency conversions from its BTC wallet altogether. Such cases are few and far between however. There are examples of companies denominating prices in millibits, better known as mBTC (1/100th of a coin), such as market data service Bitcoinity and popular BTC desktop wallet Electrum. By and large, though, only Bitcoin maximalists and altcoin traders are fully fluent in millibits, bits, and satoshis.

Stats About Sats

Satoshis are most commonly referenced as a means of calculating bitcoin transaction fees. BTC and BCH fees are commonly denominated in sats per byte. As a number of Bitcoin supporters have tried to demonstrate, however, the applications for sats needn’t stop there:

Try to price everything in satoshi, even whole-denominated bitcoin transactions:

Current block reward: 1.25 billion satoshi

Gallon of gas: 86K satoshi

Ribeye: 400K satoshi

Pint of beer: 170K satoshi

Loaf of bread: 67K satoshi

US median home price: 6.8 billion satoshi

— Shaine Kennedy [Șatoshis Only] (@shaine_kennedy) January 4, 2019

One of the most common arguments against pricing goods and services in sats is that BTC is volatile, and thus a 25,000 satoshi dollar bill could be worth 30,000 sats or 20,000 sats tomorrow. While it’s certainly true that cryptocurrencies can be highly volatile, fiat currencies are not exempt from this malaise. In fact, when viewed over a long enough timeframe, the U.S. dollar’s properties as a store of value don’t look so hot:

Should bitcoin ever become the global reserve currency, everything will be priced in satoshis. In the meantime, there’s nothing to stop ecosystem participants – vendors, wallet developers, P2P market operators, and consumers – from adopting the satoshi as their default unit of account for low value transactions. In the early aughts, when European Union countries began switching to the euro, it was common for shops to display prices in their outgoing national currency as well as in EUR. Perhaps it’s time for the bitcoin community to follow suit.

The first phase is to champion a dual system in which items are priced in both fiat currency and in sats. Should hyperbitcoinization ever occur, phase two will require no explanation – by that point, we’ll know what to do. But that’s a conversation for another day. For now, all that matters is that we start spending, sending, and receiving satoshis. Just as a journey of 1,000 miles starts with one small step, the transition to satoshis starts here.

What are your thoughts on denominating items in satoshis? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock.

OP-ed disclaimer: This is an Op-ed article. The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own. Bitcoin.com does not endorse nor support views, opinions or conclusions drawn in this post. Bitcoin.com is not responsible for or liable for any content, accuracy or quality within the Op-ed article. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the content. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any information in this Op-ed article.

The post It’s Time We Began Pricing Things in Satoshis appeared first on Bitcoin News.

READ MORE http://bit.ly/2QBdRLF

[thyladyx]

The thing is, there ARE other things they could get them. I work at a dollar store. You wouldn't believe the number of times I've seen a kid asking for our little character bottlle of hand sanitizer for their backpack ($1), or a dollar toy, and the parents get them a candy bar (.85-1.75) or pop (1.80), or chips (.50-1.25) or some combo of the three instead. They're training their kids to want/expect junk food.

One reason for this disparity is that kids’ food requests meant drastically different things to the parents. For parents raising their kids in poverty, having to say “no” was a part of daily life. Their financial circumstances forced them to deny their children’s requests — for a new pair of Nikes, say, or a trip to Disneyland — all the time. This wasn’t tough for the kids alone; it also left the poor parents feeling guilty and inadequate. Next to all the things poor parents truly couldn’t afford, junk food was something they could often say “yes” to. Poor parents told me they could almost always scrounge up a dollar to buy their kids a can of soda or a bag of chips. So when poor parents could afford to oblige such requests, they did. Honoring requests for junk food allowed poor parents to show their children that they loved them, heard them and could meet their needs. As one low-income single mother told me: “They want it, they’ll get it. One day they’ll know. They’ll know I love them, and that’s all that matters.” Junk food purchases not only brought smiles to kids’ faces, but also gave parents something equally vital: a sense of worth and competence as parents in an environment where those feelings were constantly jeopardized. To wealthy parents, kids’ food requests meant something entirely different. Raising their kids in affluent environment, wealthy parents were regularly able to meet most of their children’s material needs and wants. Wealthy parents could almost always say “yes,” whether it was to the latest iPhone or a college education. With an abundance of opportunities to honor their kids’ desires, high-income parents could more readily stomach saying “no” to requests for junk food. Doing so wasn’t always easy, but it also wasn’t nearly as distressing for wealthy parents as for poor ones.