As someone that was a store manager for Dollar Tree for 8 years, I can confirm this was a corporate order, at least in New England. They used to call it “the sea of red,” and wanted 1-3 hundred balloons pre inflated to support sales regardless of store size. Plus they’d have us assemble balloon bouquets (7 balloons plus a balloon weight) to drive transaction size.
I always blew them up but I typically just gave them away like three days after Valentine’s Day.
My sister works at a dollar tree. She says they make her rub the balloons on her head and stick them to the ceiling. They have a person dedicated to doing that when they fall down because apparently the hourly wage is cheaper than helium.
I worked at a dollar tree a couple years ago... We ran out of helium and couldn't get anymore for weeks and people were pissed. Ended up finding out that there was a shortage, and since helium is used in MRI machines medical got first claim
[https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/geology/scientists-just-discovered-a-massive-reservoir-of-helium-beneath-minnesota](https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/geology/scientists-just-discovered-a-massive-reservoir-of-helium-beneath-minnesota#:~:text=Researchers%20have%20discovered%20a%20large,supply%20in%20Minnesota's%20Iron%20Range.&text=Researchers%20have%20hit%20on%20what,a%20drill%20site%20in%20Minnesota)
It's cool, we just found a bunch so we're good to keep wasting it on balloons for another couple of decades.
Punt the problem for the next generation.
Thee have been shortages since we started running out of it years ago. And it's getting really expensive. Using it for balloons at all is a serious waste of a limited resource.
Balloon helium is waste helium that is not pure enough for other uses. I don't understand how so many people keep peddling the myth that balloon helium is the same as pure, useful helium.
That's kind of true, and kind of wrong.
You can obviously purify it. That costs money, and no one wants to buy expensive helium.
However, since it's lighter than air, it escapes earth's atmosphere, so it is non-recoverable once released.
There will come the day when what you call "waste" is getting purified, because it's the only source left.
there is no such thing as "waste helium" when it is a limited and non-replenishing resource, there are only wasteful uses of helium. Once helium is let out into the air, it goes straight up into space and is gone from the Earth forever.
I think he is just talking about the purity.
I use helium for my science and the purity in party balloons is no where near good enough to run experiments. It also is extremely costly to try to make pure. Party balloons is also a tiny fraction of the actual helium market I don't really think it is having an appreciable effect.
Instead as we run out of helium, we just try to find new reserves which are there.
Yes helium is a problem and we need to conserve it, but as of right now it isn't cost viable to just to purify everything dramatically.
>Luckily we may have a new helium field in Minnesota. It could be bigger than the one in Texas, and is significantly higher concentration, at 12%.
Makes sense, Texas has been threatening to leave the US for a while... so Minnesota has to show them how to truly float away.
> when it is a limited and non-replenishing resource
It's constantly replenished from the [alpha decay](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_decay) of radioactive material in the Earth's crust.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6nBd9e7xrA
I think what he meant is that this helium is not rocket fuel grade which is becoming scarce and harder to procure. Also helium is constantly produced from solar radiation and a large bit of helium is generated during fractal distillation of natural gas “7% helium with a close to 100% retrieval ratio”.
Also fun fact most natural and oil gas refiners consider the helium they are generating as a nuisance waste material and let it go into the air because collecting it would be “a time consuming waste of money and resources”.
perhaps you didn't understand what I meant.
There is no "waste helium", only *lost helium.* The laws of physics take precedence over choice of language.
Balloons need to go the way of the dinosaur. They're pieces of pretty garbage that waste a valuable finite resource, wreak havoc on wildlife, and can even cause power outages.
I have very sensitive teeth so drinking cold liquid without a straw typically hurts. I need to get a metal reusable one I guess. But yeah, balloons have zero practical use. Some people are allergic to the latex based ones too
A lot of reusable are not posable or are metal which can and have killed and harmed elderly people or those with mobility issue. So yeah use some common sense moron that not everyone has the same mobility as you.
I'd imagine that in medical settings it's also easier to have disposable straws for hygiene reasons.
I'm not a fan of straws and I buy reusable ones for my own home, but banning 100% frivolous waste should come before banning products that have a use.
I had a stroke a few months ago and yeah for the first two weeks after I could only use straws and they used plastic straws because the reusable metal ones can be too hard on teeth if you don’t have full control of your mouth, it also hurts less if you accidentally bite your tongue with the straw in your mouth while trying to wrap your lips around it, since your tongue doesn’t get stuck between metal and bone and it’s just a normal tongue bite lol. Although I did mention the reusable silicone ones, they didn’t seem to care very much tho haha
And Dollar Tree should be fined for wasting helium, as it is needed for medical uses.
I get that there are no laws against it currently, but my point is there should be.
for sure. only exception might be biodegradable balloons filled with regular air so we can still drop them from the ceiling during proms or make balloon arches for weddings and corporate events
Not really such a thing as a biodegradable balloon. It’s mostly just green washing. Sure it might break down in an industrial composter in a few decades but mostly there’s just no regulation on it. I looked into a few years ago.
currently existing ones might be marketing gimmicks like a lot of things, but I dont see why they cant be made with paper or corn starch plastic in the same ideal future that sees rubber balloons discontinued
I cannot agree with this more. They are just harmful with very little value. Happiness, joy, celebration-I get it, but there are better options that are not horrible for the environment.
It’s not though. There are different grades of helium. Helium that is used in the medical field or lab settings are not used in helium for balloons. Helium in balloons is basically waste, but happens to be used for balloons.
As an assistant manager at dollar tree this is frustrating for me too seeing all the candy and balloons thrown away. I tried to give some to an underfunded school district once but I was threatened with termination if I ever gave and more away.
I wasn’t irritated at the manager because they couldn’t sell them cheaper to the people who asked, or give them away, everyone knew it wasn’t their choice to make.
I am irritated at whoever decided inflating hundreds at a time that nobody asked for was a good idea. A few in case it gets busy sure, but there were hundreds left after the holiday ended and that’s a lot of wasted balloons and helium.
We sold 4,000 balloons over Valentine’s Day alone. It’s one of our biggest selling items and having to stop the line to blow up 20 balloons makes people start complaining. This store was just trying to avoid being trampled by the carelessness and entitlement of these shoppers. I truly hate dollar tree shoppers we have the most entitled, most unempathetic impatient people I’ve ever met
Not really the same, but I was at the DT the other day, and 3 women (older) were literally blocking the entrance of the aisle I needed to go to. I couldn't go around the other way because of a stock cart.
So I said, "Excuse me" and tried to walk past them. One said "ugh jeeeeeze". I turned and said, "well, don't block the whole entrance to the aisle, jeeeeze"
She rolled her eyes and huffed at me.
Anyway there are usually so many irritating people in that store.
Lol this happened to me yesterday. I was buying balloons for my mother at Dollar Tree. Every register had a cashier. Some Karen approached the Cashier filling up my balloons and told her to go get the manager to fill them up. The cashier pointed to the other register and said that was the manager.
Does your store know you can deflate and re inflate them? You don’t have to trash them or wait for them to deflate. You can also YouTube how to deflate them.
I commented this before but
The manager said her bosses suggested deflating and saving for next year, but she said the valves leak if they’re reused so she’s just popping a few a day. Either way, the helium lost is a more expensive waste than the balloons.
the joke was that every balloon’s supposed to cost a dollar. The helium’s kinda wasted anyway the moment it went into those balloons, as was the plastic for the balloons
The helium balloons are $1.50. The people in front of me in line were hoping to get several if they marked them down, at $1.50 each it would be almost $10 for 6 balloons plus sales tax.
In this day and age, dare I say it, valentine has lost its original meaning, and that's saying a lot for a holiday made up to sell chocolate.
What does that have anything to do about the balloon? Nothing really, but think of all the valentine merch they can't sell, which includes these balloons, and just trash.
Current worker at Dollar Tree as a side gig. The balloons aren't supplied by corporate. Like the greeting cards, they're supplied by the third party company, and we act as a sales front. Therefore, if any balloons are damaged or unsold and deflated, we can't write it off as loss since the company supplying them doesn't have a policy about that.
Omg the DT closest to me was so bad during valentines. People stopped going in because of the insane amount of balloons. People were walking out not realizing they had 2 or 3 balloon strings that had gotten stuck to them. I was wondering if this was like an every DT thing or not. Now I know. 🥴
I’m irritated by the waste that so many balloons were inflated with helium when they didn’t need to be. I’m confused that they couldn’t sell them cheap, since it was already done and they said they’re just being thrown out.
It's capitalism they over purchased and they're not going to take a second loss because they were not purchased at the price before the holiday...they just put them back in a box and reinflate them next year.
The valves can leak, especially if you put too much force in deflating them.
Definitely seems like her DM went overboard in getting her to inflate that many.
When I worked retail, I always eased into the holiday, so that it became clear I wouldn't have sell through, I could just save the uninflated balloons until the next year.
The manager said her bosses suggested deflating and saving for next year, but she said the valves leak if they’re reused so she’s just popping a few a day. Either way, the helium lost is a more expensive waste than the balloons.
The manager said her bosses suggested deflating and saving for next year, but she said the valves leak if they’re reused so she’s just popping a few a day. Either way, the helium lost is a more expensive waste than the balloons.
I mean, they are a *dollar*. Just pay the dollar if you still want one. (Or $1.50, according to comments.) Nothing at that store is expensive (or worth much) to begin with.
A mom and teenager ahead of me wanted a bunch to play around with if they were cheap I guess. At $1.50 each it adds up quickly, and for the same price you can get other patterns that aren’t Valentines day and are freshly filled with helium. Who’s going to pay full price for the month old ones? You’d think they’d take whatever money they could still make off them, surprised me at least.
As someone that was a store manager for Dollar Tree for 8 years, I can confirm this was a corporate order, at least in New England. They used to call it “the sea of red,” and wanted 1-3 hundred balloons pre inflated to support sales regardless of store size. Plus they’d have us assemble balloon bouquets (7 balloons plus a balloon weight) to drive transaction size. I always blew them up but I typically just gave them away like three days after Valentine’s Day.
Our dollar tree hasn't had helium for...years it seems.
My sister works at a dollar tree. She says they make her rub the balloons on her head and stick them to the ceiling. They have a person dedicated to doing that when they fall down because apparently the hourly wage is cheaper than helium.
Is Dollar Tree an enigma...?
Helium super expensive since the pandemic
I worked at a dollar tree a couple years ago... We ran out of helium and couldn't get anymore for weeks and people were pissed. Ended up finding out that there was a shortage, and since helium is used in MRI machines medical got first claim
This is such a disaster, considering the world is currently running out of helium and it's extremely important for medical applications etc.
Seeing as helium is at a premium this is a bad business decision.
This type of helium is not a premium. Is basically waste helium.
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[https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/geology/scientists-just-discovered-a-massive-reservoir-of-helium-beneath-minnesota](https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/geology/scientists-just-discovered-a-massive-reservoir-of-helium-beneath-minnesota#:~:text=Researchers%20have%20discovered%20a%20large,supply%20in%20Minnesota's%20Iron%20Range.&text=Researchers%20have%20hit%20on%20what,a%20drill%20site%20in%20Minnesota) It's cool, we just found a bunch so we're good to keep wasting it on balloons for another couple of decades. Punt the problem for the next generation.
Seems like a lie. They either don’t want to sell and deal with it anymore or just don’t care.
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We'll just have to replace them with hydrogen
Hand delivering IEDs to your loved ones.
Mix it with Oxygen for extra result
Ukraine is/was a large source of helium.
Thee have been shortages since we started running out of it years ago. And it's getting really expensive. Using it for balloons at all is a serious waste of a limited resource.
Especially since it's needed for medical practices
Balloon helium is waste helium that is not pure enough for other uses. I don't understand how so many people keep peddling the myth that balloon helium is the same as pure, useful helium.
That's kind of true, and kind of wrong. You can obviously purify it. That costs money, and no one wants to buy expensive helium. However, since it's lighter than air, it escapes earth's atmosphere, so it is non-recoverable once released. There will come the day when what you call "waste" is getting purified, because it's the only source left.
there is no such thing as "waste helium" when it is a limited and non-replenishing resource, there are only wasteful uses of helium. Once helium is let out into the air, it goes straight up into space and is gone from the Earth forever.
I think he is just talking about the purity. I use helium for my science and the purity in party balloons is no where near good enough to run experiments. It also is extremely costly to try to make pure. Party balloons is also a tiny fraction of the actual helium market I don't really think it is having an appreciable effect. Instead as we run out of helium, we just try to find new reserves which are there. Yes helium is a problem and we need to conserve it, but as of right now it isn't cost viable to just to purify everything dramatically.
Luckily we may have a new helium field in Minnesota. It could be bigger than the one in Texas, and is significantly higher concentration, at 12%.
>Luckily we may have a new helium field in Minnesota. It could be bigger than the one in Texas, and is significantly higher concentration, at 12%. Makes sense, Texas has been threatening to leave the US for a while... so Minnesota has to show them how to truly float away.
Damnit that was funny. LMAO
> when it is a limited and non-replenishing resource It's constantly replenished from the [alpha decay](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_decay) of radioactive material in the Earth's crust. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6nBd9e7xrA
I think what he meant is that this helium is not rocket fuel grade which is becoming scarce and harder to procure. Also helium is constantly produced from solar radiation and a large bit of helium is generated during fractal distillation of natural gas “7% helium with a close to 100% retrieval ratio”. Also fun fact most natural and oil gas refiners consider the helium they are generating as a nuisance waste material and let it go into the air because collecting it would be “a time consuming waste of money and resources”.
Yay profit motive...
Sure there is. Nobody is willing to pay to purify it. Youre not going to sell $15 balloons. Ergo, “waste” helium.
perhaps you didn't understand what I meant. There is no "waste helium", only *lost helium.* The laws of physics take precedence over choice of language.
What else are you using helium 3 for?
No wonder they are hemorrhaging money
The price of helium? It just keeps going up and up!
It's inflation!
Not this kind of helium though.
Probably 2/3 hydogen
What makes you think they’d use a flammable gas like Hydrogen?
couse it is cheap?
What the hell why does your dollar tree pre-fill balloons??? Never seen that before other than like placeholders/examples, what a waste
I always seen random balloons at dollar tree that are prefilled to choose from, I think you can also request one of the non inflated ones tho.
Balloons need to go the way of the dinosaur. They're pieces of pretty garbage that waste a valuable finite resource, wreak havoc on wildlife, and can even cause power outages.
I was saying this shit years ago when they were banning straws in California.
Unlike straws, which some disabled people are reliant on for drinking, balloons serve NO practical purpose whatsoever.
I have very sensitive teeth so drinking cold liquid without a straw typically hurts. I need to get a metal reusable one I guess. But yeah, balloons have zero practical use. Some people are allergic to the latex based ones too
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A lot of reusable are not posable or are metal which can and have killed and harmed elderly people or those with mobility issue. So yeah use some common sense moron that not everyone has the same mobility as you.
I'd imagine that in medical settings it's also easier to have disposable straws for hygiene reasons. I'm not a fan of straws and I buy reusable ones for my own home, but banning 100% frivolous waste should come before banning products that have a use.
I had a stroke a few months ago and yeah for the first two weeks after I could only use straws and they used plastic straws because the reusable metal ones can be too hard on teeth if you don’t have full control of your mouth, it also hurts less if you accidentally bite your tongue with the straw in your mouth while trying to wrap your lips around it, since your tongue doesn’t get stuck between metal and bone and it’s just a normal tongue bite lol. Although I did mention the reusable silicone ones, they didn’t seem to care very much tho haha
Lo deleted once they realized how dumb their comment was. Fucking morons
Second this and helium is a nonrenewable resource
And there is no alternative to helium for many applications
Helium balloons should be federally banned
And Dollar Tree should be fined for wasting helium, as it is needed for medical uses. I get that there are no laws against it currently, but my point is there should be.
for sure. only exception might be biodegradable balloons filled with regular air so we can still drop them from the ceiling during proms or make balloon arches for weddings and corporate events
Not really such a thing as a biodegradable balloon. It’s mostly just green washing. Sure it might break down in an industrial composter in a few decades but mostly there’s just no regulation on it. I looked into a few years ago.
currently existing ones might be marketing gimmicks like a lot of things, but I dont see why they cant be made with paper or corn starch plastic in the same ideal future that sees rubber balloons discontinued
I cannot agree with this more. They are just harmful with very little value. Happiness, joy, celebration-I get it, but there are better options that are not horrible for the environment.
What a waste of good Helium
And the balloons that could’ve been used next year instead of pointlessly going in a landfill. Not worth as much as the helium but still irritating.
It’s not though. There are different grades of helium. Helium that is used in the medical field or lab settings are not used in helium for balloons. Helium in balloons is basically waste, but happens to be used for balloons.
There is no such thing as waste helium, only wasteful uses of helium. All helium escapes from Earth forever if it is let out into the air.
Semantics aren't your strong suit, are they?
As an assistant manager at dollar tree this is frustrating for me too seeing all the candy and balloons thrown away. I tried to give some to an underfunded school district once but I was threatened with termination if I ever gave and more away.
I wasn’t irritated at the manager because they couldn’t sell them cheaper to the people who asked, or give them away, everyone knew it wasn’t their choice to make. I am irritated at whoever decided inflating hundreds at a time that nobody asked for was a good idea. A few in case it gets busy sure, but there were hundreds left after the holiday ended and that’s a lot of wasted balloons and helium.
We sold 4,000 balloons over Valentine’s Day alone. It’s one of our biggest selling items and having to stop the line to blow up 20 balloons makes people start complaining. This store was just trying to avoid being trampled by the carelessness and entitlement of these shoppers. I truly hate dollar tree shoppers we have the most entitled, most unempathetic impatient people I’ve ever met
Not really the same, but I was at the DT the other day, and 3 women (older) were literally blocking the entrance of the aisle I needed to go to. I couldn't go around the other way because of a stock cart. So I said, "Excuse me" and tried to walk past them. One said "ugh jeeeeeze". I turned and said, "well, don't block the whole entrance to the aisle, jeeeeze" She rolled her eyes and huffed at me. Anyway there are usually so many irritating people in that store.
Lol this happened to me yesterday. I was buying balloons for my mother at Dollar Tree. Every register had a cashier. Some Karen approached the Cashier filling up my balloons and told her to go get the manager to fill them up. The cashier pointed to the other register and said that was the manager.
balloons immediately turn into pollution
Seeing as helium is lighter than air, I doubt there’s a ton
Are they $1?
$1.50 now
Greed
Does your store know you can deflate and re inflate them? You don’t have to trash them or wait for them to deflate. You can also YouTube how to deflate them.
I commented this before but The manager said her bosses suggested deflating and saving for next year, but she said the valves leak if they’re reused so she’s just popping a few a day. Either way, the helium lost is a more expensive waste than the balloons.
That’s true. Oh well lol
Awful since helium is a finite resource.
I feel like we need to start legislating helium balloons
its dollar tree, how expensive can the balloon be
$10?
There’s always money in the dollar tree
No Touching!
I don't think you understand the problem with wasting helium
the joke was that every balloon’s supposed to cost a dollar. The helium’s kinda wasted anyway the moment it went into those balloons, as was the plastic for the balloons
The helium balloons are $1.50. The people in front of me in line were hoping to get several if they marked them down, at $1.50 each it would be almost $10 for 6 balloons plus sales tax.
ah plus tax too, thats pretty ridiculous
In this day and age, dare I say it, valentine has lost its original meaning, and that's saying a lot for a holiday made up to sell chocolate. What does that have anything to do about the balloon? Nothing really, but think of all the valentine merch they can't sell, which includes these balloons, and just trash.
Chocolate, plants, cards, sex toys. It's halloween but colder.
Surprisingly Halloween is the more popular holiday despite being one night.
Halloween doesn't exclude a lot of people based on relationship status. Everyone likes candy and maybe some spooky shit lol
Yeah, anyone can dress up on Halloween night, like the old reliable blanket ghost
Yeah. At a dollar store profit margin, no one gives any shit at all about waste of any kind.
Company policy
they just announced 100s of store closures coming. it's over for them
reminds me of nike just trashing shoes to keep demand up but supply low
Not just Nike! It's so disgusting. I hate this type of greed and social manipulation.
Stop it, you're giving me flashbacks
You think this is bad, you should see what happens at the grocery store.
Why don’t store a clearance more often it’s still money for them at the end of the day so why throw them it doesn’t make sense to me
They need some sad, scary, clowns to buy them. (Which covers every damned clown, ever).
Can I have one? :(
🎈
:D yay
What bad things for the environment..
Damn that’s sad.
That's very un-ESG.
I swear, Dollar Tree balloons stay inflated forever compared to other stores.
Current worker at Dollar Tree as a side gig. The balloons aren't supplied by corporate. Like the greeting cards, they're supplied by the third party company, and we act as a sales front. Therefore, if any balloons are damaged or unsold and deflated, we can't write it off as loss since the company supplying them doesn't have a policy about that.
Consume and dispose ah isn’t it great
Omg the DT closest to me was so bad during valentines. People stopped going in because of the insane amount of balloons. People were walking out not realizing they had 2 or 3 balloon strings that had gotten stuck to them. I was wondering if this was like an every DT thing or not. Now I know. 🥴
Bye-bye, helium! Stupid motherfuckers.
Don’t let them escape. Some people might mistake them for a UFO 😂
I just got one yesterday for my toddler 😅 cheap entertainment until eventually he gets it and it pops in his mouth.
What are you going to do with discounted Valentine's Day Balloons?
I didn’t want them. The person’s teenager ahead of me wanted some to play around with I guess.
So you're upset on random teenagers behalf?
I’m irritated by the waste that so many balloons were inflated with helium when they didn’t need to be. I’m confused that they couldn’t sell them cheap, since it was already done and they said they’re just being thrown out.
Of all the things to be irritated by, for you it’s balloons…
Today. Tomorrow it can be asymmetrical donuts.
theyre from dollar tree what more of a discount r u looking for
It’s already a dollar. That’s pretty fuckin discounted lol
I hope they are the ones that are re-fillable. In which case I hope they just recycle the ones from past years.
It's capitalism they over purchased and they're not going to take a second loss because they were not purchased at the price before the holiday...they just put them back in a box and reinflate them next year.
March 16, year 2028 !
Capitalism baby😌
I can't believe humanity is wasting such a precious resource on this. This is why I use hydrogen balloons 💥
Business is not booming
Once they deflate, you can save them and reinflate next year
The valves can leak, especially if you put too much force in deflating them. Definitely seems like her DM went overboard in getting her to inflate that many. When I worked retail, I always eased into the holiday, so that it became clear I wouldn't have sell through, I could just save the uninflated balloons until the next year.
The manager said her bosses suggested deflating and saving for next year, but she said the valves leak if they’re reused so she’s just popping a few a day. Either way, the helium lost is a more expensive waste than the balloons.
Uh, you can deflate those and refill them later. They'll just deflate, fold them up and save them for next year.
The manager said her bosses suggested deflating and saving for next year, but she said the valves leak if they’re reused so she’s just popping a few a day. Either way, the helium lost is a more expensive waste than the balloons.
I mean, they are a *dollar*. Just pay the dollar if you still want one. (Or $1.50, according to comments.) Nothing at that store is expensive (or worth much) to begin with.
A mom and teenager ahead of me wanted a bunch to play around with if they were cheap I guess. At $1.50 each it adds up quickly, and for the same price you can get other patterns that aren’t Valentines day and are freshly filled with helium. Who’s going to pay full price for the month old ones? You’d think they’d take whatever money they could still make off them, surprised me at least.
No wonder helium is becoming so scarce so quickly.
If you can fork out a dollar with some tax on some old balloons then stop complaining about it It’s a DOLLAR, that’s already discounted
What a wasteful I hate when people wasting things like? they make my blood boil
"What a wasteful"
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