History Main / ConvenienceStoreGiftShopping

* Invoked in the; “101 Dalmatians The Series” Episode; “A Christmas Cruella”. Cruella has a Christmas Carol Intervention and decides to get gifts for everyone. But, since nothing is open on Christmas except the ‘House Of Devil’ (Her fashion house), she gives everyone Office Supplies.

* ''{{Seinfeld}}'' (birthday variant): One hundred eighty-two dollars exactly (plus a terribly worded card). Elaine says: "What are you, my uncle?" Earlier in the episode, Jerry told George to only spend half as much on his gift since Jerry and Elaine are back in a relationship, so George gives her ninety-one dollars. (Kramer, miraculously, gives her not only the unusual gift she wanted, but a poetic and thoughtful card.)

* In the US, the Chia-Pet is usually seen as this, since they're ultimately useless and not that exciting, seeing as it's merely an animal shaped pot you smear seed paste on and wait for it to grow. Getting one is usually code that the giver either forgot about getting you a gift, or doesn't like you very much. They're frequently sold in drug stores, which are sometimes the only things open (sometimes by law,) after all the good stores have closed for Christmas.

* Ultimately subverted in "Film/AntMan'' When Scott shows up at his daughter's birthday party (that he wasn't invited to) he brings along an incredibly ugly and slightly terrifying rabbit toy that says "I love you". Later scenes show Cassie being honestly fond of the present.
* In Film/{{Scrooged}} We see a typical Christmas present Frank got as a child from his father: A five-pound lump of meat. Courtesy of his AbusiveParent dad.

* ''[[ASeriesofUnfortunateEvents The Wide Window]]'' features the second type, of the "trying, but clueless" variety. The well-meaning Aunt Josephine gives Violet a baby doll, Klaus a model train set, and Sunny a rattle, not realizing that Violet (at fourteen) is not interested in dolls, that Klaus has never liked model trains, and that Sunny finds rattles irritating.

Often overlaps with MyNewGiftIsLame. If the giver is especially confused they may give a ShoddyKnockoffProduct as part of this trope. The recipient might say "You shouldn't have!" as a result.

[[folder:Film]]

* ''{{Frasier}}'' uses this a couple times, of the 'grab whatever's nearby' variety. Roz gives Frasier a book that had been hers (complete with the usual incriminating inscription), and in a later episode Niles gives Roz a broken old cheese crock with a dead bee in it.

* Subverted in one episode of ''TheKingOfQueens'', where Doug and Carrie think another couple has given them this kind of gift (a gravy boat) for their wedding. Turns out it had a check for a few thousand dollars inside, but by the time they finally discover this, the check has long since expired and they can't cash it.

* An episode of Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle takes this literally; Lois gives the boys thirty dollars to buy her a nice birthday present from the convenience store where she works. The boys end up buying her earplugs, generic cough medicine, and a dirt bike magazine (that Reese said he wanted to "borrow" when Lois was done reading it) so that they could spend twenty dollars on candy for themselves.

* In OwlCity's "Peppermint Winter":

* TomLehrer isn't really a fan of this trope. From his Christmas Carol:

* BobRivers dedicates a couple of his ''Twisted Christmas'' {{AntiChristmasSong}}s to these, such as a verse of "The Buttcracker Suite" talking about why you don't get someone a g-string for the holidays and the whole of "Didn't I Get This Last Year" where the child gets socks and underwear a size too small, the uncle gets a ridiculous tie, the neighbors give a random plant dug up from the yard and shoved in a repurposed mayo jar, and the father of the family gets a coupon for free fries.

* ''Zan SayonaraZetsubouSensei'', when devoting one of its ThreeShorts to discussing emergency measures, had the entire class partake in this kind of gift giving for Nami's birthday.

* In ''HoneyAndClover'', everyone is sitting around chatting when all of the sudden someone asks, "So, why did we gather today again?" Takemoto, the resident ButtMonkey, informs them all, with a [[StepfordSmiler smile plastered on his face]], that it's his birthday. Cue people running around trying to set up some kind of party for him, including Takumi running out and coming back with a bunch of assorted convenience store cakes that he pushes into a whole cake and decorates with altar candles. The whole scene will make you want to [[CrowningMomentOfFunny laugh]] and [[TearJerker cry]] for [[TheWoobie Takemoto]] at the same time.

* In ''SoulEater'', Maka's father wants to give her a present for passing her exams with top marks. He's actually savvy enough to realize that she'd prefer a book, but he doesn't know which ones she already has, so asks [[CatGirl Blair]], who's been living with Maka, to use his money to make the purchase. [[MsFanservice Blair]] gets distracted and spends the money on something ''she'' wants, naughty underwear. Remembering her actual mission too late to go back to the store, [[TheDitz Blair]] simply uses her magic to shrink the undies to Maka's size. This naturally gives Maka the wrong idea about her father's intentions.

* On one episode of ''ILoveLucy'', Ricky, thinking he's forgotten Lucy's birthday, gets a box of candy from the bedroom and gives it to her. Lucy says that it isn't her birthday (they were really talking about Ethel's), which means Ricky has to explain why he has a gift for her. Ricky confesses that the candy is an "emergency present" that he's had for three years. He even has tags for it for every occasion.

* In the ''MyNameIsEarl'' episode "White Lie Christmas," Earl is remembering how he never gave Joy any good gifts. His past presents included keys (they were Joy's already) and condoms ([[CompletelyMissingThePoint they were flavored!]])

* On ''MurphyBrown'', the characters had agreed not to exchange gifts at Christmas, but of course someone broke this promise, and so everyone rushed out late on Christmas Eve to get something at the last minute.
* ''{{Roswell}}'': Michael tries to buy his on-off girlfriend Maria a Ladyshave for Christmas, and actually does buy her a car bumper. Luckily, Isabel knows how terrible he is at presents, and got Maria a lovely set of earrings in his name.
* A ''SaturdayNightLive'' sketch from TheNineties has one of the Three Wise Men (guest host David Alan Grier) resort to this on the way to Bethlehem when he realizes his partners are bringing gold and frankincense to the Christ Child. Of the gifts that result from this, Baby Jesus likes the bubbles best.

* ''OneCrazySummer'' has the sister being given a tiny teddy bear as a present. This apparently isn't received well, for she promptly feeds it to her dog.

* In {{Scrooged}} We see a typical Christmas present Frank got as a child from his father: A five-pound lump of meat. Courtesy of his AbusiveParent dad.

* A ''{{Zits}}'' strip has Jeremy and Sarah exchanging gifts for Christmas, but Sarah forgot. She quickly grabs the first thing she sees, wraps it and gives it to Jeremy. Cut to Jeremy and Hector examining the very loud, wide necktie:

* FoxTrot has a running joke relating to this trope, although it is not strictly limited to Christmas as much as really any gift-giving holiday such as Mother's Day or Valentine's Day. ("Ever wonder why none of our kids have birthdays in November?")

* On ''That70sShow'', in a case of ForgottenBirthday, Red and Eric buy Kitty a few balloons and a funnel from the gas station at 11:40 P.M. She is somewhat unimpressed, and they have to take her square dancing to make up for it.

* The title character of ''TheRedGreenShow'' tends to do this for his wife, Bernice, around Christmastime. He then tried to justify it by saying that the Sunoco logo on the free gas station mugs matched their kitchen.

There are many gift-giving events throughout the year, some of which you can dodge, and others that you really shouldn't for reasons of family tranquility, office politics or simple etiquette. But sometimes you just don't know a person you're giving a gift very well, or they're difficult to shop for, or you have no imagination, or you put it off until the very last minute. So you just grab the first thing that seems vaguely appropriate, and give that. Some "white elephant" gifts have been making the rounds for years, being regifted over and over.

There are many gift-giving events throughout the year, some of which you can dodge, and others that you really shouldn't for reasons of family tranquility, office politics or simple etiquette. But sometimes you just don't know a person you're giving a gift very well, or they're difficult to shop for, or you have no imagination, or you put it off until the very last minute. So you just grab the first thing that seems vaguely appropriate, and give that. Some "white elephant" gifts have been making the rounds for years, being regiven over and over.

* On ''{{Scrubs}}'' Carla tells Turk NOT to do this as a relationship test. He comes up with a nice pen, since she likes to write letters by hand. Admittedly, he grabbed it out of a box of items [[AssShove extracted from patients' rectums]] as he had zero prep time, but his heart was in the right place.
* ''{{Psych}}'': Shawn and Gus have brought baby gifts for DaChief (Gus' is a stuffed toy, Shawn's is a ''pineapple''), but Lassie and Juliet haven't, and they have to find gifts at a minute's notice. Juliet gives Da Chief a box of Tic-Tacs, and Lassie brings The Club from his car.
* On one of the ''{{Monk}}'' Christmas specials, Monk's truck driver father is ordered to drive around the country by his boss and give "presents" fitting this tropes (such as dreidels and other misc objects) to orphanage children. [[spoiler:The boss wanted to overwrite the memory of the truck's GPS by maxing out the miles it could store so it would overwrite evidence of him killing someone by shoving them into the engine. For some reason he forgot to clean the engine itself...]]

There are many gift-giving events throughout the year, some of which you can dodge, and others that you really shouldn't for reasons of family tranquility, office politics or simple etiquette. But sometimes you just don't know a person you're giving a gift very well, or they're difficult to shop for, or you have no imagination, or you put it off until the very last minute. So you just grab the first thing that seems vaguely appropriate, and give that. Some "white elephant" gifts have been making the rounds for years, being regifted over and over.

** Homer ended up buying Marge a bowling ball as her birthday present because he was doing last-minute shopping. As soon as this was revealed, she was quite P.O.'ed.

* Ultimately subverted in "[[Film/AntMan]]'' When Scott shows up at his daughter's birthday party (that he wasn't invited to) he brings along an incredibly ugly and slightly terrifying rabbit toy that says "I love you". Later scenes show Cassie being honestly fond of the present.

* One ''TheSimpsons'' Christmas special had Homer at a Secret Santa exchange at work where, after receiving a DVD player from Carl and being asked by Lenny where ''his'' present was, he says to Lenny, "Your present is right in the other room." He then goes offscreen to the other room and is clearly heard saying [[VengefulVendingMachine "C'mon, machine, take my dollar! ... Fine, we'll play it ''your way!''" He then tackles the machine (still offscreen) and]] returns with a tube of Certs breath mints. Lenny is understandably disgusted. (After watching ''Mr. [=McGrew=]'s (a MrMagoo parody) Christmas Carol'' on late-night TV later, he experiences an Ebenezer Scrooge-style turnaround and gives Lenny a photo cube with pictures of both of them plus Carl.)

* In one Sears commercial, a man sees his wife coming home with a bunch of Sears bags. When he asks what's inside them, the wife says that they're Christmas gifts. The husband then imagines his family opening gifts on Christmas morning, with him getting toilet paper, his daughter getting mouthwash and his son getting soap.