History Main / ConvenienceStoreGiftShopping

* 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.

* In the ''Series/CornerGas'' episode "Road Worthy," Oscar tells Wanda that he can't decide on a gift for Emma, to which she says, "Well, coming to the gas station was a great start. There's motor oil, antifreeze, two-liter bottles of pop ..." Oscar says that Emma likes pop, but Wanda tells him, "Don't get her pop."

* Music/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.

* ''The Stranger'' (a UsefulNotes/{{Seattle}} based alt-weekly known best for being the home of Creator/{{DanSavage}}'s advice column) had a variation of Convenience Store Holiday Dinner where they sent writers in with $20 to get ingredients, then turned those ingredients over to high-end restaurant chefs in a ''Series/{{Chopped}}''-style contest to see if they could make a decent meal out of the junk provided.

# Gifts clearly chosen with little or no thought about what the recipient might like. This can range from quite nice but not suited to the personality (a pink frilly dress for the {{Tomboy}}) through decent but generic ("everyone's getting Enya [=CDs=] this year; they were on special") to WhatWereYouThinking (dental floss.) Special bonus points if it's obviously just been picked out of the garbage or the neighbor's yard. Even more bonus points if the present is completely useless, harmful or even spiteful to the recipient (giving a music player to a deaf man, giving a roasted ham to a Jewish woman, etc.)

* ''The Stranger'' (a UsefulNotes/{{Seattle}} based alt-weekly known best for being the home of {{DanSavage}}'s advice column) had a variation of Convenience Store Holiday Dinner where they sent writers in with $20 to get ingredients, then turned those ingredients over to high-end restaurant chefs in a ''Series/{{Chopped}}''-style contest to see if they could make a decent meal out of the junk provided.

* Economists have studied how much value is lost by these transactions. For example if someone buys a brand new item that the gift receiver doesn't like and donates to charity, which then sells the item at 20% of the original price, then 80% of the original value has been lost. Or if you estimate that the receiver values the gift at 80% the cost (a loss of 20%), then that amounts to a loss of $28 billion a year worldwide. Moral: just ''ask'' what someone would want.

* Music/TomLehrer isn't really a fan of this trope. From his Christmas Carol:
-->''Relations, sparing no expense'll''
-->''Send some useless old utensil,''
-->''Or a matching pen and pencil.''
-->''[[SarcasmMode "Just the thing I need! How nice!"]]''

* On ''ThreesCompany'', Stanley gives Helen some flowers.

* In ''A Very Series/{{Supernatural}} Christmas'' Sam doesn't want to celebrate Christmas because Dean's due to die within the year thanks to a DealWithTheDevil, and he thinks it will just be depressing. At the last minute they decide to celebrate anyway, and both turn out to have shopped for gifts at the local 7-11. Neither makes any fuss, though, considering they've been a little busy defeating the MonsterOfTheWeek and the gifts, while cheap, are at least somewhat practical (Dean got candy bars and motor oil; Sam got shaving cream and skin mags.) Flashbacks in the same episode show another example of this trope: one Christmas when Sam and Dean were kids, their dad didn't make it back for the holidays, so Dean breaks into someone's house, steals some presents, and tells Sam their dad brought them. Sam starts to get suspicious when he opens one and it turns out to be a Barbie.

* Two types used on ''TopGear'', since the presenters buy each other useless "presents" all the time. One of the best was a tacky golden rooster which has since become the trophy for the coveted "Golden Cock Award." They also give each other fairly good, but inappropriate presents as well.

* ''The Stranger'' (a {{Seattle}} based alt-weekly known best for being the home of {{DanSavage}}'s advice column) had a variation of Convenience Store Holiday Dinner where they sent writers in with $20 to get ingredients, then turned those ingredients over to high-end restaurant chefs in a ''Series/{{Chopped}}''-style contest to see if they could make a decent meal out of the junk provided.

* In ''Harry Potter and Future's Past'' Hermione, while discussing her Christmas gift from Ron with Harry, commented "I should have been more suspicious of that perfume, but growing up, giving cheap perfume was a joke in our house. It meant you waited until the last second and only some late night store selling cheap stuff was open. It seemed so like Ron that I didn't think he wasn't out shopping the night before."

** Brent's gift-giving philosophy [[http://www.pvponline.com/comic/2002/12/21/sat-dec-21 revolves around it]].

* In the WebVideo/CommodoreHustle episode "[[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/loadingreadyrun/2564-Santa-Secrets Santa Secrets]]", Morgan starts off by telling everyone that he doesn't plan to spend more than $5 on a gift. In the end, everyone ends up at a total loss for what to buy everyone else, so everyone, except Graham and James, gets MagicTheGathering cards - even Paul, who doesn't play. Graham gets a man-sized stuffed Grim Reaper that terrifies him, and James gets a $2 bag of tokens from a convenience store (which he had expressed interest in earlier in the episode).

* In the ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' cartoon "Homestar Presents: Presents", Homestar accidentally forgets to do his [[YouMeanXmas Decemberween]] shopping until it's ''[[RidiculousProcrastinator 10 PM on Decemberween]]'', and ends up getting a bunch of Bubs' old "Aught-Four Crap" for everyone, including getting Pom Pom a roll of electrical tape and Coach Z a rusty steak knife.
-->'''Strong Bad:''' Foolish Homestar. Decemberween is not about getting people presents. [[SpoofAesop It's about getting people good presents!]] ''Good'' presents!! Not this last-minute discount crap you're trying to foist on us!
** Somewhat subverted, since Marzipan actually liked her gift. Wire clippers were ''perfect'' for [[GranolaGirl freeing baby seals]] from the crab traps down by the wharf.
** In the Strong Bad Email "what I want", Strong Bad and (of all people) Marzipan sarcastically shill bad gift ideas on a mock home-shopping channel. These include ornaments ("There's nothing like opening a gift just in time to put it in a box in the attic for a year."), singing-and-dancing toy "no-bots" ("These things just ''scream'' 'I stopped at the drugstore on the way over.'"), home-made gifts ("These seashells have office supplies hot-glued to them for absolutely no reason."), and worst of all, [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs home-made ornaments]] ("That thing is an anti-gift!").

* 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.

* ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' Torg and Riff tend to give each other a beer. They expect this.

** Another episode set on Valentines Day has Homer desperatly looking for a gift for Marge, and Apu offers him a heart-shaped box of chocolates... for 100$. With no other choice, Homer pays but angrily vows to never shop there again. Apu, realizing that if Homer finds the much cheaper store across the street his business is doomed, offers him a small discount on damaged canned food, and wins him back.

** In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'', after receiving an unexpected Christmas gift from Dobby, Harry scrambles to find something to give in return, in an effort to be polite and pretend he already had something as a gift. He ends up settling on an old pair of Uncle Vernon's socks, which were lying in the bottom of his trunk. In a subversion, Dobby loves them so much that Ron throws in his own Christmas socks and promises Dobby the next sweater his mother gifts to him.

* The page quote from EddieIzzard's skit on the Nativity. Jesus was delighted with his Christmas presents of gold, frankincense and myrrh, but when he asks "...and now for my birthday presents?" they're stumped. Of course, [[InsaneTrollLogic since it's Christmas Day, the only shop that's open]] is the 24-hour petrol station...

* Invoked in the ''WesternAnimation/101DalmatiansTheSeries'' 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.

* Invoked in the; ''WesternAnimation/101DalmatiansTheSeries'' 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.

* Invoked in the; “WesternAnimation/101DalmatiansTheSeries” 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.

* A ''Series/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.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'' episode "The Spoon" has Richard sending his sons Gumball and Darwin to the convenience store to buy a gift for Nicole for her birthday because he forgot to buy her one. He would have went himself, [[InsaneTrollLogic but he had to watch the kids, which Gumball and Darwin didn't have to do.]]
** Although, they gift they end up picking out honestly seems kind of perfect for her.

** Unfortunately said gift cards are now thought of as a lazy gift idea, though others argue that it's better for the person to have the money given to buy something they'd want in that store, rather than getting something they wouldn't want.

* ''{{Friends}}'' loves this trope.

* Taken to extremes in ''CloneHigh'', where Cleo gives Abe his own knork - which he had ''created himself'', AND which he had ''thrown out'', so she literally gave him the first thing she found in the trash outside.

* One ''WesternAnimation/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 WesternAnimation/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.)

* ''Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing'', the first of the {{Literature/Fudge}} books by JudyBlume, has Peter being given a picture dictionary, more suitable for a preschooler than the preteen that he is. Ugh. At least he has enough tact to pretend to be enthused. Fudge, on the other hand, brings out their old copy of the same book.

* DaveBarry writes that one time he saw his wife buy one of those ridiculously small decorative boxes (you know, the ones that could maybe hold a walnut, if you're lucky) without even knowing when or for whom it would be used as a present. Apparently this trope can even strike when you aren't actually shopping for a specific reason.

--> ''That'll have to do... I'm not quite sure my Auntie Doris appreciates the ouvre of ChuckNorris. But I've left it late and it's starting to rain, and on Christmas day she can't complain.''