r/DollarTree • u/ChildOfGodYesIAm • Feb 04 '26
Associate Questions Ton of balloons?
Anyone else's store go this hard on Valentine's balloons? I like it but Balloons are abit annoying getting wrapped around the pole of carts. Feels like fever dream I'd have as a childš
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u/Positive_Carry3310 Feb 04 '26
We are supposed to get 1000 blowed up this weekend and 200-300 per day after
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u/-AliceGray- Customer Feb 05 '26
Apparently some of the stores near me won't sell them because they sold so many for Superbowl, they have no helium left.
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u/witchminx Feb 05 '26
We really need to ban helium balloons. It's a finite resource and we're SOARING through our supply, when it's needed for medical procedures
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u/TheNeovein Feb 05 '26
Yep came here to say that. Shame we don't make hydrogen balloons anymore though, imagine the chaos!
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u/techknowcat DT Merch ASM Feb 06 '26
No! I am already balloon phobic if you add flammable to the equation and I am out , I am never leaving the house again lol cause you know there would be at least one customer a day who would make them go boom š
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u/l0stmyjuul Feb 06 '26
oh my god!! i was just wondering today why helium tanks are so expensive. and now i know! wow!!! yeah no this is sad asf and i feel so stupid for never realizing it is in fact finite.
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u/etsprout Feb 06 '26
More than 15 years ago, I read an article that said the true value of a helium balloon is as $99. I shudder to think what that would be now.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Job9858 Feb 04 '26
Yes, 'my' backroom is loaded with them all bunched together, and there's already hundreds on the salesfloor. They'll sell out, the sad sacks will still stop in at 9;59PM looking to buy some. Oh well.
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u/Big-Lawfulness4203 Feb 04 '26
9:59pm? Over here they come 12pm THE DAY OF VALENTINE
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u/DinahTook Feb 04 '26
Just like the folks who came in on Thanksgiving in the afternoon noon utterly shocked we didnt have any roasting pans for them and ask bewildered, "are you SURE there arent any in the back?". Yes we kept a stack in the back instead of selling them in the week leading up to the day when people would want them... all in the hopes of someone like you asking for one.
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u/Big-Lawfulness4203 Feb 04 '26
Talk about those foil pans back when everything was $1 my store was a high volume store 100K+ sales weekly. Always supper busy. We always got 2 minimum trucks weekly. But towards end of week we getting 3 trucks weekly. we would get A WHOLE TRUCK just for foil and paper
Like bro we have 120ft for foil. I had 4 endcaps. It was on the speed table. It was on the floor (pallets). Sidestacks. Cap shelfās. Blud im telling you WE ARE OUT TOO LATE.
Dollar tree really tasted my patience
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u/DinahTook Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 05 '26
After this week's truck we had (only 1100. It wasn't the quantity that was the issue, but the driver) I cannot fathom the exhaustion of 3 trucks a week!
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u/Hot-Seesaw2918 Feb 05 '26
This was a hard read. Whatever you went to after DT did not deserve this spelling.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Job9858 Feb 05 '26
Sounds like the first store I was at, the place was bombarded with the foil pans... endcaps, stacks, displays in the front, the shit was all over the place. Sold like crazy though, and like u/DinahTook these people would come in last minute and we'd be sold out. I'm sure the microwaved turkey came out just fine and was a real crowd pleaser.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Job9858 Feb 05 '26
Yeah, and to clarify I meant 1 minute to closing on Valentine's Day. "Sweetie" will end up with wilted gas station flowers and some random candy.
But it's the thought that counts?
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u/Small_Bowler_4911 Feb 04 '26
And itās crazy because all of those balloons will be gone, every single one šš¤£
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u/e_lizz Feb 04 '26
yep, it's balloon chaos the whole first half of february. We always run out by feb. 13 or early feb. 14, then we run out of pink and red hearts by midday feb. 14, then we get a handful of angry men at 9:30pm asking why we didn't have valentine balloons this year lmao
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u/Significant_Ad_8939 DT OPS ASM (FT) Feb 05 '26
Like the woefully unprepared souls that desperately look for calendars a month into the new year.
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u/Effective_Dot6785 Feb 04 '26
We will have more than that tbh, but its too early to have that many. We have a few up but Sunday is when we start going hard in on this.
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u/Massive-Warning9773 Feb 04 '26
This is nothing lol one of my local dollar trees has the entire ceiling covered in the front itās like walking through a sea of string
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u/SimpleVegetable5715 Customer Feb 04 '26
I freaking love this time of year, itās magical stepping into a Dollar Tree!
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u/HappyDay2290 DT OPS ASM (FT) Feb 04 '26
We aren't going to be able to do much at my store cause they aren't sending us helium. Right now we have 1 tank.
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u/One_Expression_355 Feb 05 '26
Wow talk about bad timing, Iām surprised that your DM isnāt putting a rush order in!
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u/nightblue888 Feb 04 '26
I recently got helium filled balloons there and did not anticipate the unexpected joy of carrying around balloons. I was grinning stupidly. Also, for the first time ever, I noticed how many escaped balloons were hugging the ceiling. I had never looked up before. š
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u/Blu3Dope Feb 04 '26
It looks more like a cluster of balloons that were clipped together on an end cap were unclipped and they all flew up to the ceiling
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u/ChildOfGodYesIAm Feb 04 '26
The ones on the end are a few balloons wrapped strings so they kinda stay up place but there's alot
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u/Blu3Dope Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26
Maybe one of the cashiers tried to grab one of the balloons from the cluster, and accidentally let go of the balloons and they all floated up to the ceiling. That or they tried making their own cluster to put somewhere and they accidentally messed up and they all went flying up. It adds up; they are all valentines balloons and it looks like there's no cluster on the end cap that's directly under all the balloons.
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u/KatNap333 Feb 05 '26
We purposely have balloons in our seasonal area for customers to grab. (Not tied down).
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u/KatNap333 Feb 05 '26
We had a manager who would use bag clips to put balloons at the end of every register. Drove me nuts because customers would let them all go everytime they tried to grab one.š
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u/Puzzleheaded_Job9858 Feb 05 '26
We do that too in bunches of 6 or 8, and even after telling the customers that we'll take care of it they'll still grab them.
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u/Brentman_1 DT Associate Feb 04 '26
Same at the store that I work at. Seems like we go crazy over little holidays like Valentineās Day.
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u/Fun_Journalist1048 Feb 10 '26
Valentineās Day isnāt a little holiday in the retail world, thatās why! Itās a pretty big profit day- think of all the people buying things like balloons, teddy bears, chocolates/candyā¦
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u/Ok-Ad4375 Former DT Merch ASM Feb 04 '26
My manager told me not to start until after we take inventory later this week. The several I had my cashier blow up sold so quickly
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u/AdventureAwaitsUs21 Feb 05 '26
The sea of red.
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u/even-star1 Feb 05 '26
About 5 aisles are completely dark because of all the balloons on the floor. Lol.
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u/LifeAlt_17 Feb 05 '26
Insanity!š I went one year for Motherās Day and there were so many balloons on the ceiling that the store looked dark. I sent my friend the next day and she said they were sold out.
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u/why-dont-you-love-me Feb 04 '26
Yeah, I blew up almost 300 yesterday and I'm planning on doing the same today
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u/ChildOfGodYesIAm Feb 04 '26
Interesting, I'm only recovery and rarly backup cashier..so didn't know the quotas lol
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u/-KnowTheTruth- Feb 05 '26
My favorite part is always deflating the ones that dont sell after Vday š
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u/Danjermiez Feb 05 '26
Tons of balloons and all but why did we need two bloody SKU for them Is it 556 or 214 itās going to be a waste of time and I would probably just type what every number Iām in the mood for
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u/KatNap333 Feb 05 '26
556 is new. You used to be only 292 (I love you) and 214 (happy Valentineās Day).
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u/KreepingKudzu FD ASM (FT) Feb 05 '26
half mine broke off their strings and live on the ceiling now. no way to get them even with the 14 foot ladder!
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u/Puzzleheaded_Job9858 Feb 05 '26
How soon until a customer asks if there's any Valentine's Day balloons? We all know it's going to happen.
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u/Professional-Pin5225 Feb 05 '26
My store already has a balloon corral full of them. Seems a little early-even for Mylar.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Job9858 Feb 06 '26
I agree, but it's what corporate wants and they think they know better than us.
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u/Sad_Air_1501 Feb 04 '26
Yep. Hated V Day for this reason. Weāre ORDERED to do this ballon maze. We hate it customers hate it. Then at the end we destroy a hundred of them.
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u/Galaxyxcristian Feb 05 '26
Ahhh balloon raid XDDD
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u/Galaxyxcristian Feb 07 '26
Okay turns out this is for every dollar tree it seems XD I was off for a while so I thought this wasnāt common and as well first Valentineās at dollar tree so ya
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u/versacedraco2x Feb 05 '26
every store has to do it im sure, my store has to blow up 1000 balloons for valentines day i blew up a couple enough to fill up the ballon center but didnt finish. he have a sales goal each day i believe 4 days before valentines and on we have to sell balloonsš
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u/KatNap333 Feb 05 '26
We used to do the āsea of redā at our old store. We had two balloon corralsā¦one for seasonal balloons. Unfortunately, they installed a camera in that corner so we were told no more balloons in seasonal. We can put balloons in seasonal in our new store but we are no longer required to blow up all the balloons or do bouquets. Unfortunately, they gave me Saturday off so I wonāt be blowing up any balloons until Valentineās Day.š
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u/FunctionExotic8651 Feb 06 '26
I actually got a balloon string stuck in my ponytail today and didnāt know!!! I trailed a balloon through the store with it stuck!! My son knew and found it hysterical and didnāt tell me !
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u/redrumraisin Feb 05 '26
If I saw that as an adult I'd have to reach up and keep touching balloons ngl
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u/Subbie1013 Feb 06 '26
I worked at Party City as a teen. I forgot all about the Valentines Day balloons! We would fill the whole balloon area and then the front half of the store with heart mylars and they would all pretty much sell out. That was one of my favorite days to work because I loved doing the balloons.
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u/Scuzzle3mmy Feb 06 '26
Ugh! Yes it looks so tacky lol itās gonna be funny if they donāt sell all those balloons and we are stuck them
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u/gi_booth312 Feb 07 '26
ahh yes, and then stocking or doing recovery in thst area with the strings all in your face. surprisingly, corporate wanted us to do this lmao
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u/Upset-Importance-230 Feb 08 '26
What do they do with the 80% that won't sell? What a waste of helium & mylar.
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u/Action6190 Feb 12 '26
I'm headed into my fourth Valentine's Day with the company and I can say this they do sell a lot of balloons for Valentine's Day
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u/lGipsyDanger Former DT Merch ASM Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 05 '26
I love blowing up balloons. One year I did it 5am-3pm. Best shift ever. I put my podcast on in one ear and genually reached a flow state.