Pound Shop Alert

You may be familiar with my trawling of the pound shops in my area for outdoor things.  Having seen a few interesting things at the weekend, I thought I'd start a thread, along the lines of the other regular 'spotters' threads.

So, in the 99p Store

A little multi-tool, about the size of a Leatherman Micra, with pliers, plain and serrated blades, slot and cross screwdrivers, and a little LED torch.  With keyring and nylon pouch.  Looks reasonably built, but I've not used it in anger.

Triple-pack of 'disposable chopping boards'; basically, a sheet of something like HDPE or PP, about 15" by 10", with a handle.  It weighed about 45g.  You could easily cut it down and use it as a backpacking food prep board.

Poundland

Round, tall, clip-seal container, about 450ml.  I was hoping it was going to be big enough for a Caldera Cone, but it's not.

They also had a lot of kids' lunch pots, mostly disposable-ish, with cartoon characters on.  They seemed very lights, and came in 3 or 4-packs.

Their suncream is fine enough. They also have loads of fig rolls for a pound as well,

 Dave

Hi ragu dave,

Welcome to OM.

Yes hi ragu dave! Welcome to OM there!

Gotta admit the pound shops I know of in the south east have just about all closed, the independents anyways in the recession. Just the Poundland type chains there now left still going.

thanks for the welcome folks - I normally just post on Scottish-Hills and lurk on OM

The only poundland thing that I didn't like was cassette tapes - they are quite unreliable and poor quality IMHO.

We have a 99p store in our local high street. It went bust and closed about 3 months ago. All the stock is still in the store gathering dust. What a waste!

 Dave

Shed Dweller wrote (see)

Again not exactly a pound shop alert but Original Source are producing 500ml collapsable containers with their new shower gel.  I don't see why they can't be used for water/milk/whisky once they've been washed out and sterelised?

I have one of those! It developed a 'puncture' in the plastic, just short of nozzley thing. Your idea sounds brilliant, but it doesn't look like I'll manage to pull that one off with mine.

 It hadn't even occurred to me that it's practically a 500ml liquitainer. Maybe I'll try cutting the top off and using it as a folding cup, or something...

> i but you won't be able to get rid of the smell

Already thought of the idea (and, indeed, bought the stuff in the 99p Store...).  Originally for meths, but I decided I wasn't that keen on something so apparently fragile.

I posted a link to the picture on a BPL MYOG thread about making inflatable mattresses; the valve seems very air tight...

But, no, you won't be able to get rid of the perfume, and it will taint anything you put in it.  Trust me, I've tried getting rid of the smell from all sorts of plastic containers, and I simply can't shift it.

I may have chat with a mate who works for IFF, to see if he has any insight into possible ways of removing smells...

I noticed poundland are doing packs of kodak 35mm camera film. So the film may be of limited use nowadays, but the film canisters are great for holding things like toothpaste, alcohol handwash, deodourant, spices, etc.

 D