Convenience Store Gift Shopping/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Basic Trope: Last minute, useless, thoughtless gifts.
  • Played Straight: Bob forgets his and Alice's wedding anniversary. When he finally does remember, he drives to the nearest convenience store and picks out a pack of cigarettes and a gift bow.
  • Exaggerated: Did we mention that Alice just quit smoking a month ago?
  • Inverted: Bob goes to a high-end department store and picks out a necklace Alice had her eye on, even though there's no special occasion.
  • Justified: Bob forgot, left shopping until the very last minute, and it doesn't help that Alice is hard to buy for.
  • Subverted: Bob gets Alice a gift certificate at the store.
  • Double Subverted:
    • The gift certificate is to a fast-food restaurant, and Alice doesn't eat fast-food.
    • The gift certificate is to a store for plus-sized women, and Alice responds: "Do you think I'm fat?!"
  • Deconstructed: Alice and Bob had a fight later on, and this is just the tip of the iceberg.
  • Reconstructed:
  • Parodied: The thoughtless gift results in a Toilet Seat Divorce.
  • Lampshaded: "What should I get her...? I know! Dental floss! Everyone loves dental floss!"
  • Averted: Bob gets Alice something he knows she'd like.
  • Enforced: Idiot Plot
  • Invoked: Bob catches sight of the calendar and notices that it's his and Alice's anniversary...and he has no gift for her!
  • Defied: Bob doesn't put off shopping until the last minute, and pays attention so he can get a meaningful gift.
  • Discussed:
  • Conversed:
  • Played For Laughs: Bob gives Alice the lawn gnome from their front lawn.
  • Played For Drama: The thoughtless gift causes a big fight, and the possible end to the marriage unless Bob makes things right fast.

I hope you get me a real gift this time. Convenience Store Gift Shopping is really getting old.

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