I Love You Not

Break up Bears offer an alternative to loving gifts given on Valentine’s Day

Krystal Tschida, Staff Writer

Valentine’s Day is here and all the candy, chocolates, flowers, and teddy bears are front and center at all stores. Walmart has decided to sell a “Breakup Bears” and I’m not sure if I understand this. In my opinion, this is actually very cruel to give to anyone. First, why would you break up with anyone on Valentine’s Day? Second, why give them this bear? Is the bear supposed to be about being dumped? Makes no sense. 

This year, Walmart is selling several different kinds of Valentine’s Day bears, but they aren’t your typical oversized bear holding a box of chocolates and wearing a shirt that might say “I love you beary much” rather than heart-shaped chocolates alongside red roses, Walmart has stocked up on dancing breakup bears for those who might be ending a relationship, rather than celebrating an anniversary. Thanks to TikToker @ayyitsalyssa who shared a video showing the heartbreak bears, the retail chain has a few different kinds of bears that are all about breakups. Throughout the short 15-second video, @ayyitsalyssa showed two types of the breakup decorated bears.

Break up bear sitting on the shelf at Walmart

And while both bears sang and danced, the first bear even danced to the infamous “Bye Bye Bye” song from NSYNC while holding two halves of a heart and a shirt that read “bye bye!”So if you happen to be looking for some help to end your relationship, you can find the singing and dancing breakup bears currently stocked on Walmart’s shelves. The Arkansas-based company posted a picture of the stuffed bear on Twitter Thursday saying, “it is cuter than a breakup text.” So far, it’s catching a lot of buzz. 

“Honestly if I was given this it would hurt more than a text,” one Twitter user commented on the post 

 

Another Twitter user said, “That’s just sick.”  

 

It’s an interesting way to lure in shoppers on a major spending holiday. This year, consumers are expected to collectively spend $25.9 billion, up from $23.9 billion last year, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF). More than half of consumers plan to celebrate and spend an average of $192.80. That’s up from the $175.41 spent in 2022, and the second-highest figure since the NRF started tracking this data.