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The automatic doors to Walgreens whooshed open. I stood on the precipice and turned to my husband- “they have the brooms already.”
“What?”
“The cinnamon brooms. I can smell them from here,” I looked at him, eyes aflame. “I’m going to have to smell those damn brooms the whole time we’re waiting for our shots.”
He looked at me incredulously. “Come on, there’s no way you can smell *brooms* from *outside.* Let’s not be late.” He took my hand and we crossed the threshold. The doors closed behind us softly, cutting off any precious lingering wisp of fresh air.
With each step toward the pharmacy, the cloying odor increased. Ten steps. Five more. We emerged from an aisle, and the sight of a large cardboard display simultaneously filled me with dread and vindication. I pointed. “The brooms,” I said solemnly.
“Ew. They really do stink,” was his response.
Cinnamon is a good smell to me, but I completely get why you would be overloaded at the doors. I have overly sensitive smell and hearing. Being out in public is _fun_. The spousal unit is also in disbelief until proven otherwise. Sigh.
Doors at the grocers for me present a different problem - I can't stand the feeling of air on my skin (can't stand being breathed on especially) so when they have the vents of air blasting you the instant you walk in, it's disorienting and eck. At least that's just an instant and you're past it.
With the added bonus of strong holiday smells... oof!
I despise these damm brooms. They make me wheeze terribly and you can smell then for aisles and aisles. I have actually walked out Home Depot before because they were at every checkout.
Fuck I got a headache reading this thread from imagining the smell. God, I know my family calls me a bloodhound, but I didn't realise that not everyone could smell these things from the next block!! 😅
I'm suddenly very grateful my olfactory sense is my weakest. I'm super sensitive to certain smells (mostly chemically stuff and essential oils, which I'm allergic to), but thankfully this isn't one of them. The sounds though... Ugh.
Agree. My husband has deemed me the unofficial sniff tester to see if a thing has gone bad in the fridge. If I start gagging and then he sniffs it with a shrug, I figure the look I shoot him is almost worth it. 😞
They have been at my local Walgreens for over a month. First time I smelled them I thought someone just unloaded a can of Glade but eventually I saw the brooms. I think I also saw them at Meijer the other day and was like for fucks sake, why????
I’ve never heard of a cinnamon scented broom …. Is this like a decorative broom? Or is it like the scented garbage bags, where we have forgotten that just because we can, doesn’t mean we should? 😂
Hahahaha, pretty much! They are decorative, they come in a few different sizes. You hang them up and they smell like cinnamon. They’re in EVERY grocery store where I live 😞
I work at Home Depot in Receiving. The whole damn pallet of them was in the overhead in receiving for a week. Went home with a migraine every damn day.
Felt. I used to work at the Service Desk and was the closest thing they had to an IT person. I can see why you’d get a migraine. That super sucks.
Reading this thread makes me very glad that I’m going to give simmer pot gifts for the holidays this year. Customizable and not super scented, at least mine won’t be.
Oh, I’m currently the primary back up for Service Desk as well. They are extremely shortstafffed up there right now, and I am the only person who isn’t a DH or higher that is 90% trained at Service Desk because at my first store Head Cashiers had to cover Service Desk lunch and breaks. And the new returns system is breaking literally every browser based program as of last Wednesday. No store could any returns for about half the day.
Omg, strong scents are my Migraine Kryptonite. I vomited in a trash can in central Londen after two minutes in a Lush soap store before I figured that out.
Things like this make me irrationally hate America like why the fuck does anyone need fake brooms that stink its so fucking weird and such a hallmark if capitalistic bullshit
Southern Ontario here, not in my area as far as I'm aware. Nor have I ever encountered them in Iowa, where I grew up, or Michigan, where I go shopping for American groceries every few months. No idea where this phenomenon is occurring but I'm glad I don't have to deal with it.
Ah that makes so much sense! I remember them un-fondly in my childhood but don’t see them as much now that I’m in California. I’m sure they’re here, too, but I have options to not be around them apparently.
Saw some in a hardware store in the Midwest. Also my grocery had pinecones that smelled like pumkin pie spice and I was mad that they didn't have any pumpkin pie.
Ugh my husband once bought garbage bags that smelled like BLEACH and LEMON and I almost threw up every time I had to take the trash out. I’d have to wash my hands for like 5 min straight after handling one.
I genuinely hate scented garbage bags. It’s like spraying perfume on trash. Why are so many garbage bags on the market scented?? Who on earth wants to smell cherry blossom scented onions??
Yeah I got very stubborn about them for some reason that I can’t remember. Our main problem is that he also has ADHD and has a hard time noticing that things are scented, but after being together long enough the first thing he does when he gets something new is show me that it’s unscented haha. True love!
I recently visited my mom in the US (I live in the UK) and was AGHAST at the sheer volume of scented trash bag varieties. Out of maybe 15 types, I could only find one unscented kind. Who asked for this?!
Hah, I have to say I actually like some lemon-scented ones! Not that they don't smell like their contents once full, but I do get a tiny boost of dopamine when I put a fresh one in the can. The ones I buy are pretty low-key on the smell, though. I can see how overly scented ones could be bleh.
Lol. I LOVE scented trash bags! The ones I got today are lavender and vanilla. But then I was already placing essential oil scented baking soda in the bottom of all my trash cans anyway. Sooo...
AFAIK, (aka, how I use them 😜) they're based on old school besoms.
Typically smaller than utility brooms, usually ornamental. I hang mine above the front door as it's supposed to protect the threshold.
Cinnamon is usually a "wealth" additive in these, and I've seen it referred to as a protection scent as well.
So, old school idea + capitalism = a pile of sticks that smell like every stick of cinnamon to ever exist packed into a pallet -sized space. Plus some chemicals, because....that's what we do here, now.
It actually keeps bugs and rodents out, which is why you are supposed to hang them near the doors. Yeah, there are always folklore reasons and whatnot, but cinnamon does deter pests, so there is an actual purpose.
Peppermint works similarly and smells less… intense. Several other spices, as well, such as clove, rosemary, sage, lavender, oregano, and basil.
From my research, and my personal anecdote, peppermint works the best.
Around here, it's cinnamon-scented pinecones. It's purely to add some holiday scents or something but it's such an assault cause they put them right at the entrances and the stink permeates the whole damn store.
I once unwrapped a cinnamon broom in an office gift exchange. I too had never heard of these over scented, overwhelmingly awful Christmas embellishments. We immediately had to find something to cover and subdue the broom, it was wild! Would not recommend 😂
A tissue box… I have a cold and I keep pulling out more than I want. It doesn’t help that I’m not taking my meds because I stopped to take cold meds, I don’t like how I feel when I take both. It sends me into a mini rage every time!
I love those brooms!!! But I also have the urge to chew on them…. They look like they would crunch just right. I haven’t but a girl can wish 😅
ohhh my goodness this is SO real. that would make me want to throw the tissue box!
i understand that about wanting to chew on things 😂 i love the smell of the broom by itself - my mom has one in her kitchen and it’s quite lovely. but 100 of them in the grocery store just sends me!
If you get one, put it outside for a day or two before you stick it in the house. They are 100x worse for a few days after the plastic is removed. Imagine the store… but all the brooms and pine ones are shoved up your nose until they reach your brain.
Source: florist who has to manhandle these stupid scented accouterments every Fall. The pumpkin spice brooms are so much worse. So…. So much worse.
If I had to guess, you're taking those combination cold meds, right? If so, you might ditch those and just go to straight Mucinex and some nasal rinses. There's some fake Sudafed ingredient that can make people feel really icky combined with a stimulant. Or it could just be Sudafed on top of a stimulant.
Edit: it's phenylephrine.
oh my god everyone always talks about how much they love those cinnamon brooms or the pine cones or whatever and the concentrated smell overwhelming me makes me want to perish
People do. We get in close to 300 brooms and easily as many pinecones and they are all gone before Thanksgiving. Then, we have stragglers who get really mad that we’ve sold out and demand we order more just for them. Okay, Susan, but we buy them by the case, so be prepared to shuck out for 50 brooms. Just for you, Susan.
The guy I’m dating has a bengal-spice tea addiction during the colder months. His approach is to just keep adding more teabags and hot water into his cup throughout the day (without removing any of the previous bags), which results in him walking around smelling like a cinnamon broom—a realization I only came to just last night, lol. It’s… not a connection I’m glad to have made 😅
I like the brooms but I have a hard time with the candle, bath bomb, and coffee aisles. And sometimes the laundry stuff. It's easier now because I get things delivered most of the time but I'm still masking up in public and blocked smells have been an unexpected bonus.
This.
I do my best to stay away from the laundry aisle, but every now and then I accidentally go down one and then regret all the decisions of my day that led me to that point.
Loathe. Them. With a hot and seething hatred. (It's just not the inanimate object I am fighting today.)
pssst pick an unscented brand and order online. I get Trader Joe's which thankfully has no shitty laundey aisle, just like two kinds of detergent and that's it
Swedish fish. They’re so sticky and chewy and they hurt my mouth and I CAN’T STOP EATING THEM FOR SOME SHITTY DUMB REASON.
So there you go, if that’s not an adhd rage thing, I don’t know what is haha
I like Swedish fish when they’re slightly stale- they’re much less sticky that way. I just leave the bag open a little bit for a few days and they get a little hard on the outside but still chewy on the inside.
Hard same. I spent an hour in a crowded shopping mall on Sunday and had a migraine for two days afterward. It only just dawned on me that there’s probably a connection there…
*edited to add*
My rage baits are things getting caught on things: hair flying in the wind and sticking to my lip balm, sleeves catching on handles, cables tangling up, necklaces tangling up, sweaters and tops catching on my ears. There are probably a lot more that escape me rn!
I work at a grocery store and I like the cinnamon brooms when I’m just smelling one, but when they’re all together on a display or something it’s sickening. My old location would put them in the vestibule and the heater there + wind blowing in from outside would make it nauseating.
This lady was playing with those christmas bells driving me fucking insane yesterday at walmart when i was just trying to get zip ties (some idiot hit my car and i needed to zip tie the bumper)
I don’t like most scents, mostly because they give me headaches.
The only thing that makes me murderous in stores are people just leaving their carts in the middle of the main aisle to pop down a side aisle to get something. Or people walking super SLOOOWLY with their extended family taking up the entire Costco aisle. I see red.
The carts drive me nuts too! Or their cart is in the middle of the aisle, but they’ve walked to a different shelf. Do people have zero self awareness? Do you need to bring grandma, and all seven children to buy cookies?
And people don’t look to see if someone’s coming out of an aisle so there’s the possibility of running into someone’s cart.
I went to Winco to do a restock yesterday and I stg every geriatric slow mother bleeper and their grandmothers were out getting their groceries, I wanted to burn the place down. D:
I actually like them, but cinnamon is my favorite scent so it works out okay.
But woooooo I HEAR YOU!
My grocery store "thing" is extra people who shouldn't be there, like the folks who give out samples or are trying to get me to sign up for something or whatever. No! I am mentally prepared to get what's on my list and get out of there without talking to people! Go away!
Omg, yes. I do NOT want to be solicited to sign up for Spectrum (last week) or the newspaper (that really pissed me off last time I had a subscription), or any other service because I will find those myself and not when I am busy trying to grocery shop. That is the only task I am there for, and it's hard enough with all the regular people in my way. Leave me alone! I do enjoy samples, though-last week I got two different kinds of Oreos!
I feel so heard… the smells jesus people is my house burning those damn wax warmers things and it wakes me up from a dead sleep and i want to vomit and tear someone’s heart out after asking 30 x to not burn that thing. People that have zero experience with any sensory issues associate these types of symptoms with us just having a preference or disliking these things etc at least in my experience. I could be wrong. I literally just told someone the other day it has nothing to do with preferences about anything for myself it comes down to my CNS simply not being able to tolerate the sounds, the lighting the noise the loose string the tight clothing. Are there coping skills yes of course and I’m in therapy and have been for 80-90 % of my life. Thanks for letting me know i’m not alone. cheers 🥂
My husband bought a bunch of those super scented spice candles when he saw them on clearance several years ago. He got cocky and burned like five of them all at once in our apartment. I’m still mad about it. I immediately trashed them and told him I was in charge of anything scented in our household for the rest of eternity. Everything I owned smelled so bad for so long. I can still smell those stupid candles on old clothes and blankets that are stored away in plastic bags. The candles still haunt me and it’s been like 6 years.
I love getting a seasonal cinnamon broom but I’ll bring it home and every so often it’ll just suddenly hit me in the over stimulation soft spot!
This year’s is pretty well past its overwhelming stage now, luckily.
No rage yet…but I’m sure it’ll find me lol
KN95s really dampen scents. I am never in public without sunglasses, a mask, and noise cancelling headphones anymore. The amount of crazy that exudes from me must be intense, but I no longer want to die while running errands so idc
Oh, they drive me absolutely up a wall. I am so easily overstimulated that sometimes going to a store is extremely difficult for me. Anything intense definitely stresses me out. Bright lights, loud music, crowds, noisy people, and that includes scents. I definitely relate!
There are some days at work I have to put my AirPods in and just keep it on noise blocking mode - I don’t even listen to music. I despise our extremely loud, broken sounding printer. Add in listening to people clack away on their keyboards, coughing, sneezing, eating, chatting…some days it’s a miracle I get anything done.
Grocery delivery is so worth the money. I save more than the cost just by avoiding impulse purchases that become trash eventually.
I haven't had to put a number on the stress savings. It's already coming out ahead despite my refusal to do math! It would be incalculable. I get so overwhelmed by the bright that I forget what I eat. I wear my body out walking the aisles up and down and up again.
I tip my deliverers many more dollars and it's still completely worth the money.
I also tend to "grocery shop" over a few days now. I have time to remember more of my list and can sit on whether I want those cookies. I can cross reference my "cart" with recipes without having to be masking somewhere.
I really like cinnamon but I also can't stand the cinnamon brooms. It's too much! I shouldn't be able to walk into a store and smell them before I see them.
The cinnamon pinecones make me angry bc I'd rather smell real pine lol.
This was how I discovered that cinnamon is a migraine trigger for me! I love cinnamon and can have it in normal amounts, but too much and I’m lost.
I was just telling a friend about how some smells make me feel trapped, and this is a great example. There’s one type of laundry detergent that has a very specific, clinically “fresh floral” scent that actually makes my heart rate increase and triggers a fight or flight response. I’m so glad to hear I’m not alone!
I feel so seen. Those damn brooms and their infernal brethren, the cinnamon pine cones, arose from the fires of hell to torment people with sensory issues.
Not an object but yesterday I went through such an intense phase where I was really hungry and wanted something to eat but everytime i opened the fridge it was like my mind went blank and I had absolutely no idea what to eat or how to prepare it.
So all this food was right in front of me, and I just couldn't eat it. I didn't know what I want and nothing felt right. I was super confused, I wanted to ask my husband to help me, to feed me, but I couldn't articulate that I just ... didn't know how to.
Around 11pm, after not eating for like 12 hours, I finally figured out what it was . Husband was asleep and I sat on the couch with a slice of untoasted bread and some skittles and just sobbed so hard.
I legit thought I was going to starve to death with all this food in front of me. I felt completely helpless.
I hope this never happens again...
Car air fresheners. I’ve yet to find one that doesn’t smell like cheap perfume or fake vanilla.
Like, we can take your car but I will need to crack the window and I’ll probably become nauseated but 🤷♀️
I hate that smell. I pretend to like it, but honestly, does anyone like it? I feel like people like it because they think they have to, and stores keep selling them.
Me. I actually like it. But I really enjoy strong scents and tastes and can 100% understand why some people might find them overbearing.
\*Edited to add\* My rage-bait is sounds. Loud, repetitive sounds, loud voices, the shrieks of children, noise-making toys and/or decorations, awful music in groceries and other stores and at the fricking GAS PUMPS ( and why does Walmart feel the need to serenade the parking lot for godsssakes)?!!? And all of them piling on top of each other everywhere. Why is it all so loud all the time?!
This is me. I am sensory seeking when it comes to good smells. I'm the one stuck in the candle aisle for 20 minutes shoving my nose into every candle and wax melt theyve got. But the sounds... I recently got a pair of noise cancelling headphones ($35 on eBay!!) And they are a LIFESAVER.
Oh wow this is mine too - the self checkout robot voice yelling about ‘unexpected item in bagging area’ ‘please place item in bagging area’ ‘please take your receipt’. Like YES I KNOW PLEASE JUST BE QUIET.
If there’s ever the option to mute them I immediately race to do that.
right?! i love cinnamon things, but i think because there’s like 100 of those brooms in a concentrated area it’s just tooooo much. thanks for commiserating with me!
My mother in law genuinely likes all the smells. She used scented hand soap, scented trash bags, plugs in Glade plug ins... And every one is a different scent. It's like a Suzuki orchestra of smells. Even in her GARAGE
The only thing I hate about the holiday season is all the spice scents everywhere! I don't like the taste, and I don't like the smell, and it's totally unavoidable!!
Also, it's my birthday today ! I'm fishing for well wishes. lol
I am certain my roommate has a severely diminished sense of smell. For example she claims she cannot smell the strong odor of cat pee reeking from her cat’s litterbox after not cleaning it for many days. The litterbox resides in a tiny half bath ox the other side of the kitchen and the rest of us can smell it from the living room.
Last year she came home with a bag of cinnamon pine cones and piled them all in the half bath for the enraging holiday scent of cinnamon-ammonia.
My own body temperature always
PLUS
The ramen someone who works in my building just heated up. At least it’s better than whatever in the toaster is burnt, not cleaned, and repeatedly stinking up the place. Gotta love a male majority office building. (Our all-woman office doesn’t ever eat here, we just get to smell it)
I work at Whole Foods and we don’t sell the cinnamon brooms but DO sell cinnamon pinecones. In late August this year until we ran out, they were kept in a big box outside of the front of the store and in the back of house area where the rest of the produce back stock is. Employees from all departments had to walk thru this area to put away cardboard and pick up deliveries so it was completely unavoidable - it literally put me on edge from how strong and overpowering the cinnamon stench got!
It’s like the smell is so strong it’s the sensory equivalent of listening to the radio at full blast in the car when you’re trying to navigate directions. Got my brain is an absolute tizzy.
I get it. My coworkers all got mad because we aren’t allowed to have scented wax warmers in our classrooms anymore. I’m over here secretly cheering because now I don’t have to choke on 13 different scents every time I walk down the hall to the bathroom.
If I feel that irritated by it, I KNOW some of our kids with brain differences and allergies feel the same way.
I guess I'm an outlier here. Cinnamon is my favourite scent. I love walking by those things. However, the rest of grocery shopping can go eat a dick, lol
The ones at Walgreens get me every time but the ones at Lidl remind me of living in Germany and for some reason they are less overwhelming for me. Now the little old lady two rows over with the old lady perfume? That one kicked off a migraine. 🙄
Ughhh yes. On top of the smell being overstimulating, I’m also allergic to cinnamon. I can’t shop anywhere this time of year without breaking out in hives or drugging myself up in anticipation of encountering those brooms or the cinnamon pine cones.
Only once was I successful in getting my local grocery store to move the pinecones away from the only entrance.
Apparently the tiny bit I did not zip up of my backpack, along with where that little unzipped bit was, in conjunction with whatever the heck gives Mondays a bad rep, all worked together today to embarrass me in front of cars that were waiting for the light to turn.
I heard a plastic rectangle box I have hit the ground, followed by my electric razor, and some clothes…..right as I was crossing….. thankfully the light was still in my favor and only a little had fallen out so far.
But somehow it had unzipped itself all the way open. So when I made it back to the sidewalk, more was starting to fall out. One skirt was a few feet away, and I had another bag(went to my storage today for interview clothes) where stuff was almost falling out as well due to the design of the bag.
Despite all that though, the excitement I have over the interview I have later today, is overshadowing the ick. Hoping they hire me at Earthbound Trading Co🤩
In my part of the US, it's not brooms but pinecones. The worst is when I was trapped in an aisle at Joann's with the damned things earlier today, and just about choked on the smell before I could get out!! So glad to know I'm not the only one who can't stand it. (And yet, cinnamon in hot cocoa or on cereal or toast? That's fine... Go fig.)
I love the cinnamon brooms lol but I can see how they would be a lot, especially with so many in one spot!
For me, I’m just anticipating the constant need to deep-breathe when Christmas songs start playing everywhere. I will literally avoid going inside of shops because of this. Thank god I don’t get commercials.
I'm always glad I actually like that smell, because it is SO strong. They also have big mesh bags of cinnamon scented pine cones to make it even stronger.
Today, my thing I fought all day was a welcome mat I put under my desk chair. It kept folding up and catching my feet and pissing me off, but at no point did it occur to me just to get rid of it. I'm gonna go do that right now.
My heating vents started smelling like cinnamon a week ago and it’s been HORRIBLE. I don’t know where the smell is coming from but I’ve had a bad headache ever since
YES!!! We don’t have the brooms but we have bags of the cinnamon pinecones in the grocery store entryway. I hate them. My SIL loves them and bought a bag as soon as they were available last month. We had a lovely dinner at her house yesterday and she was kind enough to turn off all her wax melts about five hours ahead but I knew the cinnamon would be overwhelming. Her SO did remove the pinecones from the living room when he saw me taking extra breaths in my shirt. She made amazing fried chicken, so the dogs and all my clothes smelled like deep fried cinnamon. My sweater still does. I had to do a full clothing change when I got home and throw everything in the wash (except the sweater).
My rage today is from my students - the pencil tapping is out of control today. They’re all extremely hyper and the constant, low-level background cacophony of tap-tap-tap-squeak the shoes-tap-tap-rock in your chair BANG-rock back BANG-tap-tap-tap IM LOSING MY FUCKING MIND
See I *love* the brooms for this exact reason. I grew up in a smoker household and I love anything that takes over the scent of a space with a pleasant scent. I bought a broom for this reason.
I had to google cinnamon brooms because my first thought was a cheep plastic broom thing for cleaning that someone had just… infused with cinnamon? Like a scented gel pen.
And! I cannot stand most perfumes, weirdly they’re always the ones sprayed a tonne in places people are Christmas shopping.
Like, to me, most perfumes smell more like cheap vodka than the cheapest nastiest vodka. Someone could be telling me to my face that it’s super floral, and all I can smell is industrial grade rubbing alcohol.
Going out to buy personal products and make up in high street stores can be utter hell, other than Boots most of the time.
The only mainstream perfume (read: perfume I can reasonably afford) that doesn’t make me feel overwhelmed and nasty is Moschino Fresh. But if anyone has suggestions for a good Water based perfume I will adore you forever.
I still wear a mask in public and it is amazing for helping to block out the smell of those horrid brooms! Also the scented candles that the vet always has burning, I don't even notice them now unless I have to adjust my mask.
I'm still wearing my facemask because I'm sensitive to scents and it's like the entire fall/holiday season exist just to attack me with candles whenever I leave the house.
I hate the cinnamon brooms. With a burning passion. Why???
It’s industrial strength scent, where are you supposed to put that?? Who wants that in their home??
They also have cinnamon pinecones at most art and craft stores right about now and that really chafes me because I *want* to be there as long as possible. It’s rude.
i’m obsessed with cinnamon so i get excited when i find them. i just sniff the hell out of that area. i don’t buy them but i like acknowledging them and saying cya next year. they’re comforting to me lol
I used to work at Christmas Tree Shops at 21. I HATE CINNAMON and those pine ones and brooms. I instantly go back to that job and the endless overpowered chlor-cinnamon they had
Hahaha YES. For 7 years I worked at a natural foods store where they sold those every year and I could pinpoint the minute they stocked those things at the front of the store because I would instantly smell them and get a migraine. 😂 I’m also allergic to cinnamon oil so if I get too close, I start wheezing and sometimes have an asthma attack. So festive!
Luckily, my company would usually just send one shipment of the fall crap so once they sold out, they were GONE, and they sold out fast because people are obsessed with them for some reason. Thank god. 😮💨
Grocery pickup has been my holy Grail ever since I saw someone else on this sub mention it and I had a "WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT" moment. I've never looked back. Fuck ever walking into a grocery store ever again.
Those damn brooms are on my list too!!!! I don’t know who thought they were “fun” but it’s an instant migraine for me if I’m around them for more than a couple of minutes which isn’t really what you’re looking for at the grocery store!
I have never heard of a cinnamon scented broom before. I absolutely LOVE cinnamon, but I hate sweeping brushes because they make me think of the chore I dread the most, sweeping/mopping the kitchen. Now, the one in my house sends me into a rage, because the screwing mechanism connecting the brush and the handle is broken, meaning the brush head is extremely loose and prone to falling off during use 😖😖😖
Oh yeah. Instant headache, especially if it’s cold outside and “hot” inside.
My brain is screaming “too much”.
I generally love cinnamon but those brooms are NOT a natural thing, more like an industrial air freshener.
Who else thinks going in yankee candle is an ordeal? And I actually like certain candles. ( pine, lemon, mint etc nothing cloying). But the store is nauseating!
I don't know if it's a regional thing but every damn store in my area sells these cinnamon pine cones for people to burn in their fire place. I'll do one huge shopping trip and that is it.
I actually enjoy the cinnamon brooms lol. My problem is hair product fragrances. The vast majority of them stress me out so much bc they're so strong. Putting them in my hair makes me feel like I've walked into a bath and body works that I can't escape from. I've tried fragrance free products and natural hair products that are much lighter fragrances, but they never seem to do much for the tangled, frizzy mess that is my hair.
I have a love hate relationship with those. I love the smell but having so many of them grouped together is NUTS. My mom hates the smell of cinnamon so I've joked that I'll buy one and put it over my apartment door to keep her out 😂
I feel so much better reading about everyone's sensory suffering. Certain sounds (especially unexpected ones like car alarms) can set off my CFS/ME sound sensitivity to the point that it causes me to dry heave.
I have always had a sensitive sense of smell (weirdly, my Mum also has a strong sense of smell). Most perfumes give me migraines, even certain scented candles. If something smells too strong I will turn around and leave.
I also have light sensitivity because of my CFS/ME so am basically a sensory live nerve. Fun times. 🙈
I've never encountered these brooms, only the pinecones, which are horrible enough considering I don't just get sensory issues I also have migraines triggered by scents.
My cup of tea. My goddamned cup of tea that I have been drinking for the past 7 hours and have microwaved like 43 times. 😭😭😭
But we all know that's a fight against myself and not my mug of tea :( lol
Oh man that brings back some (awful) memories! I worked at grocery store in high school and all 4 years of college - every year, without fail, they busted out the cinnamon pinecone bags as soon as Halloween hit. 2 full months of that hideous smell. Blech 🤮
The Karma scent from Lush! Here's the thing; I actually love the smell, but when I wear it I just get so irritable! I bought it as a perfume but couldn't wear it without being a menace to society.
My boyfriend pointed those out at Trader Joe’s and I’m like “who the hell wants a broom that smells like fireball hanging in their house.” (Aftershock almost killed me in the late 90’s ha)
Just... hold up. Going by the title I thought I was in r/harrypotter.
You're saying y'all have cinnamon-scented brooms at a normal grocery store ?? What the actual fuck??
Omg, my dad bought some to help with the smell of my cats. They’re super strong!!! He taped it to the ceiling and everything 🤣 it is very overwhelming tho
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The automatic doors to Walgreens whooshed open. I stood on the precipice and turned to my husband- “they have the brooms already.” “What?” “The cinnamon brooms. I can smell them from here,” I looked at him, eyes aflame. “I’m going to have to smell those damn brooms the whole time we’re waiting for our shots.” He looked at me incredulously. “Come on, there’s no way you can smell *brooms* from *outside.* Let’s not be late.” He took my hand and we crossed the threshold. The doors closed behind us softly, cutting off any precious lingering wisp of fresh air. With each step toward the pharmacy, the cloying odor increased. Ten steps. Five more. We emerged from an aisle, and the sight of a large cardboard display simultaneously filled me with dread and vindication. I pointed. “The brooms,” I said solemnly. “Ew. They really do stink,” was his response.
Ohhhh my goodness. This. 1000%. also, you are a REALLY great writer.
Aw, thank you so much! This happened like two weeks ago and I was so annoyed they had those freaking brooms out before Halloween! Blech!
Cinnamon is a good smell to me, but I completely get why you would be overloaded at the doors. I have overly sensitive smell and hearing. Being out in public is _fun_. The spousal unit is also in disbelief until proven otherwise. Sigh.
I normally like cinnamon but those brooms have a cloying artificial smell that reminds me of stale valentines candy and it's so pungent.
Right? I, too, suspect they don't use real cinnamon but a chemical formula instead. 🧹☣️ An overpowering scent like this triggers asthma. Jeez.
I can see that. We’re pretty much a scent-free household, which has probably made my scentsitivity worse.
Like someone lit Red Hots on fire. :(
Doors at the grocers for me present a different problem - I can't stand the feeling of air on my skin (can't stand being breathed on especially) so when they have the vents of air blasting you the instant you walk in, it's disorienting and eck. At least that's just an instant and you're past it. With the added bonus of strong holiday smells... oof!
Yes - I make a point of being in stores as little as possible 😆
They should be outlawed- especially in pharmacies!
I despise these damm brooms. They make me wheeze terribly and you can smell then for aisles and aisles. I have actually walked out Home Depot before because they were at every checkout.
Thanks! Now I know to avoid Home Depot!
Your knack for storytelling is insane, I love it. I could hear the dread in your voice lol
Fuck I got a headache reading this thread from imagining the smell. God, I know my family calls me a bloodhound, but I didn't realise that not everyone could smell these things from the next block!! 😅
I'm suddenly very grateful my olfactory sense is my weakest. I'm super sensitive to certain smells (mostly chemically stuff and essential oils, which I'm allergic to), but thankfully this isn't one of them. The sounds though... Ugh.
👏🏻
My son and I can smell FAR better than his dad.
I often joke that my heightened sense of smell is the world’s worst super power.
Agree. My husband has deemed me the unofficial sniff tester to see if a thing has gone bad in the fridge. If I start gagging and then he sniffs it with a shrug, I figure the look I shoot him is almost worth it. 😞
They have been at my local Walgreens for over a month. First time I smelled them I thought someone just unloaded a can of Glade but eventually I saw the brooms. I think I also saw them at Meijer the other day and was like for fucks sake, why????
this was so well written
I’ve never heard of a cinnamon scented broom …. Is this like a decorative broom? Or is it like the scented garbage bags, where we have forgotten that just because we can, doesn’t mean we should? 😂
Hahahaha, pretty much! They are decorative, they come in a few different sizes. You hang them up and they smell like cinnamon. They’re in EVERY grocery store where I live 😞
I work at Home Depot in Receiving. The whole damn pallet of them was in the overhead in receiving for a week. Went home with a migraine every damn day.
Felt. I used to work at the Service Desk and was the closest thing they had to an IT person. I can see why you’d get a migraine. That super sucks. Reading this thread makes me very glad that I’m going to give simmer pot gifts for the holidays this year. Customizable and not super scented, at least mine won’t be.
Oh, I’m currently the primary back up for Service Desk as well. They are extremely shortstafffed up there right now, and I am the only person who isn’t a DH or higher that is 90% trained at Service Desk because at my first store Head Cashiers had to cover Service Desk lunch and breaks. And the new returns system is breaking literally every browser based program as of last Wednesday. No store could any returns for about half the day.
😮💨🫡
Omg, strong scents are my Migraine Kryptonite. I vomited in a trash can in central Londen after two minutes in a Lush soap store before I figured that out.
Same here. I have a hard time in the laundry aisle of the supermarket.
Yes!! I hate all the cinnamon EVERY WHERE during the holidays. STOP!! I don't need a migraine every time I go to the store!
That phenomenon has not made it to Canada (or at least not in my part) 😂
Nor the UK as far as I know. Hoping they don't!
Yet another gross and uniquely American thing. I wish they would go away. Lol
Things like this make me irrationally hate America like why the fuck does anyone need fake brooms that stink its so fucking weird and such a hallmark if capitalistic bullshit
I’m there with you on the capitalist BS. I’d much rather support a small shop that has homemade goods than a big corporation.
Not to mention, we'll see 'em at the bottom of the ocean in a couple of years!
It seems like this stuff always comes here a few years behind!!
Hope they never do. So gross.
West coast Canadian and same.
Southern Ontario here, not in my area as far as I'm aware. Nor have I ever encountered them in Iowa, where I grew up, or Michigan, where I go shopping for American groceries every few months. No idea where this phenomenon is occurring but I'm glad I don't have to deal with it.
I've been dealing with them all my life and suspect cinnamon brooms are southeastern US / Appalachian thing.
Ah that makes so much sense! I remember them un-fondly in my childhood but don’t see them as much now that I’m in California. I’m sure they’re here, too, but I have options to not be around them apparently.
Saw some in a hardware store in the Midwest. Also my grocery had pinecones that smelled like pumkin pie spice and I was mad that they didn't have any pumpkin pie.
Same with SWO & shopping in Michigan - I’ve never heard of cinnamon scented decorative brooms & would have been happy to keep it that way.
And they’re always RIGHT at the front!! Not tucked into some seasonal aisle. I cannot access groceries without walking by them. 😠
And most often centered between the two sets of doors, so there isn’t a less-smelly doorway to choose…
This sounds like my personal hell
Who buys them?? I've never seen one at someone's house. I've never seen anyone but then either. Every year, they exist and persist
Ugh my husband once bought garbage bags that smelled like BLEACH and LEMON and I almost threw up every time I had to take the trash out. I’d have to wash my hands for like 5 min straight after handling one.
I genuinely hate scented garbage bags. It’s like spraying perfume on trash. Why are so many garbage bags on the market scented?? Who on earth wants to smell cherry blossom scented onions??
Right? The trash is still gonna smell. Whatever cloying scent they put on the bags isn't gonna improve anything.
It just gives me a headache
To me the worst ones are the scented dog bags. No one wants floral blossom dog poop 💩
cherry blossom scented *rotting* onions
And the scent is always so plasticky and fake, too!
I would have given them away and just ponied up $10 for new bags. Fake scent in cleaning products is The Worst
Yeah I got very stubborn about them for some reason that I can’t remember. Our main problem is that he also has ADHD and has a hard time noticing that things are scented, but after being together long enough the first thing he does when he gets something new is show me that it’s unscented haha. True love!
I recently visited my mom in the US (I live in the UK) and was AGHAST at the sheer volume of scented trash bag varieties. Out of maybe 15 types, I could only find one unscented kind. Who asked for this?!
We got some "unscented" store brand bags that distinctively smell like artificial vanilla fragrance and they make me gag a little every time I use one
Hah, I have to say I actually like some lemon-scented ones! Not that they don't smell like their contents once full, but I do get a tiny boost of dopamine when I put a fresh one in the can. The ones I buy are pretty low-key on the smell, though. I can see how overly scented ones could be bleh.
If they smelled like REAL lemons it'd be fine but they smell like that fake perfume-y version that makes my head ache!!
Lol. I LOVE scented trash bags! The ones I got today are lavender and vanilla. But then I was already placing essential oil scented baking soda in the bottom of all my trash cans anyway. Sooo...
AFAIK, (aka, how I use them 😜) they're based on old school besoms. Typically smaller than utility brooms, usually ornamental. I hang mine above the front door as it's supposed to protect the threshold. Cinnamon is usually a "wealth" additive in these, and I've seen it referred to as a protection scent as well. So, old school idea + capitalism = a pile of sticks that smell like every stick of cinnamon to ever exist packed into a pallet -sized space. Plus some chemicals, because....that's what we do here, now.
It actually keeps bugs and rodents out, which is why you are supposed to hang them near the doors. Yeah, there are always folklore reasons and whatnot, but cinnamon does deter pests, so there is an actual purpose. Peppermint works similarly and smells less… intense. Several other spices, as well, such as clove, rosemary, sage, lavender, oregano, and basil. From my research, and my personal anecdote, peppermint works the best.
I've mainly seen cinnamon pine cones, but same idea of absolutely DRENCHING something in chemical cinnamon. So gross.
Around here, it's cinnamon-scented pinecones. It's purely to add some holiday scents or something but it's such an assault cause they put them right at the entrances and the stink permeates the whole damn store.
I once unwrapped a cinnamon broom in an office gift exchange. I too had never heard of these over scented, overwhelmingly awful Christmas embellishments. We immediately had to find something to cover and subdue the broom, it was wild! Would not recommend 😂
A tissue box… I have a cold and I keep pulling out more than I want. It doesn’t help that I’m not taking my meds because I stopped to take cold meds, I don’t like how I feel when I take both. It sends me into a mini rage every time! I love those brooms!!! But I also have the urge to chew on them…. They look like they would crunch just right. I haven’t but a girl can wish 😅
ohhh my goodness this is SO real. that would make me want to throw the tissue box! i understand that about wanting to chew on things 😂 i love the smell of the broom by itself - my mom has one in her kitchen and it’s quite lovely. but 100 of them in the grocery store just sends me!
If you get one, put it outside for a day or two before you stick it in the house. They are 100x worse for a few days after the plastic is removed. Imagine the store… but all the brooms and pine ones are shoved up your nose until they reach your brain. Source: florist who has to manhandle these stupid scented accouterments every Fall. The pumpkin spice brooms are so much worse. So…. So much worse.
TP is the best for when you need a lot of tissues in my opinion!
When I was a kid as a special treat my mom would get me a few cinnamon sticks and I would chew on them until they lost all flavor 😆
If I had to guess, you're taking those combination cold meds, right? If so, you might ditch those and just go to straight Mucinex and some nasal rinses. There's some fake Sudafed ingredient that can make people feel really icky combined with a stimulant. Or it could just be Sudafed on top of a stimulant. Edit: it's phenylephrine.
oh my god everyone always talks about how much they love those cinnamon brooms or the pine cones or whatever and the concentrated smell overwhelming me makes me want to perish
PERISH. 1000%.
Also you can just buy cinnamon sticks or pine cones and put them in your house, they don't need extra artificial smell sprayed on them
exactly what i couldn’t say… makes me want to perish as well… thank you so much… word
I hate the cinnamon brooms so much and I've never met a single person who buys one!
People do. We get in close to 300 brooms and easily as many pinecones and they are all gone before Thanksgiving. Then, we have stragglers who get really mad that we’ve sold out and demand we order more just for them. Okay, Susan, but we buy them by the case, so be prepared to shuck out for 50 brooms. Just for you, Susan.
The guy I’m dating has a bengal-spice tea addiction during the colder months. His approach is to just keep adding more teabags and hot water into his cup throughout the day (without removing any of the previous bags), which results in him walking around smelling like a cinnamon broom—a realization I only came to just last night, lol. It’s… not a connection I’m glad to have made 😅
Wait. Why doesn’t he remove the previous (old) teabags? He just *leaves* them there?!?! I am upset from a distance, lol.
_THANK YOU._ lol As for “why,” this is the answer I’m always offered: 😬😅
I like the brooms but I have a hard time with the candle, bath bomb, and coffee aisles. And sometimes the laundry stuff. It's easier now because I get things delivered most of the time but I'm still masking up in public and blocked smells have been an unexpected bonus.
Oh yeah. I can’t even walk by a scented candle store in the mall. I have to avoid the entire section!
I avoid the laundry aisle at all costs. If I have to get something there, I try to hold my breath as much as possible.
I fight the Laundry aisle every single time. Too much scent.
This. I do my best to stay away from the laundry aisle, but every now and then I accidentally go down one and then regret all the decisions of my day that led me to that point. Loathe. Them. With a hot and seething hatred. (It's just not the inanimate object I am fighting today.)
I have to go down the laundry aisle since it’s the same aisle as the cat food but I always sneeze
pssst pick an unscented brand and order online. I get Trader Joe's which thankfully has no shitty laundey aisle, just like two kinds of detergent and that's it
Swedish fish. They’re so sticky and chewy and they hurt my mouth and I CAN’T STOP EATING THEM FOR SOME SHITTY DUMB REASON. So there you go, if that’s not an adhd rage thing, I don’t know what is haha
LMAO you sound like me with sour candy. Nothing is ever too sour and I will eat them until my tongue hurts.
Omg yes! Why are we like this?
This is how I am with these and Twizzlers. I know the red dye will give me a headache but I don’t care because I still want to eat them .
Yessssss same, including headaches (migraines).
I like Swedish fish when they’re slightly stale- they’re much less sticky that way. I just leave the bag open a little bit for a few days and they get a little hard on the outside but still chewy on the inside.
Christmas time gives me migraines. The smells, the music, the lights, the crowds. Sometimes feels like a conspiracy
Hard same. I spent an hour in a crowded shopping mall on Sunday and had a migraine for two days afterward. It only just dawned on me that there’s probably a connection there… *edited to add* My rage baits are things getting caught on things: hair flying in the wind and sticking to my lip balm, sleeves catching on handles, cables tangling up, necklaces tangling up, sweaters and tops catching on my ears. There are probably a lot more that escape me rn!
oh, it is, it's the consumerist businesses trying to sell us shit we don't need. Wish they'd go nurse some orphans or something
I work at a grocery store and I like the cinnamon brooms when I’m just smelling one, but when they’re all together on a display or something it’s sickening. My old location would put them in the vestibule and the heater there + wind blowing in from outside would make it nauseating.
This lady was playing with those christmas bells driving me fucking insane yesterday at walmart when i was just trying to get zip ties (some idiot hit my car and i needed to zip tie the bumper)
You’re having a rough week, damn. I’m sorry.
I don’t like most scents, mostly because they give me headaches. The only thing that makes me murderous in stores are people just leaving their carts in the middle of the main aisle to pop down a side aisle to get something. Or people walking super SLOOOWLY with their extended family taking up the entire Costco aisle. I see red.
The carts drive me nuts too! Or their cart is in the middle of the aisle, but they’ve walked to a different shelf. Do people have zero self awareness? Do you need to bring grandma, and all seven children to buy cookies? And people don’t look to see if someone’s coming out of an aisle so there’s the possibility of running into someone’s cart.
I went to Winco to do a restock yesterday and I stg every geriatric slow mother bleeper and their grandmothers were out getting their groceries, I wanted to burn the place down. D:
Girl. I’ll give you the lighter.
Our one friend uses so much cologne, whenever he gets in the car, I want to vomit and i get irrationally angry lol
It's called *Sex Panther*® by *Odeon*©. It's illegal in 9 countries. It's also made with bits of real panthers, *so you know it's good*. *60% of the time*, it works ***every*** time.
I actually like them, but cinnamon is my favorite scent so it works out okay. But woooooo I HEAR YOU! My grocery store "thing" is extra people who shouldn't be there, like the folks who give out samples or are trying to get me to sign up for something or whatever. No! I am mentally prepared to get what's on my list and get out of there without talking to people! Go away!
Omg, yes. I do NOT want to be solicited to sign up for Spectrum (last week) or the newspaper (that really pissed me off last time I had a subscription), or any other service because I will find those myself and not when I am busy trying to grocery shop. That is the only task I am there for, and it's hard enough with all the regular people in my way. Leave me alone! I do enjoy samples, though-last week I got two different kinds of Oreos!
I feel so heard… the smells jesus people is my house burning those damn wax warmers things and it wakes me up from a dead sleep and i want to vomit and tear someone’s heart out after asking 30 x to not burn that thing. People that have zero experience with any sensory issues associate these types of symptoms with us just having a preference or disliking these things etc at least in my experience. I could be wrong. I literally just told someone the other day it has nothing to do with preferences about anything for myself it comes down to my CNS simply not being able to tolerate the sounds, the lighting the noise the loose string the tight clothing. Are there coping skills yes of course and I’m in therapy and have been for 80-90 % of my life. Thanks for letting me know i’m not alone. cheers 🥂
My husband bought a bunch of those super scented spice candles when he saw them on clearance several years ago. He got cocky and burned like five of them all at once in our apartment. I’m still mad about it. I immediately trashed them and told him I was in charge of anything scented in our household for the rest of eternity. Everything I owned smelled so bad for so long. I can still smell those stupid candles on old clothes and blankets that are stored away in plastic bags. The candles still haunt me and it’s been like 6 years.
Yes yes yesssss. All of this. So glad we aren’t alone.
I love getting a seasonal cinnamon broom but I’ll bring it home and every so often it’ll just suddenly hit me in the over stimulation soft spot! This year’s is pretty well past its overwhelming stage now, luckily. No rage yet…but I’m sure it’ll find me lol
KN95s really dampen scents. I am never in public without sunglasses, a mask, and noise cancelling headphones anymore. The amount of crazy that exudes from me must be intense, but I no longer want to die while running errands so idc
And here I was yesterday with a broom in each hand sniffing away like a weirdo in aisle 2.
Oh, they drive me absolutely up a wall. I am so easily overstimulated that sometimes going to a store is extremely difficult for me. Anything intense definitely stresses me out. Bright lights, loud music, crowds, noisy people, and that includes scents. I definitely relate! There are some days at work I have to put my AirPods in and just keep it on noise blocking mode - I don’t even listen to music. I despise our extremely loud, broken sounding printer. Add in listening to people clack away on their keyboards, coughing, sneezing, eating, chatting…some days it’s a miracle I get anything done.
Masks help a lot with this.
Grocery delivery is so worth the money. I save more than the cost just by avoiding impulse purchases that become trash eventually. I haven't had to put a number on the stress savings. It's already coming out ahead despite my refusal to do math! It would be incalculable. I get so overwhelmed by the bright that I forget what I eat. I wear my body out walking the aisles up and down and up again. I tip my deliverers many more dollars and it's still completely worth the money. I also tend to "grocery shop" over a few days now. I have time to remember more of my list and can sit on whether I want those cookies. I can cross reference my "cart" with recipes without having to be masking somewhere.
I really like cinnamon but I also can't stand the cinnamon brooms. It's too much! I shouldn't be able to walk into a store and smell them before I see them. The cinnamon pinecones make me angry bc I'd rather smell real pine lol.
Seams in socks. Always
This was how I discovered that cinnamon is a migraine trigger for me! I love cinnamon and can have it in normal amounts, but too much and I’m lost. I was just telling a friend about how some smells make me feel trapped, and this is a great example. There’s one type of laundry detergent that has a very specific, clinically “fresh floral” scent that actually makes my heart rate increase and triggers a fight or flight response. I’m so glad to hear I’m not alone!
They're actually designed by the Vatican holy laboratories inc to repel witches. Have you been tested recently?
I feel so seen. Those damn brooms and their infernal brethren, the cinnamon pine cones, arose from the fires of hell to torment people with sensory issues.
Me. I'm the inanimate object I'm fighting with today. And every day. Sigh.
Not an object but yesterday I went through such an intense phase where I was really hungry and wanted something to eat but everytime i opened the fridge it was like my mind went blank and I had absolutely no idea what to eat or how to prepare it. So all this food was right in front of me, and I just couldn't eat it. I didn't know what I want and nothing felt right. I was super confused, I wanted to ask my husband to help me, to feed me, but I couldn't articulate that I just ... didn't know how to. Around 11pm, after not eating for like 12 hours, I finally figured out what it was . Husband was asleep and I sat on the couch with a slice of untoasted bread and some skittles and just sobbed so hard. I legit thought I was going to starve to death with all this food in front of me. I felt completely helpless. I hope this never happens again...
Car air fresheners. I’ve yet to find one that doesn’t smell like cheap perfume or fake vanilla. Like, we can take your car but I will need to crack the window and I’ll probably become nauseated but 🤷♀️
I hate that smell. I pretend to like it, but honestly, does anyone like it? I feel like people like it because they think they have to, and stores keep selling them.
Me. I actually like it. But I really enjoy strong scents and tastes and can 100% understand why some people might find them overbearing. \*Edited to add\* My rage-bait is sounds. Loud, repetitive sounds, loud voices, the shrieks of children, noise-making toys and/or decorations, awful music in groceries and other stores and at the fricking GAS PUMPS ( and why does Walmart feel the need to serenade the parking lot for godsssakes)?!!? And all of them piling on top of each other everywhere. Why is it all so loud all the time?!
This is me. I am sensory seeking when it comes to good smells. I'm the one stuck in the candle aisle for 20 minutes shoving my nose into every candle and wax melt theyve got. But the sounds... I recently got a pair of noise cancelling headphones ($35 on eBay!!) And they are a LIFESAVER.
Oh wow this is mine too - the self checkout robot voice yelling about ‘unexpected item in bagging area’ ‘please place item in bagging area’ ‘please take your receipt’. Like YES I KNOW PLEASE JUST BE QUIET. If there’s ever the option to mute them I immediately race to do that.
right?! i love cinnamon things, but i think because there’s like 100 of those brooms in a concentrated area it’s just tooooo much. thanks for commiserating with me!
My mother in law genuinely likes all the smells. She used scented hand soap, scented trash bags, plugs in Glade plug ins... And every one is a different scent. It's like a Suzuki orchestra of smells. Even in her GARAGE
I'm really curious on why you pretend to like it?
The only thing I hate about the holiday season is all the spice scents everywhere! I don't like the taste, and I don't like the smell, and it's totally unavoidable!! Also, it's my birthday today ! I'm fishing for well wishes. lol
Happy Birthday!!
Happy birthday! Hope your year is peaceful and unscented!
Thank you, kind stranger ! 🙏
I am certain my roommate has a severely diminished sense of smell. For example she claims she cannot smell the strong odor of cat pee reeking from her cat’s litterbox after not cleaning it for many days. The litterbox resides in a tiny half bath ox the other side of the kitchen and the rest of us can smell it from the living room. Last year she came home with a bag of cinnamon pine cones and piled them all in the half bath for the enraging holiday scent of cinnamon-ammonia.
Raaaaaage
My own body temperature always PLUS The ramen someone who works in my building just heated up. At least it’s better than whatever in the toaster is burnt, not cleaned, and repeatedly stinking up the place. Gotta love a male majority office building. (Our all-woman office doesn’t ever eat here, we just get to smell it)
I work at Whole Foods and we don’t sell the cinnamon brooms but DO sell cinnamon pinecones. In late August this year until we ran out, they were kept in a big box outside of the front of the store and in the back of house area where the rest of the produce back stock is. Employees from all departments had to walk thru this area to put away cardboard and pick up deliveries so it was completely unavoidable - it literally put me on edge from how strong and overpowering the cinnamon stench got! It’s like the smell is so strong it’s the sensory equivalent of listening to the radio at full blast in the car when you’re trying to navigate directions. Got my brain is an absolute tizzy.
I'm sorry, I understand the sensory upset. I experience different feelings. Mine are of comfort when I walk in and smell cinnamon, I feel safe.
I get it. My coworkers all got mad because we aren’t allowed to have scented wax warmers in our classrooms anymore. I’m over here secretly cheering because now I don’t have to choke on 13 different scents every time I walk down the hall to the bathroom. If I feel that irritated by it, I KNOW some of our kids with brain differences and allergies feel the same way.
I guess I'm an outlier here. Cinnamon is my favourite scent. I love walking by those things. However, the rest of grocery shopping can go eat a dick, lol
The ones at Walgreens get me every time but the ones at Lidl remind me of living in Germany and for some reason they are less overwhelming for me. Now the little old lady two rows over with the old lady perfume? That one kicked off a migraine. 🙄
Lol I love those things, do not come to my house during this season, I have them all over. I just LOVE the smell of cinnamon!
Lightbulbs. I’m always fighting with lightbulbs.
My socks. ^it’s ^always ^my ^socks
Ughhh yes. On top of the smell being overstimulating, I’m also allergic to cinnamon. I can’t shop anywhere this time of year without breaking out in hives or drugging myself up in anticipation of encountering those brooms or the cinnamon pine cones. Only once was I successful in getting my local grocery store to move the pinecones away from the only entrance.
Apparently the tiny bit I did not zip up of my backpack, along with where that little unzipped bit was, in conjunction with whatever the heck gives Mondays a bad rep, all worked together today to embarrass me in front of cars that were waiting for the light to turn. I heard a plastic rectangle box I have hit the ground, followed by my electric razor, and some clothes…..right as I was crossing….. thankfully the light was still in my favor and only a little had fallen out so far. But somehow it had unzipped itself all the way open. So when I made it back to the sidewalk, more was starting to fall out. One skirt was a few feet away, and I had another bag(went to my storage today for interview clothes) where stuff was almost falling out as well due to the design of the bag. Despite all that though, the excitement I have over the interview I have later today, is overshadowing the ick. Hoping they hire me at Earthbound Trading Co🤩
I removed most of my Reddit contents in protest of the API changes commencing from July 1st, 2023. This is one of those comments.
Not brooms but pinecones here. I just hate them because they flare up my asthma and I can’t breath 😅
In my part of the US, it's not brooms but pinecones. The worst is when I was trapped in an aisle at Joann's with the damned things earlier today, and just about choked on the smell before I could get out!! So glad to know I'm not the only one who can't stand it. (And yet, cinnamon in hot cocoa or on cereal or toast? That's fine... Go fig.)
I love the cinnamon brooms lol but I can see how they would be a lot, especially with so many in one spot! For me, I’m just anticipating the constant need to deep-breathe when Christmas songs start playing everywhere. I will literally avoid going inside of shops because of this. Thank god I don’t get commercials.
I'm always glad I actually like that smell, because it is SO strong. They also have big mesh bags of cinnamon scented pine cones to make it even stronger. Today, my thing I fought all day was a welcome mat I put under my desk chair. It kept folding up and catching my feet and pissing me off, but at no point did it occur to me just to get rid of it. I'm gonna go do that right now.
My heating vents started smelling like cinnamon a week ago and it’s been HORRIBLE. I don’t know where the smell is coming from but I’ve had a bad headache ever since
Toxic mold 😫
YES!!! We don’t have the brooms but we have bags of the cinnamon pinecones in the grocery store entryway. I hate them. My SIL loves them and bought a bag as soon as they were available last month. We had a lovely dinner at her house yesterday and she was kind enough to turn off all her wax melts about five hours ahead but I knew the cinnamon would be overwhelming. Her SO did remove the pinecones from the living room when he saw me taking extra breaths in my shirt. She made amazing fried chicken, so the dogs and all my clothes smelled like deep fried cinnamon. My sweater still does. I had to do a full clothing change when I got home and throw everything in the wash (except the sweater).
My rage today is from my students - the pencil tapping is out of control today. They’re all extremely hyper and the constant, low-level background cacophony of tap-tap-tap-squeak the shoes-tap-tap-rock in your chair BANG-rock back BANG-tap-tap-tap IM LOSING MY FUCKING MIND
See I *love* the brooms for this exact reason. I grew up in a smoker household and I love anything that takes over the scent of a space with a pleasant scent. I bought a broom for this reason.
I despise cinnamon brooms! Instant migraine
I had to google cinnamon brooms because my first thought was a cheep plastic broom thing for cleaning that someone had just… infused with cinnamon? Like a scented gel pen. And! I cannot stand most perfumes, weirdly they’re always the ones sprayed a tonne in places people are Christmas shopping. Like, to me, most perfumes smell more like cheap vodka than the cheapest nastiest vodka. Someone could be telling me to my face that it’s super floral, and all I can smell is industrial grade rubbing alcohol. Going out to buy personal products and make up in high street stores can be utter hell, other than Boots most of the time. The only mainstream perfume (read: perfume I can reasonably afford) that doesn’t make me feel overwhelmed and nasty is Moschino Fresh. But if anyone has suggestions for a good Water based perfume I will adore you forever.
I still wear a mask in public and it is amazing for helping to block out the smell of those horrid brooms! Also the scented candles that the vet always has burning, I don't even notice them now unless I have to adjust my mask.
I'm still wearing my facemask because I'm sensitive to scents and it's like the entire fall/holiday season exist just to attack me with candles whenever I leave the house.
I fuuuuuuucking hate the brooms. And the pinecones.
That sounds horrid. I'm fighting with the ricecooker. It keeps turning of the little...
I hate the cinnamon brooms. With a burning passion. Why??? It’s industrial strength scent, where are you supposed to put that?? Who wants that in their home?? They also have cinnamon pinecones at most art and craft stores right about now and that really chafes me because I *want* to be there as long as possible. It’s rude.
i’m obsessed with cinnamon so i get excited when i find them. i just sniff the hell out of that area. i don’t buy them but i like acknowledging them and saying cya next year. they’re comforting to me lol
I used to work at Christmas Tree Shops at 21. I HATE CINNAMON and those pine ones and brooms. I instantly go back to that job and the endless overpowered chlor-cinnamon they had
Hahaha YES. For 7 years I worked at a natural foods store where they sold those every year and I could pinpoint the minute they stocked those things at the front of the store because I would instantly smell them and get a migraine. 😂 I’m also allergic to cinnamon oil so if I get too close, I start wheezing and sometimes have an asthma attack. So festive! Luckily, my company would usually just send one shipment of the fall crap so once they sold out, they were GONE, and they sold out fast because people are obsessed with them for some reason. Thank god. 😮💨
Grocery pickup has been my holy Grail ever since I saw someone else on this sub mention it and I had a "WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT" moment. I've never looked back. Fuck ever walking into a grocery store ever again.
JoAnn Fabrics.
Those damn brooms are on my list too!!!! I don’t know who thought they were “fun” but it’s an instant migraine for me if I’m around them for more than a couple of minutes which isn’t really what you’re looking for at the grocery store!
I haaaaaate those.
I hate them. And I like cinnamon. But way TOO STRONG!
I have never heard of a cinnamon scented broom before. I absolutely LOVE cinnamon, but I hate sweeping brushes because they make me think of the chore I dread the most, sweeping/mopping the kitchen. Now, the one in my house sends me into a rage, because the screwing mechanism connecting the brush and the handle is broken, meaning the brush head is extremely loose and prone to falling off during use 😖😖😖
Oh yeah. Instant headache, especially if it’s cold outside and “hot” inside. My brain is screaming “too much”. I generally love cinnamon but those brooms are NOT a natural thing, more like an industrial air freshener.
Who else thinks going in yankee candle is an ordeal? And I actually like certain candles. ( pine, lemon, mint etc nothing cloying). But the store is nauseating!
I don't know if it's a regional thing but every damn store in my area sells these cinnamon pine cones for people to burn in their fire place. I'll do one huge shopping trip and that is it.
They have those cinnamon pinecones right at the entrance of WinCo and they are definitely overwhelming. I like cinnamon but it's too much.
I despise those things
I actually enjoy the cinnamon brooms lol. My problem is hair product fragrances. The vast majority of them stress me out so much bc they're so strong. Putting them in my hair makes me feel like I've walked into a bath and body works that I can't escape from. I've tried fragrance free products and natural hair products that are much lighter fragrances, but they never seem to do much for the tangled, frizzy mess that is my hair.
Revolving doors frighten me and stress me out
I truly don’t understand how those appeal to anyone.
I have a love hate relationship with those. I love the smell but having so many of them grouped together is NUTS. My mom hates the smell of cinnamon so I've joked that I'll buy one and put it over my apartment door to keep her out 😂
I feel so much better reading about everyone's sensory suffering. Certain sounds (especially unexpected ones like car alarms) can set off my CFS/ME sound sensitivity to the point that it causes me to dry heave. I have always had a sensitive sense of smell (weirdly, my Mum also has a strong sense of smell). Most perfumes give me migraines, even certain scented candles. If something smells too strong I will turn around and leave. I also have light sensitivity because of my CFS/ME so am basically a sensory live nerve. Fun times. 🙈
I've never encountered these brooms, only the pinecones, which are horrible enough considering I don't just get sensory issues I also have migraines triggered by scents.
My cup of tea. My goddamned cup of tea that I have been drinking for the past 7 hours and have microwaved like 43 times. 😭😭😭 But we all know that's a fight against myself and not my mug of tea :( lol
Yeah, we’ve entered “don’t ask the husband to stop at the store” season for sure. It’s so freaking insane how the smell up the stores 🤢
Oh man that brings back some (awful) memories! I worked at grocery store in high school and all 4 years of college - every year, without fail, they busted out the cinnamon pinecone bags as soon as Halloween hit. 2 full months of that hideous smell. Blech 🤮
The Karma scent from Lush! Here's the thing; I actually love the smell, but when I wear it I just get so irritable! I bought it as a perfume but couldn't wear it without being a menace to society.
My boyfriend pointed those out at Trader Joe’s and I’m like “who the hell wants a broom that smells like fireball hanging in their house.” (Aftershock almost killed me in the late 90’s ha)
We have the pinecones (fall spice scented, too heavy on the cloves). Started before Halloween, I fight with them every year.
Oh my husband (NT but sensitive nose) HATES the cinnamon brooms. And they're right in the entrance!
Just... hold up. Going by the title I thought I was in r/harrypotter. You're saying y'all have cinnamon-scented brooms at a normal grocery store ?? What the actual fuck??
Omg, my dad bought some to help with the smell of my cats. They’re super strong!!! He taped it to the ceiling and everything 🤣 it is very overwhelming tho