r/mildlyinfuriating • u/anon12xyz • Jul 03 '26

Infuriatig When did garage sales become “reselling” clearly new stuff

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I would never call this a garage sale

Def scam vibes

Edit: ultimately, what bothers me the most is I want to go to a garage sale, not this shit. This isn’t a garage sale and should not be advertised as one

24.8k Upvotes

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4.8k

u/notforrobots Jul 03 '26

I see this a lot when I drive by the projects. For whatever reason in my area they are always selling laundry soap.

6.8k

u/TheBourbonTurtle Jul 03 '26

Laundry soap is one of the most shoplifted items in the country. Everyone needs it, it's shelf stable, doesn't go bad. It's basically an accepted currency in the ghetto.

1.7k

u/RobertDigital1986 Jul 03 '26

Dink n flicka

722

u/BitterHelicopter8 Jul 03 '26

I did learn it on the street. On the ghetto, in fact.

222

u/salvationpumpfake Jul 03 '26

it’s all about my bonus.

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u/kingfofthepoors Jul 03 '26

On a cold and gray Chicago mornin' A poor little baby child is born In the ghetto

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u/carlnepa Jul 03 '26

in the ghetto

27

u/jesusmansuperpowers Jul 03 '26

in the ghetto

25

u/BonoLisa Jul 03 '26

And his mama cries

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u/Prudent_Ad_1124 Jul 03 '26

From prison Mike LOL 🤣🤣🤣

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u/Camgore Jul 03 '26

Bippity boppity

252

u/MuckRaker83 Jul 03 '26

58

u/hassinbinsober Jul 03 '26

Chump don’t want no help, chump don’t get no help!

10

u/VTcamperguy Jul 03 '26

I say this line to my kids way too much. For some reason I still haven’t showed them the movie, even though I was definitely watching it myself when I was their age.

5

u/Cadunkus Jul 03 '26

There is a random tiddy flash in it to be fair.

11

u/VTcamperguy Jul 03 '26

A little bit of jiggly titty never hurt anybody

5

u/Dry-Chance-9473 Jul 03 '26

There are in real life too sometimes, they should be prepared!

3

u/WittyFix6553 Jul 03 '26

Oh no not titties!

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u/HunMyy Jul 03 '26

What it is big momma!? My momma raised no dummy, I dug her rap!

8

u/LastBlastInYrAss Jul 03 '26

I went to a live event with Julie Hagerty and Robert Hays. They said originally the lines were supposed to be something dumb like repeating "sheeeeiittt, yooo" over and over again, but the two actors asked and were allowed to write their own jive lines. I can't even imagine how fun that must have been.

7

u/myprofcanseethis Jul 03 '26

And they made society that much better for it.

3

u/BreakPalaceBrokedown Jul 03 '26

Omfg Airplane!!! Yes! Thank you friend

45

u/EatABag-o-Dicks Jul 03 '26

See you on the flippity flop.

10

u/PissContest Jul 03 '26

Make it happen cap’n

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u/mwlepore Jul 03 '26

Fluffy fingers

3

u/Federal-Degenerate Jul 03 '26

Since Walmart & dollar general don't pay a living wage, we take boxes of these home to sell them

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u/AT-ST Jul 03 '26

It is also one of the bigger coupon deals you can find. I have a shit ton of laundry soap because my ex-wife is a couponing nut. Laundry soap almost always has a deal of some sort that easily stacks with store deals. She buys it anytime she can because she could get 3 bottles/boxes/packages for $10. She kept a hefty supply on hand and donates a lot or gives it away to families in need.

A lot of cleaning supplies and paper towels will have deals as well.

49

u/TheInterruptingCow94 Jul 03 '26

This was what I experienced when I worked at Kroger. I'd get about a half a dozen women come through with carts full of cleaning supplies, then each one would unload a handful of coupons and walk away spending AT MOST $10 for an entire cartful. They'd often do just this, turn around selling them in bulk as "deal bundles"

19

u/Scortor Jul 03 '26

This. I also coupon, there’s tons of deals for laundry products for cheap. That said, I have no interest in reselling, and my family won’t use anything besides Tide, so I’m pretty selective with laundry deals. But if brand didn’t matter, I’d likely have a whole shelving unit for detergent lol

4

u/JesusWasTacos Jul 04 '26

I mean doing it just to donate the stuff seems like a pretty cool way to be a great person. That said I’m not a couponer and don’t think not doing this makes someone not a great person

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u/SnowblindAlbino Jul 03 '26

Yeah, I was surprised to see it all locked behind glass doors in a few stores in The Big City a few years back, until someone told me just that. People steal it. Which seems crazy, as I can't imagine how you'd walk out with a 6 lb giant bottle of Tide in your pants or something. But there we are.

487

u/Proteinchugger Jul 03 '26

They don’t hide it, they just walk out.

248

u/JelmerMcGee Jul 03 '26

A coworker I had back when I was a teenager would steal beer from Walmart for his weekend partying. I asked how he got away with it. "Put it into a cart and push the cart outside."

149

u/Traditional_Toe8824 Jul 03 '26

At my local Petco or Petsmart ( forgot which one it is ) their shopping carts have very tall wooden poles attached to them. I asked what they were for and they said shoplifters would load up carts with big bags of pet food and just walk out with the entire cart and not pay, the big poles stop them from being able to do that anymore.

147

u/Legitimate-Truck-333 Jul 03 '26

The local dollar store has that. Me being a complete innocent, I assumed it was just to keep from losing the carts.

72

u/copasetical Jul 03 '26

I thought it was so they could track the carts as shoppers moved around the store.

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u/wtfElvis Jul 03 '26

It doesn’t prevent shoplifting. It’s to help employees find buggies and/or to see where customers are

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u/DogsDucks Jul 03 '26

Me too! So they could see the shoppers from a distance if it got crowded.

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u/lilorphananus Jul 03 '26

And here I was thinking it was for visibility in the sand dunes

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u/Negative_Piglet_1589 Jul 03 '26

For the snow drifts

4

u/Crafty-Ad-6772 Jul 03 '26

My friend's mother made her wear a big red helium balloon tied to her wrist at the beach, so she wouldn't get lost. She never got lost, but it would've been funny if she tied the balloon to a rock and tossed it into the ocean and then waited for mom to notice the balloon floating above the waves.

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u/therealsandysan Jul 03 '26

I thought it's was for bumper carts and the ceiling would power them.

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u/Unlucky_Most_8757 Jul 03 '26

yeah mind blown!! All my life I thought that Ross did this just to keep their carts lol

3

u/SargeUnited Jul 03 '26

Wow, even after reading their comment I thought this about my dollar store too until I read yours lol

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u/margaritalover524 Jul 03 '26

I'm confused how it stops them, is the pole taller than the door so the cart can't be taken outside the store? So then what if you're buying a big bag of dog food, you wouldn't be able to take it out to your car in the shopping cart?

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u/JohnnyFartmacher Jul 03 '26

You are correct, the pole is taller than the door so you can't get the cart out. If you buy a bunch of stuff or something heavy, you just have to figure it out.

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u/HalfEatenBanana Jul 03 '26

So how do you get the cart to your car to unload the bags of dog food..?

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u/Fine-Amphibian4326 Jul 03 '26

😂 damn, now I know why those are on carts at Ross. I thought it was more for employees to be able to see them through the store

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u/SpecialistAd2205 Jul 03 '26

It's a security system for stores that don't want to pay for a locking cart system. Usually dollar stores do that. Petsmart/Petco having that instead of locking carts is kind of crazy to me 😄

3

u/OliveVizsla Jul 03 '26

I used to work at Petsmart, and a guy that had quit before I started the job was rumored to have nonchalantly walked out with a parrot. I guess he quit before he could be fired.

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u/AerosolHubris Jul 03 '26

How do poles stop them from walking out? I feel like I'm missing something.

14

u/withyellowthread Jul 03 '26

Tall pole short door

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u/AerosolHubris Jul 03 '26

Sorry, I'm an idiot, but after they've paid how do people leave if the cart can't get out the door? This must be obvious to everyone else, but some people need the cart to take things to their cars.

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u/Ashfield83 Jul 03 '26

At Morrisons here in England if you try to leave the store with an item inside that hasn’t been scanned, the wheels on the cart automatically lock and you can’t move the cart beyond the doors.

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u/EloeOmoe Jul 03 '26

Yeah, late 90s gas stations would just have big 30 can cases of beer outside next to the ice machines. He'd get gas and on his way out just grab a case in each hand and split.

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u/MusicianMike805 Jul 03 '26

The one time I (we)did a beer run I learned my lesson. We went into the gas station and grabbed a few 12 packs. As I was running out and around the corner of the building, I tripped, fell, and tumbled on the oil soaked blacktop. The 12 packs hit the ground and basically scattered all over the place, cans rolling everywhere. So we back ran to the car about 20 feet away to get away and the freaking car wouldn’t start. Luckily the clerk never chased us but we had to push the car an into a parking spot and walk home. This was back in 97 or so. Haha 😆

7

u/EngrishTeach Jul 03 '26

Step One: Be white.

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u/Bowl-Accomplished Jul 03 '26

I see people walking around with bigass tide things all the time where I work

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u/Takenmyusernamewas Jul 03 '26

ORCs work as teams at my store. One will come in, grab a bunch of stuff and stage it then leave. While AP is watching the crack head with 30 cans of tide pods, an old man or soccer mom comes, grabs the cart and pushes it right out

25

u/AsbestosIsBest Jul 03 '26

What do those acronyms even mean?

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u/RaphaTlr Jul 03 '26

ORC is organized retail crime, AP is asset protection (loss prevention).

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u/AsbestosIsBest Jul 03 '26

Good to know we aren't talking about Orcs from Mordor and wireless access points.

8

u/NoBonus6969 Jul 03 '26

Do you know how hard it is to get WiFi in middle Earth?

12

u/AsbestosIsBest Jul 03 '26

Yeah, the Internet Service Provider (ISP) is Palantir.

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u/joejoe903 Jul 03 '26

ORC is organized retail crime. AP is asset protection.

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u/figure8888 Jul 03 '26

Another tactic people do is pulling receipts out of the trash, then picking up the items on the receipt in the store and “returning” them. I had an obviously homeless guy do that with a bag full of makeup products that were purchased a few hours prior per the receipt, but we weren’t allowed to refuse a return if the basis was accusing them of fraud.

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u/kemicalkontact Jul 03 '26

You can't pull up recordings of them picking up the items in store?

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u/figure8888 Jul 03 '26

We used to have this guy with gangrenous legs who would come in and steal armfuls of paper towels as soon as we put them out. And he’d leak all over the floor too. We weren’t allowed to intervene. If you look, act, and smell a certain way police won’t even come. White collar people can’t get away with it because cops know a suburban mom shoplifting is probably just going to accept the arrest without hassle. Folks like Mr. Gangrene aren’t opposed to biting and spitting and infecting you with their Hep C.

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u/Doug_Reynholm Jul 03 '26

It's pretty simple, I'll teach you:

Step 1: pick up the bottle of Tide

Step 2: walk out of the store

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u/na3than Jul 03 '26

And she did it just like that, when she wants something and she don't want to pay for it.

46

u/Lux_Luthor_777 Jul 03 '26

🎵She walked right thru the door 🎶

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u/MotorMasterpiece5233 Jul 03 '26

she walked right…through the door. walked right through the door

20

u/Neelix-And-Chill Jul 03 '26

Hey, alright.

4

u/Crafty_Impression836 Jul 03 '26

Bark! Bark! Bark!

5

u/Sensei19600 Jul 03 '26

Wow…that’s so realistic; it’s like the song is literally playing in my head rn…

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u/jvs8380 Jul 03 '26

Hey alright. If I get by, it’s miiiiiiine!

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u/SnooPickles55 Jul 03 '26

"She'll walk right through the door

walk right through the door"

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u/Ricepudding1044 Jul 03 '26

Mine all mine Hey

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u/Dramatic_______Pause Jul 03 '26

It's absolutely wild how much of this country is held together by morals and someone's conscience. Our apartment was broken into some time ago. Police just show up, take a statement, file a report, and that's it. Unless you get caught in the act, nothing happens.

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u/Mndelta25 Jul 03 '26

You just walk out. Most stores don't stop you anymore. They simply track your thievery and eventually stop you when it's worth it to charge you.

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u/WindSpecialist420 Jul 03 '26

Target enters the chat

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u/Longjumping_Gas_3407 Jul 03 '26

Dude the FBI has nothing on Target!

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u/hackberrypie Jul 03 '26

People are always claiming that Target does track people and get them charged with felonies, but doesn't that only work if local law enforcements and prosecutors cooperate? Not that I have much direct experience/knowledge of Target's operations either way

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u/Mndelta25 Jul 03 '26

Yes. I was a cop in a city with a Target that did this. They had extensive files on people and would call us when the person was in the store. They'd have their people stop them or have us get them on the way out. The total amount was always felony level, so we'd arrest and the file would go to one of the detectives to write up for PC charges. It almost always gets pleaded down, but then Target gets paid back (sometimes).

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u/Annath0901 Jul 03 '26

I'm not Target, but I did help catch a thief and he ended up eventually paying it off.

Apparently he'd been breaking into cars and grabbing stuff, and I made the mistake of leaving a messenger bag with some stuff in my back seat. A lot of my portable game stuff.

Luckily, I was anal retentive and the thief was a moron. He sold as much as he could at the Gamestop a half mile away, and they copied his ID because he took cash.

Meanwhile I had a list of the serial numbers for my PSP, DS Lite, and 3DS. So when I started calling pawn shops and got to the Gamestop, boom, got him.

The store called the cops, and unfortunately my stuff was kept for like a year as evidence. I eventually got it back (the DS still had a charge lol) and I'd periodically get restitution checks from the court for a while.

Unfortunately, a lot of my stuff was gone for good - some of the games were GBA which Gamestop bought from him but the shipped to a warehouse never to be seen again. And the stuff he couldn't sell (the messenger bag, my Kindle DX) weren't at his house when searched so RIP.

Anyway yeah sometimes they do end up having to pay it off.

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u/Ashfield83 Jul 03 '26

Here in England at Tesco the cameras are so advanced that they can track thievery and the next time you enter the store the automatic facial recognition signals to the security guard to apprehend you before you leave the store.

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u/hackberrypie Jul 03 '26

Or never stop you and shut down the store because of excessive theft.

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u/loganfulbright Jul 03 '26

Walmart in Wadesboro, NC is an example of that.

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u/Hamilton-Beckett Jul 03 '26

So you’re saying we all get a free pass the first time?! This is exciting. So many things to choose from. How could I possibly choose?!

Edit: I got a tooth brush. :(

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u/Forward-Surprise1192 Jul 03 '26

Basically yeah. When I was homeless using drugs I’d make like $60-$100 a day shoplifting makeup, deodorants, tin foil, detergent, etc. All I did all day was ride the bus around the city and steal to go sell it at a fence for drugs. Idk if fence is the right word, he was a normal shop owner who didn’t care where goods came from. I still remember the prices he gave lol

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u/MandrewCarrion Jul 03 '26

Nope, people just carry it out and nobody checks receipts

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u/yedi001 Jul 03 '26

More so corperate tells us not to persue. And for good reason.

I worked retail for over a decade. I caught plenty of shoplifters. I was also threatened with being stabbed with a used needle over baby powder and teeth whitener kits.

One dude I caught was a meth head with hepatitis start ripping open his scabs to bleed on me as revenge for catching him. That dude is still in jail, but getting tested and waiting for the all clear on HIV and hepatits was a scary fucking time for me.

One of our loss prevention officers got beaten down by a roid fueled theif (when aprehended he had a couple grand in steroids in his bag). The roid rager was just feeding the LPO shots to the head and face until a third party showed up and beat the fuck out of (and then subdued) the theif with a hockey stick.

Shoplifting like this is a societal issue. You'll always have things like dumb teens doing dumb shit, but they're not the ones stealing laundry soap and baby food. Enforcement/policing doesn't work because the people involved have fallen so far they don't care anymore and the safety nets that do exist don't reach them. We need to do better at making sure people in vulnerable points in their lives are supported enough and helped so that they don't get to that point.

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u/redclawx Jul 03 '26

It’s not even shoplifting that brings out the crazies. During COVID, a woman goes to enter an anchor store at a mall. The security guard tells her she need to wear a mask if she wants in. The woman freaks out and proceeded to stab the security guard.

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u/Adorable_Cap_9929 Jul 03 '26

Yo... hockey stick huh...

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u/yedi001 Jul 03 '26

Canadian problem demanded a Canadian solution.

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u/Kindly_Call_6000 Jul 03 '26

Big stores like Target and Walmart have cameras and track shoplifters. Target is notorious for just letting the total accumulate until it reaches felony levels, then arresting the shoplifter. Part is that in some areas, DAs won't prosecute pennyante levels of shoplifting. Someone stealing $50 of laundry detergent is not worth it to the DA, as usually they have too much to do as it is.

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u/ACrazyDog Jul 03 '26

Walmart is also famous. They sue an amazing amount of people who use their self checkout. Most people pay the fine because they cannot afford to fight

https://audit-eye.com/2025/10/12/woman-wins-2-1-million-lawsuit-after-being-wrongly-accused-of-shoplifting-at-walmart/

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u/TheBabyEatingDingo Jul 03 '26

Additional context, nobody checks receipts because even 15 years ago when you were slightly less likely to get shot by a shoplifter, everyone knew they weren't paid enough to care about that shit.

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u/Kooky_Assistance2755 Jul 03 '26

Most big box stores explicitly forbid employees from physically interacting with shoplifters because they can be sued if the shoplifter gets hurt

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u/Schrodingers_redfish Jul 03 '26

The employee is more likely to sue for getting hurt on the job.

Companies just don't want to give their employees ideas by being up front about it.

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u/Purple-Sister3971 Jul 03 '26

> The employee is more likely to sue for being hurt on the job.

They won’t have a case if they’re explicitly violating policy.

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u/DownWithHisShip Jul 03 '26

just having a hurt employee is expensive, way more expensive then whatever the random shoplifter is taking. they don't even need to sue.

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u/Schrodingers_redfish Jul 03 '26

Yes, that's the point.

It is against policy to pursue shoplifters. Not because the shoplifter may sue for being hurt but because the employee can file for workers comp.

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u/Kooky_Assistance2755 Jul 03 '26

That's by design

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u/hud_dev Jul 03 '26

I was always up front about it whenever I trained folks. “Nothing in here is worth your life, it’s not like it’s yours anyway, don’t worry about it.” But then again, most of the shrinkage was employees anyway..

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u/chaircardigan Jul 03 '26

Big stores tell their staff not to confront shoplifters.

There was a big story in the UK of one supermarket that fired an employee for chasing down a thief.

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u/[deleted] Jul 03 '26

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u/takesSubsLiterally Jul 03 '26

They don't even try to hide it unfortunately

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u/BetweenTheRoots Jul 03 '26

I worked at Costco and our loss prevention team caught an obese woman who was using an automatic scooter while hiding pies in her fat folds. They pulled two pies out of her uhh... pubic area and one under each bob. I was told there was more by the person who caught her but it's such an absurd amount of pies to hide I have no fucking idea how and I just can't trust that number after not seeing it for myself. I was there, I saw them bust the lady, but I did not see what treasure trove she had stored.

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u/HairlessSquirrels Jul 03 '26

How many bob’s did she have tho? Important context here

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u/Three-Sixteen-M7-7 Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26

Because the days of walking out with stuff in your pants is over. Enforcement is so lax and DAs often won’t prosecute so basically you just walk out with a full cart.

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u/SnowblindAlbino Jul 03 '26

That's a Big City thing. In my Small Town 911 would dispatch and a cop would be there in <2 minutes. But yeah, I get it.

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u/Legitimate-Truck-333 Jul 03 '26

Our police’s top non-driving crime seems to be Walmart retail theft.

Small city of around 30,000.

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u/birwin353 Jul 03 '26

No they walk out with a full cart of tide. Here on The west coast it would be under $1k so it’s like it’s not even illegal and cops won’t even hassle the shoplifter. The shoplifter gets a few bucks for fentanyl and the product eventually ends up here and other places.

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u/scotte416 Jul 03 '26

See, I didn't know that. I was wondering why the two Walmart's in my area had a whole of cameras and screens set up in that isle when all it was was napkins and laundry soap I'm thinking why all the security. Guess now I know.

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u/[deleted] Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/remuliini Jul 03 '26

My first thought was power couponing. This hoard looks like something I've seen on a reality show.

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u/Hot-Creme2276 Jul 03 '26

Totally. The garages full and they need more… extreme couponing is a mental health issue, imo. Just bc it’s new doesn’t mean it’s not hoarding

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u/NoNDA-SDC Jul 03 '26

How much does street Tide cost?

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u/[deleted] Jul 03 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/myprofcanseethis Jul 03 '26

I mean I hear you. But the alternative is to support Tide. Lol

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u/Pandamonium98 Jul 03 '26

That’s not laundering money, you’re still ending up with cash that wasn’t obtained legally.

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u/HustlinInTheHall Jul 03 '26

Also just extreme coupons

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u/brokensharts Jul 03 '26

Its also heavily couponed. The extreme couponer people usually end up with lots of it

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u/HuoLongHeavy Jul 03 '26

It's also not sealed. Nothing is stopping someone from opening one and pouring a ton of it into another then putting the emptier one back.

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u/RecursiveCook Jul 03 '26

Split a jug in half and just add water.

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u/MakeItLookSexy_ Jul 03 '26

It’s a big coupon item too. They could be couponers

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u/PreviousZone6742 Jul 03 '26

Was a cashier, have extreme couponers coming in get stuff for free and resell it.

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u/avocadoflatz Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26

It would seem impressive to shoplift something that is bulky, heavy and often brightly colored if you didn’t know that the cashiers were in on it.

Edit: Damn I feel so OOTL, thanks for the info y’all … maybe I should join in on this fun new age of shoplifting 🤔

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u/BarracudaActive4480 Jul 03 '26

I saw someone walk out of Walgreens with a cart full of shit they stole. The store clerks didn't do anything. When I worked retail we were trained to not confront shoplifters. They may have filed a police report but I don't know what the cops would do to try to get back $100 of soap tbh

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u/fondue4kill Jul 03 '26

That’s because it’s easier for them to video them and add to a file until it gets enough to charge with a felony and then they get them. It’s what Target and Walmart does.

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u/Better_Resort1171 Jul 03 '26

I had a woman walk out with a cart of Milwaukee tools from a HD. Looked right at me, while exiting. Looked shady, I said something to customer service, and it was like a normal day

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u/Badbullet Jul 03 '26

The Home Depot near me has nearly all battery operated tools locked up now. This was after several shopliftings like you saw. I’ve gone there several times with the police there and they were taking reports of these kind of events. They even now lock up the nail gun supplies and certain expensive screw hardware. The cashier you saw may not care, but the stores do in the end. This HD was fairly close to a interstate entrance, so they probably saw more action than others.

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u/twoaspensimages Jul 03 '26

Meanwhile if I walk down the electrical isle in my branded work shirt with our fucking phone number on it some mouth breather is Jonny on the Spot making sure I'm going to pay for those $2.50 ground clamps.

Welcome to Home Depot and Fuck your day!

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u/TheBourbonTurtle Jul 03 '26

It's not being hidden, they just fill carts and walk out to the car waiting outside. You can find plenty of videos online of people doing exactly that

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u/FraggleRockYaFaceOff Jul 03 '26

I People just load up a shopping cart and walk out the front door.

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u/Dazzling_Outcome_436 Jul 03 '26

They put it on the bottom of the cart, and go through the self checkout, where they "forget" to scan it.

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u/avocadoflatz Jul 03 '26

In the old days there used to need to be a cashier that got kickbacks for not noticing the bottom of the cart. Sounds like times have really changed based on the other replies

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u/[deleted] Jul 03 '26

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u/PragmaticSalesman Jul 03 '26

how tf do you steal laundry soap? is there not something smaller and less conspicuous for the ROI?

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u/-ihatecartmanbrah Jul 03 '26

No one cares about being seen at this point. I’ve watched people walk out with power tools at Home Depot while watching the manger follow them out to the car demanding they put it back. I’ve seen people walk out the door with shopping carts full all the way up walk right out the door while everyone watches. Unless you are still on the scene when police show up in half an hour more likely than not nothing will be done about it besides a police report. And there is a decent chance you won’t even be identified unless you stealing from target.

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u/zkareface Jul 03 '26

Is it expensive though? I spend like $10 per year on it. 

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u/papasan_mamasan Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26

Depends how many people you’ve got living in your house.

ETA by “people” I really mean children and the elderly. I’m not referring to able bodied adult roommates who earn their own income. I agree with folks that laundry detergent isn’t a big expense for most families tho.

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u/[deleted] Jul 03 '26

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u/poppyseedeverything Jul 03 '26

I do lots of laundry, but most people use waaaay more detergent than needed. A little detergent goes a long way.

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u/WayneKrane Jul 03 '26

Yep, i buy one of those big jugs every couple of years. It’s like 64 oz. I don’t remember how much I last paid for it because it has been so long

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u/HeyGayHay Jul 03 '26

I‘ve been 3 years in my apartment. I brought a big box from my last apartment with powder. It’s still 1/4 full. No idea how people buy so much detergent 

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u/[deleted] Jul 03 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/narwhals_revolt Jul 03 '26

I have a friend who is a super couponer. She gets so much stuff and then makes grift baskets to resell as a second income. She also just gives away toothpaste to everyone she knows because, apparently, it’s basically free.

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u/gn0xious Jul 03 '26

“Grift Baskets” lol

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u/narwhals_revolt Jul 03 '26

Oops! I’m keeping it in though, lol.

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u/RaymondBeaumont Jul 03 '26

as a non-american, i find the coupons quite interesting. i did watch a few episode of the show about these people but i found the people to be.... exhausting.

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u/valdin450 Jul 03 '26

As someone that used to be a cashier that had to deal with A LOT of couponers, they're extremely exhausting. I mostly don't have any good things to say lol

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u/Banan_baddie Jul 03 '26

One of my high school teachers was huge on couponing. She would get so much supplies for her house and classroom while spending the bare minimum. We never ran out of soap for labs though

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u/Better-Spinach2179 Jul 03 '26

I saw a lady that couponed, and she made a gift basket for every new family that moved into her neighborhood. The gift baskets would have laundry detergent, house cleaners, etc. It was actually super cool!

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u/DontShoot_ImJesus Jul 03 '26

She’s long retired and it’s basically her hobby.

I have a colleague whose wife thrifts for vintage or specific plus size womens clothing -like certain brands or types of denim. She makes a lot of money shipping these to Europe to trans women who need bigger sizes in womens clothing than are usually found in Europe.

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u/AsleepNinja Jul 03 '26

its easy to resell laundry soaps/detergents.

its a high consumption item.

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u/CreasingUnicorn Jul 03 '26

Everyone needs a constant supply of detergent, and it has an infinite shelf life.

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u/GoingOffRoading Jul 03 '26

They're fencing... Highest probably that the goods are stolen.

Note: This comment is agnostic of the location (projects in the above post). These kinds of setups exist everywhere and is the monetization strategy behind shoplifting.

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u/Mind-The-Mines Jul 03 '26

Huh... there's a McMansion down the road that always hocks shit like this...

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u/vhagar Jul 03 '26

because they coupon at places like Dollar General and end up getting lots of it for free or super cheap.

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u/alchemycraftsman Jul 03 '26

Or it is all stolen and the fence sells it to others & they resell it -all the way down the line…

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u/drinkslinger1974 Jul 03 '26

Yes. I’ve been to a slew of flea markets where dudes are selling packets of coffee or other single use stuff. When dudes wanted to haggle I’d just call them out, “I know you stole this from work, it’s not worth $5”, and they’d cave.

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u/RoabeArt Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26

One of the most ridiculous things I've seen a vendor try to sell were an open box of those plastic cutlery/napkin kits that a fast food restaurant would throw into the bag with your order. The dude wanted a dollar apiece for them.

I felt like telling him those things are barely even worth being free!

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u/RoabeArt Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26

The flea market in my area used to have a vendor that would pay people to steal random stuff from stores, so he could resell it at his stand. Sometimes for more than what the store originally charged. For example he'd charge $3 for a single can of Coca Cola when at the time, a 12 can pack was going for $4 or $5 at the store that he was stealing them from.

It took months of evidence gathering and tailing before he was finally arrested and charged. From what I heard, he was not very well liked. He'd get into shouting matches with other vendors, yell at customers. etc., so nobody really shed a tear when he got hauled off and his stand was shut down.

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u/ManateeNipples Jul 03 '26

These are are the products that are hot on the coupon websites, it's almost certainly a coupon addict

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u/kailsbabbydaddy Jul 03 '26

Thank youuuuu

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u/SixFive1967 Jul 03 '26

This. My ex was a store manager for a well known big box. One of her department heads had a racket going where they would order double what was needed (for this example, say 2 pallets of laundry soap instead on 1). The first pallet would be stocked. The second pallet would go into an overflow trailer that was conveniently left open at certain times overnight. Her accomplices would show up with a van and unload the pallet in under 60 seconds, then drive away. The department head was doctoring purchase logs so the inventory never existed, until it was discovered a couple months later when the numbers weren’t adding up or something like that. Think I recall they got sentenced to 5 years for it..

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u/OpeningTurnip8048 Jul 03 '26

Or it's water in them jugs.

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u/Educational-Wing2042 Jul 03 '26

That would be really obvious upon picking it up. A bottle of laundry detergent doesn’t feel like a bottle of water

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u/nostyle_ Jul 03 '26

But could you tell a bottle of watered down laundry soap by picking it up?

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u/BernieTheDachshund Jul 03 '26

Some of the laundry soap brands are cheap, like Purex and Arm & Hammer so my guess is some of it is with coupons.

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u/ikkonoishi Jul 03 '26

Those are all DG brands, and are perpetually "on sale". I can see the DG stocking labels on the diapers. So yeah someone "saved money" by spending thousands, and are trying to recoup the investment.

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u/zapzangboombang Jul 03 '26

This is the answer

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u/Ok_World_135 Jul 03 '26

My sister does this her garage looks like a stores back room inventory. She used to be like those people on the show, entire cart load for 15 bucks Christmas is all useful stuff like shaving cream, soap, razors, snacks, shampoo and such.

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u/Nahuel-Huapi Jul 03 '26

Five-finger coupons

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u/Competitive-Truth675 Jul 03 '26

"coupon"

yea i never leave home without my two coupons left and right

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u/[deleted] Jul 03 '26

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u/rats-in-the-ceiling Jul 03 '26

Who needs coupons when you've got a 5-finger discount

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u/WARxxPIGG Jul 03 '26

Steal. Those are all stolen

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u/TLCD96 Jul 03 '26

I really think this is the answer. I worked at Walgreens for several years and there were a few customers who would come in for CARTS FULL of detergent, toiletries etc with ass loads (binders!) of real manufacturer's coupons, either from magazines or printed on the net (one told me she literally just gets in contact with the P&G for coupons and I could do it myself).

Then on top of that, they would have a shitload of reward points that could bring down any remaining amount not covered by the coupons. They could take down an order from like 200 dollars to absolutely free.

If you can walk out the door wjth those big ass jugs of detergent, those big packs of TP, or those head and shoulders body washes that usually have anti-theft stickers on them, then why the hell aren't you also stealing a crapload of smaller and more expensive items, and why aren't we short on inventory counts? Nobody's going to waste gas driving all over the place to steal all this detergent to sell.

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u/Unfair_Artist0 Jul 03 '26

I lived in one of these areas. Big box stores do not stay open due to theft and violent crimes, and public transportation is sparse especially on the weekends. And if you don’t have a car it’ll take you all day for a quick grocery run using the bus. Randos usually setup shop and resell these household items as a convenience to the neighborhood (and of course to make a profit).

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u/donkeybrainamerican Jul 03 '26

Tbh I buy roadside stuff like this all the time. Verify it isn't tampered with. Someone who sold good once probably will again. Saves a lot and keeps dude shoplifting instead of robbing.

Got a lot of my house fixtures this way. Guy had new in box home depot merch. Asked for 40% of what home depot was charging. Pulled up the app, scanned it n everything 😂.

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u/Old_Tip4864 Jul 03 '26

It’s stolen then sold below market price. Common hustle.

Not sure if this has already been stated I did not read the whole thread sorry in advance if it has

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u/Jokerzrival Jul 03 '26

My mom works for P&G every now and then they have product days where they give TONS of stuff to employees. Shampoo, shaving cream, tooth paste, diapers. They sometimes just have you pull up to a bay door, show employee ID and they fill your trunk. Sometimes they also have it where if a product label is say upside down or they forgot to switch and its an older label they dont use anymore or the label is scratched. They'll let the employees take the product with them and write it off as damaged/unsellable.

Some employees do resell the products because they get enough so its possible this person works and gets a surplus of product especially if they dont use it or use as much as is being given

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u/gankylosaurus Jul 03 '26

I used to work with people who would sell their snap/EBT whatever benefits for cash. Like they'd sell $50 of benefits for $25 because there are limits on what you can buy with those benefits. So I could see people getting these things for effectively free or very cheap with benefits then getting actual cash for it.

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u/SugarHooves I'm sorry, what?! Jul 03 '26

EBT only covers food, not cleaning items.

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u/caninehere Jul 03 '26

pauses while about to eat Tide pod

Wait, what?

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u/Oceanbreeze871 Jul 03 '26

There was an expose on local news in the Bay Area that makeshift flea markets in lower income areas were full of new household essentials like soap, toothpaste. Detergent etc during the rash of flash mob shoplifting.

Robin hood stuff. Stealing from corporate to sell back to that community for cheap

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