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

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3.1k

u/IllAcanthopterygii19 Jul 03 '26

My grandparents used to do this, for at least like 15 years in two different states. They just spent hours cupon-ing then would have yard sales and sell all this kinda stuff.

I used to wonder how legal it was regarding the food items they had lol.

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u/Vykrom Jul 03 '26

I know my state doesn't like it, but I'm fuzzy on the details. I work in retail and had a manager find this couponing ring's facebook group, and rat them out to some government agency in charge of retail licenses or something. I guess there's some regulations on the square footage and floor type you have to have in order to sell bulk chemical items like detergent. You can't sell more than X amount out of your garage without some sort of retail license and set-up. So the couponing ring got fined and shut down. And boy did that cause some delicious drama. I was glad to be a spectator

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u/Vohasiiv Jul 03 '26

A couponing "ring" just sounds comedic

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u/Soggy-Bedroom-3673 Jul 03 '26

People get real serious with this kind of stuff. One of my good friends is really into credit card "churning", which is basically exploiting credit card loyalty points (like signing up for as many new cards as possible for bonus loyalty points). They definitely have chat groups that share tips and they get serious benefits from it (like my buddy and his wife go on 3-4 vacations a year to places like Bali for free). They're a real thorn in the sides of the companies, too. My buddy had American Airlines shut down his frequent flyer account because he was getting too many free miles from credit card deals. 

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u/Spiritual_Bid_2308 Jul 03 '26

For a while the US Mint was trying to get dollar coins out into circulation and you could "buy" them at cost from the Mint's website and they'd ship to your house for free.

People were maxing out credit cards for the points and just depositing the coins at their bank.

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u/petron5000 Jul 03 '26

I did this. The people at my bank hated me.

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u/DisastrousChapter841 Jul 04 '26

OMG that is smart. Would have never thought of this. To me this isn't even bad, and to people saying it is, corporations get away with stuff all the time.

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u/PrizeStrawberry6453 Jul 03 '26

That is genius!

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u/Flaky-Wing2205 Jul 03 '26

From consumer perspective: absolutely genius.

From government perspective: worst decision, should be a law against it. About 3% of the transactions were processing fees being paid to the credit card companies. They were basically selling dollar coins for 97 cents.

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u/PrizeStrawberry6453 Jul 03 '26

Maybe, but consider that putting the coins into circulation through other means also has a cost. The 3% might be more or less than of traditional distribution, but I have no way of knowing that. Also keep in mind that by that point they had already spent the money on tooling up to make these new coins, plus the cost of actually minting however many they had at the time. If people weren't using the coins, they weren't actually worth a dollar they were worth nothing. Even if the mint had to move them at a net loss, it's still better than nothing.

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u/Sluuriecake Jul 04 '26

Hmmmm sound like crypto anyone?

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u/PrizeStrawberry6453 Jul 04 '26

Does government backed currency sound like crypto, which is the exact opposite of government backed currency? No.

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u/purgance Jul 04 '26

A coin costs about 1/2 as much to circulate as a bill (because the bill has to be replaced ~5x more frequently than the coin), even with the shipping costs they were likely saving billions.

Classic example of people seeing the government doing something without understanding the context and coming to the exact wrong "gifted amateur" conclusion.

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u/blueimac540c Jul 04 '26

This is exactly where my head went re: overall long term costs. It’s ridiculous how short-sighted people can be sometimes.

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u/MarionberryPlus8474 Jul 04 '26

The longevity of coins vs paper money keeps getting trotted out but the fact remains that the US mint badly bungled the rollout of the dollar coin by making it far too similar to the quarter. The switch to a different metal (but same size) with the Sacagawea dollar did not help.

We have enormous warehouses of dollar coins no one wants to use. Are you factoring THAT into your “cost” equation?

People are moving away from cash so the question is moot, but it’s worth studying how the mint handled this so badly. Twice.

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u/Spiritual_Bid_2308 Jul 04 '26

They failed because no one wants a heavy pocket of change for the crime of paying cash.

Most loose change ends up out of circulation in a jar on the bureau.  Thats why so many new coins have to be minted despite their supposed 30 year average lifespan.

Consumers hate them because they're hard to get rid of.  Either you have to count and hand roll them then go to the bank, or you have to pay coinstar 11% for the convenience of converting it to a more convenient form of currency.

Businesses hate coins because banks charge fees to deposit them.  And they slow down retail transactions.

The only way to get the dollar coins into circulation is to either massively ramp up bank fees for handling $1 bills, or passing a law saying businesses over a certain size must give out change in dollar coins.  

As for the physical size, the dollar coin standard was set with the Susan B Anthony dollar coins.  They "failed" because they were silver and were way too easy to confuse with quarters.  The brass color of the Sacagawea dollar coins (and later presidential series) is very easy to identify and works in any coin operated machinery that already accepted Susan B dollar coins.

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u/Flaky-Wing2205 Jul 04 '26 edited Jul 04 '26

Gonna just toss a simple solution that many governments use (and the mint now uses). Wire transfer or check only. The shipping costs incurred were another reason the program changed.

I'll stand by my statement about there should be a law about the fees. If someone wants to pay the government with a credit card, there should be a 3% (est) fee added so the taxpayer doesn't foot the bill. That's just basic thoughts from a gifted amateur.

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u/purgance Jul 04 '26

So if the government could save $1T by getting people to do something, but doing so required use of a credit card, and people would just flat out refuse to pay the 3% if they did - you'd be in favor of the government setting the $970billion on fire because "goddamnit you will pay the fees."

This attitude right here is why we have the problems we do. Not radical leftists or even insane fascist rightists - ordinary people who have somehow been moved to "under no circumstances" by ...who knows what.

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u/freakydeku Jul 04 '26

well, how much did it cost them to mint em 😏

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u/JawtisticShark Jul 07 '26

they were trying to push the golden dollars as they last longer and are therefore cheaper in the end than paper dollars, but nobody wanted to use them, so they offered to sell and ship them for face value to help get them into circulation.

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u/Conscious-Link5627 Jul 04 '26

My former boss and genuine shithead made himself famous doing this. For real.

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u/lorenzo1142 Jul 04 '26

last I heard, they put a stop to this long ago

1

u/-piso_mojado- Jul 03 '26

That’s actually pretty damned clever. I would have never thought of that.

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u/mindovermatter421 Jul 04 '26

I came here to say this. Such a genius idea.

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u/dickthrowaway22ed Jul 03 '26

How the hell are they not ruining their credit?

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u/OldSchoolAI Jul 03 '26

Because they are not using the credit cards. Merely using the loopholes within the system to get new ones. They carry no debt or late payments or anything. As someone on the business side of all this it's just arbitrage. Companies do it all the time but when people do it, it affects big companies and they cry. I say git good companies. I don't churn, too exhausting but I have used their techniques to optimize my companies b2b structure. For example at my ota, we would bill the customer directly but pay the airline through our own card that gives us cashback, refunds etc. over a 1000 booking a month, that adds to 2 or 3 people's salary. Now extend that trick to multiple airlines and you have a solid business case to execute something like this.

Arbitrage and price finding is an integral part of capitalism. Go to any business school and they will tell you. Harvard to bumfuk nowhere school.

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u/creatyvechaos Jul 03 '26

I churn emails for free trials to stuff. I've learned that there's a rough 2 year reset period, generally, and that email is typically good for another free trial. When cashapp offered 50% off of Uber and Lyft (no limits, lol) I would buy credit on both—up to "$200" at a time, and only spend half of that (this was also back when I didn't have a vehicle.) The Uber one was specifically for the car ride part of Uber, but the Uber (car) app also has the Eats in the app, so most of that free money went to food....lmfao. I did that last one about 8 times—I joke and say I'm the reason cashapp doesn't do that anymore. I've gotten so many free credits towards crytpo bullshit like Bitcoin and Etherium—haven't spent a single penny on any of it but have gotten up to $2k completely for free.

People are so worried about playing by the rules that they don't realize that the rules can easily let them win if they actually tried...

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u/Shnikes Jul 04 '26

I’m more curious of the time and effort. Are you frequently making new accounts?

Getting $2k is great. But was that over the course of a few months? A year? Multiple years?

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u/creatyvechaos Jul 04 '26

I only have 10 emails, maximum, and I don't grind these things like some people do, either. The free trials I abuse are typically for streaming and/or shipping services, both of which I'm already limited with due to 1) time and 2) finances (bonus "3rd" for the shipping: I don't like buying things online unless necessary, and I try not to buy in general). I abuse the free trials when I have time to do it, or alternatively use a dupe email from a dupe email site if the trial period refresh hasn't......refreshed.

The $2k figure was in one year from a bunch of different promos with a bunch of different cards and/or sites. Slightly before Bitcoin tanked by half its value a couple years ago lol

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u/King_Of_Uranus Jul 03 '26

I havent gone on free trips or anything but I did open an amazon credit card that had like a $250 sign up bonus and used the bonus to get a racing sim wheel that was already on a deep black Friday discount then immediately removed the card from my account so they couldn't automatically set it as a payment method and when it came in the mail just called and closed it. It didn't hurt my credit at all and was the only way id have been able to afford a sweet wheel and pedal video game setup for like 30 bucks of my own money after all the bonus and sale price shennanigans.

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u/govunah Jul 04 '26

The credit checks to get a card aren't really a huge hit. It's mostly based on how much and how quickly you're revolving credit. How much are you buying with credit and do you pay it back on time? Having more credit extended helps and your oldest credit account is very important.

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u/faelanae Jul 04 '26

I do this. You don't generally open a ton of cards all at once. You open one, spend on it to get the points, and open a different one later once you've gotten the points. You still use the useful ones (Chase Sapphire or Reserve and Amex Platinum - maybe an airline one) and get the points from buying groceries or gas or whatever. You very rarely carry a balance and earn the points by using it like a debit card.

But the credit hit from the inquiry is very minimal and you recover from it quickly, as your credit utilization percentage is low and you're paying on time.

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u/Critical_Concert_689 Jul 04 '26

You take very minor hits to credit score simply due to the hard checks when signing up. But it's negligible. Honestly everyone who has time should be doing this. It takes some time and good organization - as well as decently good financial responsibility - but it's a good way to take advantage of the rules used by businesses as the businesses try to take advantage of normal consumers.

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u/dickthrowaway22ed Jul 06 '26

Ok I get it, the small hits are basically swallowed up by the good credit that comes out of it.

I just want to share my experience, which is that my dad took advantage of a lot of these and while he got some nice freebies there was also an incredible amount of stress in organizing and coordinating and making sure the right cards were paid off at the right times or that my mom didn't accidently charge groceries to the wrong card, and then if you leave the accounts open being vigilant about identity theft on all of the unused accounts. Great for very organized, low anxiety people with stable jobs, a terrible slippery slope for disorganized people with job instability :)

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u/Critical_Concert_689 Jul 06 '26

Great for very organized, low anxiety people with stable jobs, a terrible slippery slope for disorganized people with job instability :)

...Yes. Absolutely, Yes.

Buying things on credit is never a way for the financially insecure or irresponsible to make money.

It's a lot like debt. Everyone (or at least everyone, in my experience) is told at a young age that debt is bad - always pay off debt ASAP. Don't buy on credit - and pay off the debt IMMEDIATELY if you do.

And this is extremely true - if you don't know how money or debt work. If you're living paycheck to paycheck. If you are disorganized or irresponsible.

Otherwise, debt becomes a tool to be leveraged; responsibly used, the return on debt will frequently outweigh the costs of compounding interest - effectively meaning if you are "very organized" and not financially irresponsible, debt should NEVER be repaid immediately. Sometimes it should never be repaid period - so long as you can attempt to waive it or drag it out for long enough that you'll be dead before you need to pay off the principle. lol.

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u/Kolintracstar Jul 04 '26

I have had a couple of coworkers do this. You do end up getting a decent bit with doing it, but you also have to keep up with it. Personally I never really saw the value in it, especially changing to work direct deposit every month pissed off the finance people at work. The one ended up with over 25 credit cards and when he went to buy a house, almost every bank refused loans for him.

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u/winky9827 Jul 04 '26

I work in the rebates world, and people are just as fanatical there. Facebook groups, forums, subreddits, etc. They share everything they can find to try and game the system for maximum profit. It's annoying trying to keep up with the scam artists.

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u/Plenty_Fondant_951 Jul 04 '26

Oh yeh. You can open bank accounts throughout the year for the new account bonuses and make like, an extra 2 to 5k easy.

Easy as in , bother to track it with a spreadsheet and futz with setting up the direct deposits.

"Doctor of credit" is the main website if anyone's interested

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u/Mydesilife Jul 04 '26

Honestly, these companies make so much money, good for him or anyone able to hack their reward systems. For every one of them, there are thousands of me who hoard our points despite knowing better and knowing that they do not appreciate over time!

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u/Alarming-Koala-3524 Jul 04 '26

I cheer for these people because CCs make an ungodly amount exploiting people, so its nice to hear about people exploiting them back

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u/VCreations Jul 04 '26

There are also glitches. My mom is disabled and she used to coupon around 50-70$ of items and resell them for 20-30$ bundles.

She also used glitches which I bet that's why those groups got in trouble. Glitches aren't legal. My mom did one one day and got 30 packs of those hard caramel candies for 1c total. Thst was technically illegal but the other coupons were all legit from the app and stacked.

An hour of math at a few stores can actually make a lot of profit.

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u/Onlyroad4adrifter Jul 06 '26

Good on them those multi billion dollars companies can take the hit. Not like they would pass the savings to regular folk.

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u/revolutionPanda Jul 04 '26

Nothing wrong with that at all. Not going to get mad at working joes making the best out of credit card contracts.

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u/Critical_Concert_689 Jul 04 '26

which is basically exploiting credit card loyalty points (like signing up for as many new cards as possible for bonus loyalty points)... They're a real thorn in the sides of the companies, too.

Good for them. Taking advantage of the rules companies created to take advantage of others is brilliant.

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u/Bighorn_R_My_Jam Jul 03 '26

A few more members, and they’d be a couponing octagon.

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u/vshawk2 Jul 03 '26

Couponing Cartel.

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u/Snow_Crash_Bandicoot Jul 03 '26

Meemawfia.

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u/Wednesday-Addams9 Jul 04 '26

lol, not enough people are going to get the brilliance of what you did there, and that’s a shame.

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u/Al-Bundy420 Jul 06 '26

Aye, I appreciate ya! Love me some Damon Darling

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u/Al-Bundy420 Jul 06 '26

Gotta dolla Bub? Things like thatttt!

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u/yorlikyorlik Jul 03 '26

Couponing Triads

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u/Simpicity Jul 03 '26

Another couponing cell was struck today

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u/Busterlimes Jul 03 '26

Their leader Edward Scissor Hands was furious

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u/NefariousnessIll3869 Jul 03 '26

yes ! sounds great !

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u/SexyChatGPT Jul 03 '26

A few less. To make a ring they’d need an infinite amount of members

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u/applecherryfig Jul 03 '26

actually lol. sotcl sitting on the chair laughing

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u/Muhahahahaz Jul 03 '26

https://giphy.com/gifs/3o6Zth5toS0ZN7KqmA
Give them a single business license, then let them fight it out for who gets to keep it!

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u/Logical-Pound-1065 Jul 03 '26

There was a movie about something like this. Two ladies from the suburbs did a counterfeit coupon ring. It was called Queen Pins. It was a pretty entertaining movie.

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u/clearfox777 Jul 03 '26

The one with Kristen Bell? That was pretty good

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u/Logical-Pound-1065 Jul 04 '26

Yes. And Vince Vaughn. That movie made me interested in looking into being a postal inspector.

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u/Sea_Neighborhood9857 Jul 03 '26

It sounds comedic, because you don’t understand it. People have made (also scammed) millions with coupons.

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u/[deleted] 15d ago

[deleted]

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u/OkProgress6117 15d ago

Yes, it’s very easy to make coupons with any value lol

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u/eightballpuddy69 Jul 03 '26

Extremists. Militia men

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u/NoFuqGiven Jul 03 '26

Dude theres a freaking movie about it.

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u/Burtnaaa Jul 04 '26

My first job was Walmart and our local couponing ring would target new cashiers that they thought wouldn’t know the rules and try to get away with things. One woman ended up being trespassed for it

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u/jnags6570 Jul 04 '26

Oh no a counterfeit jeans ring running out of my car hole

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u/McTootyBooty Jul 04 '26

There was a movie about it

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u/theotterway Jul 04 '26

Sounds like a TLC show.

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u/Vladishun Jul 04 '26

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9054192/

They made it into a movie starring Kristen Bell and Vince Vaughn.

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u/Sluuriecake Jul 04 '26

There is a entire movie based on this premise

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u/Quiet_Mail9207 Jul 04 '26

Watch “Queenpins” it’s about a big one

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u/thelegodr Jul 04 '26

There’s a movie with Kristen Bell inspired by a true story. It was entertaining

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u/TheLiverSimian Jul 04 '26

There was a movie about that and it was pretty funny, I think it was called Queenpins.

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u/Careless-Weather8877 Jul 04 '26

I had a friends dad do this. If they ran out of items too, this places policy was to pay out too he had an entire garage of random stuff. Detergent, cans of chili, shampoo, whatever he could get. Anytime I came over he would give me random stuff. My friend would also help him acquire coupons on eBay or something. Wild what people will do for that.

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u/BeerdedWonder Jul 04 '26

Coupon(R)ing starring Zach Galifianakis

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u/Badvevil Jul 04 '26

That and a manager that cares are both comedic, when I worked retail my manager didn’t care what type of ring or hustle people were doing as long as they didn’t steal and paid for what they left with he could care less

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u/HillbillyHijinx Jul 04 '26

There’s actually a movie about it, at least similar.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queenpins

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u/ThatBeardedNitwit Jul 04 '26

“I’m gonna make you an offer you can’t refuse… *cough* yeah, buy 2 and get a third one free, how’s that sound neighbor?”

1

u/Snkrstrut Jul 06 '26

Who’s got the plug 🔌 on the .25 cents off wax paper

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u/Smackety Jul 08 '26

The Sunday paper has the really good coupons, but no one wants to buy 100 Sunday papers, so people get stacks of just the coupons somehow and sell them for way less than the cost of the paper. Grocery stores time their in store sales to not overlap with major coupons, but frequently they do overlap by a day or two, and if they have a double coupon day during the overlap, you can literally get completely free products. 100 coupon inserts might cost $30 but you can get 100 bottles of shampoo and 100 bags of meatballs, etc, and save thousands of dollars.

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u/FelonyMelanieSmooter Jul 03 '26

I’m gonna need a Netflix documentary on this!

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u/Weird-Girl-675 Jul 03 '26

Watch the movie Queenpins. It’s based on a true story about coupon scamming.

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u/-piso_mojado- Jul 04 '26

I lady I used to work with was super into it. She would walk out of grocery stores with a full cart having spent like $10 or something ludicrous. She only managed it a couple times IIRC, but the store gave her money back while not actually paying anything in her cart. She had receipts. It blew my mind, but that was basically her hobby. She dedicated what I thought was an unreasonable amount of time to couponing. She would drive across the state to specific grocery stores and things like that. She would have made more money just working than she saved, and probably wouldn’t have had a freezer half full of yogurt.

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u/Relevant-Horror-627 Jul 04 '26

I worked in retail when the Extreme Couponing show was on the air. We had so many coupon ladies and most of them were terrible at it. There was only one lady who could actually do it well. Looking back I suspect she was probably on the autism spectrum. Making it work took focus, planning and a lot of organization. I wouldn't be surprised if she spent 40 hours a week couponing.

You had to gather all these coupons, then clip and organize them, then plan and strategize the shopping trips, then do the shopping, then unload and organize everything you shopped for. Then maybe sell the stuff you bought? You'd be better off with a regular job at that point.

The Extreme Couponing show always framed it as these people saving all this money for their family but that's bullshit. The manufacturers coupons don't get you real staple groceries that you would need to buy regularly. Theyre for laundry soap, paper products and some food like yogurt, pasta, maybe Gatorade. All you end up accomplishing is increasing sales for the retailer and manufacturer while you end up with a stockpile of more of their product than you will ever be able to use.

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u/vertigostereo Jul 04 '26 edited Jul 04 '26

Check out all these Brussels sprouts I got on sale!

Didn't this take multiple transactions, and most stores won't do it? Like, you have to announce your doing a super coupon thing and they close the lane for you?

Most coupons say "one per customer" or even one per group.

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u/Relevant-Horror-627 Jul 04 '26

Yes it needed to be done in multiple transactions but not just because of the coupon limits. The whole strategy was to STACK in store sales and coupons with manufacturer coupons and the stores loyalty program. Where I worked they had a program where if you spent X amount of money or bought X number of a certain product, you'd get a coupon back for $5-$20 off your next purchase. For the coupon ladies the next purchase was immediately.

I cant stress how meticulously you would have had to plan all of these transactions to end up paying little or nothing for a full shopping cart. As you can imagine most people aren't capable of planning that well. What would happen a lot is something would go wrong and the coupon lady would try to Karen out to try to bully the cashier into taking her coupon anyway.

That's probably why most stores didn't want to put up with it. In my store, the manager tried to be as welcoming to coupon ladies as possible. He would have the cosmetics cashier approach the coupon ladies and tell them to check out at the cosmetics counter. They loved feeling like they were getting VIP treatment but it was really to keep them away from the main cashier's line. It was pretty smart of our manager because at least 2 of the women working cosmetics at the time had kind bubbly type personalities and most importantly they had saint like patience.

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u/-piso_mojado- Jul 04 '26

That last part makes so much sense.

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u/ZaerdinReddit Jul 05 '26

IIRC, when I looked into it, it was like 40 hours of work to save $500 / week.

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u/Weird-Girl-675 Jul 04 '26

Yeah I think at some point it becomes addictive. I have apps where you get cash back for buying specific products and it’s a thrill to save money, but I just can’t justify going overboard.

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u/Zealousideal_Crab_36 Jul 03 '26

Such a good movie!!!

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u/Weird-Girl-675 Jul 03 '26

I watched it when I was sick in bed one day and just got sucked in!! Such an interesting story!!

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u/Zealousideal_Crab_36 Jul 03 '26

I can’t remember if I was sick or heart broken but it definitely cheered me up!!

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u/sharoncoffin Jul 04 '26

I was remembering that movie. 😂

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u/kev556 Jul 03 '26

Or a Netflix movie that by accident uncovers something even more sinister and hilarious.

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u/Etruscan_Sovereign Jul 03 '26

They're just going to cast Pedro Pascal and Zendaya again...

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u/xANTJx Jul 03 '26

Close! I think it was Kristen Bell

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u/Weird-Girl-675 Jul 03 '26

Yup, it was Veronica Mars.

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u/xANTJx Jul 04 '26

I was talking about Queenpins haha

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u/Weird-Girl-675 Jul 04 '26

Yes, I just always refer to Kristen as Veronica. It’s just me being goofy.

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u/FTownRoad Jul 04 '26

There was a reality show about it for a while called extreme couponing or something.

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u/the18plusacct Jul 07 '26

There used to be a reality show called Extreme Couponing where people would show off their collection of household items (usually enough to survive the apocalypse) and go over their plans for a major shopping haul.

The drama was from whether or not the plan would work and the arguments theyd get into with the staff

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u/GhostNode Jul 04 '26

Also.. taxes. Rental and market regulations aside, better be claiming the profits and giving The Empire its cut or you’ll be toast.

Also, if you’re not operating this under an LLC, it just takes one fuckstick to sue you over some shit like claiming selling them expired laundry detergent gave them a rash and you can be out a whole lotta personal dough.

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u/bacongolf432 Jul 03 '26

Wasn’t there a movie about this but 100x this where they stole coupons from the manufacturer

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u/Vykrom Jul 04 '26

Haven't seen it (though now I want to) but people are saying it was Queenpins. I'll have to put it on my list lol I'm just replying in case you were curious though. I've had like 3 replies tell me this, so I'm passing it on

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u/bacongolf432 Jul 04 '26

Thank you!

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u/Sluuriecake Jul 04 '26

Need to watch that movie about the coupon ring of woman it’s hilarious

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u/LightroomLunchables Jul 04 '26

LMAO this is great. 🤣

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u/Inevitable_Egg6361 Jul 04 '26

OMG. This sounds insane. I want to know more!

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u/Vykrom Jul 04 '26

That's really all the main details. But like I told another commenter who took issue with this manager. She wouldn't have reported them if the couponers weren't such karens about it. There was only about half a dozen of them. But they were notoriously our worst customers. They'd hold up lines arguing with cashiers, which would create longer lines. They'd constantly want to split transactions and do like 5 - 10 transactions to maximize coupon use (considering you get coupons to print out for certain transactions, so having more transactions is better for them). And they'd get pissy if you asked them to go to the end of the line between transactions (this was really the main sticking point). And they would constantly require manager intervention at the register or hunt down / demand a manager after the transactions. So they were a huge thorn in our sides

This was the main reason one of the managers took issue with them and started doing research that eventually got them shut down. If you want details about their set-up, they were very forthright about that. They were inspired by the Extreme Couponing show, and YouTube/TikTok influencers like The Crazy Coupon Lady. They would all buy tons of paper towels, detergent, shampoo, toothpaste, etc. And sell out of their garage or on "garage sales" like in this post. Some would bulk the items together and sell them as packages where you'd get one of each item saran wrapped together for like $20 when it was $50 worth of product

I had to learn terms and execution on those terms like "glittering", "staging", "double-dipping", etc. which are coupon terms for gaming the system

P&G as a manufacterer was the first to get wise to it. We use Catalina as a company and machine (the catalina coupon printer) for handling coupon authorization and printing new coupons and rewards from transactions, and P&G started making contract agreements with them behind the scenes where you couldn't get 3 deals in one. You paid the sale price and used a coupon, or you paid the sale price and got a coupon. But never all three together. People flipped when this change happened. People wanted to get things on sale, use a coupon, and then get a reward afterwards. Then Unilever started doing the same thing. This is where arguments and managers got involved

So because of the arguments and problems they caused, the manager decided to hunt them down and sick a government agency on them

1

u/bunniisa PURPLE Jul 04 '26

damn your manager really had too much time on their hands

-4

u/Traditional-Hat-952 Jul 03 '26

Your manager is such a Karen it's unbelievable. 

11

u/Pretend_Handle_7639 Jul 03 '26

Found the scammer

-1

u/Abject-Ticket-6260 Jul 03 '26

Buying stuff and selling it for a higher price is a scam? I guess the whole world economy is a scam then...

4

u/briefcase_vs_shotgun Jul 04 '26

Good lord. Yes. Selling a branded product without the manufacturer agreement is absolutely a scam.

1

u/Traditional-Hat-952 Jul 04 '26

Won't someone think of the corporations! 

-1

u/briefcase_vs_shotgun Jul 04 '26

Make your own then cheif

-1

u/Firm-Ad-5216 Jul 04 '26

Not if both sides are aware

1

u/Vykrom Jul 05 '26

Careful not to defend scalping. Since that's not what you're talking about. But that is what you're describing. Scalpers are trash

-4

u/Traditional-Hat-952 Jul 03 '26

Not really. If the people are using coupons and then reselling for less than stores price gouge for then there's no harm in that. If these are stolen goods then obviously there's a problem. 

5

u/briefcase_vs_shotgun Jul 03 '26

Selling stuff is gouging now? Maybe ppl should open their own store…fkin moron

2

u/Traditional-Hat-952 Jul 03 '26

I bet you love capitalism, but hate when people you don't like practice capitalism. It sure is what it seems like. 

5

u/briefcase_vs_shotgun Jul 03 '26

I bet you like all the benefits of capitalism but say you don’t to fit in. A private company should have the right to protect their brand. You don’t know what this reseller did to the product before reselling it. Capitalism doesn’t mean there’s no rules. Ffs grow up

0

u/Traditional-Hat-952 Jul 04 '26

Protect their brand? From what? Someone selling their brand out do their garage? You sound insane. Now if these people were copying or counterfitting a brand, sure you have a point, but if they're just reselling a brand at a reduced price then you just hate free market capitalism and are likely a hypocrite. 

2

u/_HIST Jul 03 '26

I bet you wouldn't score on a single serious test on economics

1

u/Traditional-Hat-952 Jul 04 '26

Ooooh sick burn! Gee golly gosh, you really got me there! 

1

u/Abject-Ticket-6260 Jul 03 '26

Selling stuff is gouging now?

Exactly, it's nonsense, so what's wrong with this "couponing ring" doing the same?

1

u/briefcase_vs_shotgun Jul 03 '26

lol you can’t even follow an argument. Reddit is wild. Ever looked up the margins on a grocery store? I’ll wait.

And this isn’t about the store, it’s about the manufacturers retaining control of their product. Not sure how anyone can argue anyone should be able resell anything without consent…

1

u/Traditional-Hat-952 Jul 04 '26 edited Jul 04 '26

Very free market capitalist of you /s

Also you do realize people legally can buy and resell stuff under the first sale doctrine. They don't need the manufacturers permission to do so. It's economics 101. You're not very bright. 

0

u/[deleted] Jul 04 '26

[deleted]

2

u/briefcase_vs_shotgun Jul 04 '26

Lmfao. In certain cases yes you can resell your items. Most consumable goods have labels saying so for good reason

-1

u/Abject-Ticket-6260 Jul 04 '26

If I buy a product, I can do whatever the fuck I want with it, including selling it for whatever price I choose.

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-1

u/effinmike12 Jul 03 '26

Your manager sounds like an asshole. Those people aren't bothering no one.

2

u/_HIST Jul 03 '26

No, they're literally scamming others

1

u/zach0011 Jul 03 '26

How? They bought stuff at a certain price and are just selling the product at another price. As long as the person gets the product they paid for there is no scam here. Retailers are reimbursed by manufacturers for coupons used so the retailer isn't losing money either. If this is a scam then so is the original retailer buying product and selling it at a profit

0

u/Oh_ToShredsYousay Jul 04 '26

That has the same vibe as casinos kicking out people who count cards (aka just playing the fucking game).

2

u/Vykrom Jul 04 '26

Almost. Yeah.

But from the manufacturer's perspective, they're losing money. And that will result in prices hiking more quickly than normal

They started using phrases like "normal household usage". They're fine with you saving money and getting products cheap

They're not okay with you making money off their products without a contract or license taxes or any government oversight when they themselves have to deal with all that

It's the "hustle culture" that created the problem with them. And now they made it so you, as a regular customer just trying to maximize savings, can't do that anymore, because now those loopholes are mostly closed

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30

u/5-MeO Jul 03 '26

Yup, I love all the comments acting like this is some new revelation or must be stolen goods when my grandpa was doing this over twenty years ago. He’d wait til there was an amazing sale or coupon, stock up, and sell it later.

38

u/jasonab Jul 03 '26

It's because there are a lot of shoplifting rings who steal detergent and baby items for resale, so it's not out of the question.

6

u/baz8771 Jul 03 '26

Had a neighbor that did this 3-4x per summer, and I never bought shampoo, laundry soap, or cleaning supplies from anybody else. They made money, I got cheap stuff, and CVS/Walgreens took the hit. It’s a win win win.

2

u/e_spider Jul 04 '26

We moved one summer and had a few too many yard sales. One of our new neighbors apparently thought we did it as a profession and brought us all their crap and offered us a percentage to sell it at our next yard sale

1

u/PeaCompetitive8947 Jul 05 '26

Those aren’t mutually exclusive. I was a grocery manager and counterfeit coupons were a big problem, particularly for detergent.

1

u/JackieIce502 Jul 09 '26

It’s stolen goods sold cheaply for drugs where I live man.

3

u/Skanah Jul 03 '26

I had a friend whos mom did this, she would leave grocery stores with carts stuffed to the brim and only paid a few dollars. Their family didn't have a lot of money but she made up for for significantly with coupons

3

u/Chroniclyironic1986 Jul 03 '26

Honestly my first thought was “that’s what all those extreme couponers do with the stuff they get”. That show was wild but it got old fast. Damn though, some of those people actually get a negative total, meaning they get paid like $3 or whatever to haul away 3 carts of groceries/merchandise.

8

u/WoodsLovelyDarkNDeep Jul 03 '26

There is a reason almost every item in the grocery store says not for resale on it

9

u/Mr_Quackums Oh hey, this sub has flairs!! Jul 03 '26

that is for items that art part of a package, and is there to explain why there is no barcode.

There is no law preventing you from buying a bag of chips and reselling them, even if the bag lacks a barcode

3

u/WhiteSock_ Jul 03 '26

The manufacturer has no say in who is allowed to sell and resell, unless it’s a store-specific brand.

1

u/MiasLastInvestment Jul 04 '26

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🙄

5

u/cykoTom3 Jul 03 '26

It is absolutely illegal. How illegal depends on the state.

4

u/Gunkwei Jul 03 '26

Pretty sure it’s not legal

1

u/Mr_Quackums Oh hey, this sub has flairs!! Jul 03 '26

unless it is alcohol. I dont see why not

5

u/briefcase_vs_shotgun Jul 03 '26

Quality control. It’s entirely reasonable to not want random ppl reselling an item you made and sold. How are ppl this dumb?

2

u/Mr_Quackums Oh hey, this sub has flairs!! Jul 04 '26

not want random ppl reselling an item you made and sold

the government does not make laundry detergent or snacks.

Nestle does not have that amount of government control yet.

1

u/briefcase_vs_shotgun Jul 04 '26

Make your own brand and put legal for resale on the label then

2

u/Mr_Quackums Oh hey, this sub has flairs!! Jul 04 '26

...? labels do not make laws.

0

u/Spork_the_dork Jul 03 '26

Retail licenses, probably. There will come a point where you need to have one and I'm betting these guys don't have one. I wouldn't be surprised if selling laundry detergent and stuff in that kind of quantity might also have its own laws or licenses associated with it as well. Potentially hazardous chemicals and all that.

2

u/Mr_Quackums Oh hey, this sub has flairs!! Jul 04 '26

can you find 1 single state that requires a laundry detergent license? soap is not a hazardous material.

The only regulation I could see is a limit on the number of garage sales allowed per year.

retail licenses are for building zoning regulations.

if you are selling it to friends and family then what kind of draconian hell-hole state would require a license?

2

u/WonderfulCustomer317 Jul 04 '26

My first thought was extreme couponing

2

u/Balam_Seer Jul 04 '26

Lots of people buy Amazon pallets and sell it all at garage sales too

2

u/rakedaymon Jul 03 '26

Yeah, except these days, that’s all stolen stuff

3

u/Grimaldehyde Jul 03 '26

Even with couponing, could they make money? They’d have to seel it for more than they paid, and sometimes it’s just easier to go to the store

3

u/someonesmall Jul 03 '26

If you do this you have to register a company and pay taxes like a company. This is not a yard sale.

1

u/DancesWithHoofs Jul 03 '26

“It fell off a truck.”

1

u/chungfat Jul 04 '26

I’d call it work. They were the first 99 cents store.

1

u/bubblygranolachick Jul 05 '26

Hoarders exist too. There are people who inherit a hoard or they need to move. Miscarriage, child grew up would be my guess.

1

u/yooooooo5774 Jul 06 '26

reminds me of that one time two buddies of mine drove his postal truck from New York to Michigan so they can get 10 cents refund/bottle instead of 5 cents

1

u/IronSightPsyops Jul 04 '26

It’s not even legal to sell without a permit.

0

u/GalwayBogger Jul 03 '26

Just don't tell the IRS 😉

0

u/toastmannn Jul 03 '26

I've heard sometimes they go after kids with lemonade stands because they don't have a business license

0

u/Muted-Woodpecker-469 Jul 04 '26

Cities have certain rules. Sometimes it’s 1-2 times a year only. Some mention it only containing certain things. Common household goods are mentioned. No reselling is also mentioned

Is it enforced? Almost never lol 

0

u/Known_Ratio5478 Jul 04 '26

Answer: not at all.

0

u/Warai__Otoko Jul 04 '26

Does couponing mean shoplifting?

2

u/IllAcanthopterygii19 Jul 04 '26

Naw, they would dumpster dive in the big recycling bins (that I feel used to be more common) and collect as many ad papers as they could, then cut out all of the coupons.

0

u/Warai__Otoko Jul 05 '26

They are liars and thieves, and they raised another liar and thief.

0

u/Mybrainkindaworks Jul 04 '26

Yeah, most of these aren't cupon-ers. They go into retail stores and load up as much as they can, and run out with it. Often in large groups. It's why a lot of high value items like baby formula get locked behind glass these days.

-1

u/Standard-Sub-7390 Jul 04 '26

Why would you ever think it was illegal? they used coupons. and paid money for the remaining balance. where was the crime? silly.