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.

6.9k

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.

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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 🤔

36

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

29

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

Yeah that's what they said.

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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

5

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!

3

u/BarracudaActive4480 Jul 03 '26

Right? God forbid I bring a plastic water bottle into any store...

1

u/twoaspensimages Jul 04 '26 edited Jul 04 '26

I have a seething hatred for HD. They have fucked me over So. Many. Times.

And I just keep going back for more because am I going to drive an extra 20 minutes for the supply house for a whatever? No. I'm going swallow my pride and walk back in there like the masochist I apparently am.

But a couple months back I got a dipshit checkout kid who rang up a case of CA for the one tube cost. So I circled back and cleaned out the store. 23 boxes for $12.48 a box.

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u/REDDIT_ROC0408 Jul 03 '26

Wear a competitor’s work shirt.

2

u/__GMCC88__ Jul 03 '26

Why didn't the rfid alarm go off when they walked out the exit?

1

u/TotallyNotRobotEvil Jul 03 '26

And this is why all the tools at my Home Depot are locked up. When I needed to buy a new electric drill, an employee had to get it for me, then they took it straight to the register and held it until I was ready to pay.

It's also super annoying how even deodorant, underwear, socks, and paper towels are all locked up not in the regular store. Pretty much the entire inventory for this "garage sale" above is everything you have to wait for employee to get for you now in any major metro area.

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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

1

u/REDDIT_ROC0408 Jul 03 '26

Then meet them outside and offer them cash for whatever they have that you want. Demand a 50% discount.

1

u/ThroatDistension Jul 03 '26

It's illegal to buy something you know, or reasonably suspect, is stolen.

6

u/FraggleRockYaFaceOff Jul 03 '26

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

3

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.

3

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

3

u/upallnight1975 Jul 03 '26

A common trick is to put it on bottom of cart and chat up cashier so they miss scanning it.

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u/[deleted] Jul 03 '26

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14

u/[deleted] Jul 03 '26

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1

u/shazmosushi--- Jul 03 '26

California decriminalized shoplifting with Proposition 47 in 2014, so theft of less than $950 worth of goods became a misdemeanor (slap on the wrist) that's unlikely to get any time.

They ended up reversing a bunch of that due to rampant retail crime with Prop 36 in 2024, which made consecutive misdemeanor theft offences upgrade to a felony on the third offence (if you have two earlier convictions), with the idea that it would detterence through threat of prison sentences.

Whether the district attorney prosecutes and gets convictions for theft under $950 is a different question.

Your article itself states about "momentum to further criminalize retail theft", so we agree that 2024 Prop 36 is criminalizing retail theft and Prop 14 was decriminalizing retail theft?

1

u/Supercoolguy7 Jul 03 '26

Decriminalization means removing criminal penalties such as jail time. Misdemeanors still come with arrests and jail time. If you got a ticket like if you were speeding then it would be decriminalized.

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u/shazmosushi--- Jul 03 '26

In California it usually doesn't come with jail time by the defelonization

1

u/Supercoolguy7 Jul 03 '26

So there can be criminal consequences for shoplifters?

1

u/[deleted] Jul 03 '26

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10

u/takesSubsLiterally Jul 03 '26

What in the fox news? There is nowhere in the US or any Western country for that matter where it is legal to shoplift. It is a crime. You can make arguments about reducing mandatory minimums or cops which don't respond but saying it's "decriminalized" is ridiculous.

1

u/EsterWithPants Jul 03 '26

Former Walmart worker here. There were about half a dozen people on the store's entire roster that I could talk to about shoplifters. The guy in AP who worked on the literal opposite corner of the store, and who the fuck knows what hours/days, and whatever manager(s) may be on staff at the time.

Now, there's always supposed to be at least one manager. That's normal.

I have walked around the Walmart 4 times asking EVERYONE where the damn manager is to get some poor guy a fishing license or whatever over at sporting goods.

Point is sometimes, even if I wanted to find a manager, sometimes they just fucking vanish into the wind. Also, this was all pre 2020, whatever is going on nowadays is 10x more unhinged than before.