VIGILANTE CONSUMERISM

You know what bothers me? Prices keep getting higher and average people's incomes tend to stay the same or in this current economy get worse. Your dollar buys less than it used to because corporations and "shareholders" are not satisfied with "enough" profit, they need to make MORE profit! There are people at the top of large companies living the good life off of our dollars we have to spend to buy things we need to live on. There are execs flying around the world, buying yet another yacht just because they are rich, may have had rich parents that put them through a wealthy college, and they got hired at a top paying position, while in the same company a single mother of three kids, is working as a clerk making 6.75/hr and living off of tax payer dollars, on welfare and foodstamps all because those assholes at the top of the company can't take a $1,000,000 pay cut from their $10,000,000 salary to triple the wages of their workforce. Rich people are a collective burden on the poor if they become excessively greedy and continue to desire excessive wealth. As a consumer we don't have to be abused by the control mechanisms of the system and those who set the boundaries of "how much something costs."

Consumers are becoming more and more savvy about not wanting to pay full price for something and seek out sales, or purchase items online at lower prices than what they pay in the retail store. Furthermore as punishment and backlash for decades of price fixing in the music industry millions of people are now downloading music freely over the internet. These things are all examples of what I call "Vigilante Consumerism." The average consumer can no longer be held hostage by profitmongering corporations and wealthy executives.

Grocery Store Discounts - A way to hack reality is to make it more difficult for the control mechanism of "prices" and "cost" less effective. There are several ways that an ordinary person can capitalize on a weakness in grocery stores.

Checkout Hacking: Coupons - Very few cashiers will check to see if you bought Three of the same thing to qualify for that $1.00 off on a coupon, if you buy one of the item chances the cashier will not remember at all. Some products in the store come with coupons on the packaging, just remove these and take them to check out and they'll usually work. If you want virtually guaranteed success, simply go to a younger person, usually the opposite sex as yourself, to check out and start up a conversation while they are ringing, you might even get the added bonus of them missing a ring up. I brought a stack of coupons to the checkout before, and about 80% of the stuff I never bought, mind you I had a large amount of groceries to compensate for the departments of the coupons. Just remember if you are really too obvious you may be sniffed out. You can't have like 25 items of grocery, and 15 items of Drug or GM, and have 15 grocery coupons, and 25 of drug/GM. Most cash registers will not accept more coupons from an item's department than are in your basket.

Checkout Hacking: Nested Products - Sometimes you can get products that come in some kind of open container or bag. For instance you go to the Deli Counter and get a fried chicken dinner deal that comes in a paper tote, you get some cold cuts, i.e. roast beef, turkey, whatever. Simply put the coldcuts underneath the food in the bag, and when you get to checkout, go ahead and put it on the belt, more often than not the cashier will not notice the items inside, especially if you talk to them. The deli department usually puts the pricing sticker for the meal deal on the bottom of the bag so they will just shift it right past the scanner. If they discover the items in the bag, simply say, "Oh that must have fell in there." Another thing to do is put like something small and skinny at the back of the grocery cart under some old store flyer ads, this is helpful for expensive products like medicines. Send the cart through, and bag your own groceries so you can bury it before the cashier ever has a chance to look inside the cart, which they virtually never do. You really can't be told you were shoplifting if you actually go through the checkout lane, pay for your groceries, and walk away. If for some remote reason you are questioned, simply say, "Oh, I'm sorry about that, I just didn't see it." It's when you stuff your pockets full of stuff and run out the door when you get into trouble because you are "obviously" stealing.

Checkout Hacking: Resticker the Meat/Fish/Deli - Often when you get cut and wrapped items like meat, fish, deli, or bakery products they come with a store printed removable pricing sticker and bar code. For example you could buy 1lb of meat, take that home, then carefully remove the sticker and put it on a waxy surface for reuse. The next time you go to the grocery store, quickly and carefully put that sticker over the top of the other sticker. For instance you could get 2 and 1/2 lbs of meat for the price of 1lb this way. Or a rediculously priced $12.99 cake for $4.99.

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