Thursday, June 16, 2011

Just call it what it is.

On my trip to the grocery store this evening, my extreme dislike of "extreme couponing" and "stockpiling" was realized.  As most of you know, I'm an avid coupon clipper.  I love clipping, saving money and getting the most for my money.  If I can get something for free or a few cents, I will do it!  I have been known to buy 6 taco kits at one time when I have NONE on hand, but REALLY...come on...all most of these "extreme coupon" and "stockpiling" people are hoarding.  Yes, I said it.  HOARDING. 
I pulled this image off google images.  My question is are you REALLY going to use that many marinades and salad dressings? They do have expiration dates you know. 
What I saw this evening was a nice, well dressed lady walking through the store with her coupon binder (I have one myself, not judging...yet...) and her two shopping carts (still not judging...).  As I kept passing her in the store, I became aware of WHAT she was putting in those shopping carts.  She cleaned the shelves of the following products:
  • Mashed potatoes
  • Canned tomatoes
  • cake mix
  • taco dinner kits (and I would have liked to have purchase a few of these)
  • Fiber One yogurt (again, I was going after a few of these)
  • EVERY Zatarain's box which had to have been at least 50 boxes
  • Spray and Wash
  • Hershey chocolates
When I say she cleaned the shelves, she took EVERY ONE IN STOCK ON THE SHELF.  I noticed just these things because I happened to be on the same aisle as she at the time she was RAKING the shelves clean.  No joke.  For the Zatarain's she took her arm and in two swoops cleaned the shelf.  There were many other items in her cart that were in mass quantities.  She was behind me in the checkout line and started to get her things in order.  She had at least 6 different transactions that I saw her splitting up before leaving and one of the shopping carts was still full.
Now I will say she MIGHT have been shopping for a food closet, or she might have 19 kids (but I know what Michelle Duggar looks like and she was NO Michelle) or she might live an hour away from a Publix (but in this area it is VERY doubtful as there are 4 stores in a 10 mile radius of my home).  But with this new trend, I am 95% sure she was stockpiling hoarding.
To prove my point, I looked up "Stockpile" in Merriam-Webster.  It says:
a : a reserve supply of something essential accumulated within a country for use during a shortage  
b : a gradually accumulated reserve of something
Um...does our country have a shortage?  Are these people gradually accumulating these groceries?  No and no. 
Then I looked up the definition of "Hoard" in Merriam-Webster.  It says:
a supply or fund stored up and often hidden away.
My point exactly. 
I do not understand the purpose of what these people are doing: people who need to rent a storage unit just for their groceries; people who turn their bonus rooms/extra bedrooms/garages into stockpile hoarding rooms; people who clean off grocery shelves and take every coupon in the coupon boxes.  Please feel free to explain this to me if I am off in my thinking.  If you are a stockpiler, then I hope I didn't offend you too much and maybe opened your eyes to what you are doing. To those just jumping in the coupon community, I hope proved my point.  Take just what you need for 6 weeks.  It does go on sale again.  The same coupons will run again.  Don't be a hoarder. Leave some for the rest of us.

4 comments:

  1. I'm right there with ya sister! I've watched the TLC show and while it's good in theory, come on! Like you said, unless you plan on giving drink to all the neighborhood kids, do you really need 8000 bottles of Vitamin water? It's getting out of hand. When you have to give up a space that should be protecting your multi-thousand dollar vehicle for cereal, YOU ARE OUT OF YOUR MIND!!!

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  2. I would have liked 2 boxes of Huggies wipes for $.49 today, but the shelves were wiped clean. I love couponing and was upset when I left a coupon at home not knowing the item was included in the sale. It just irritates me when I can't get something because it's sold out on the day the sale started. I only buy 2 papers, so 2 is usually the most I get. I do watch the Extreme Couponing show (I also watch the hoarding ones) out of fascination. I really don't see how they get a lot of that stuff for free. Some of them had Cottonelle tissue, I was pretty excited about getting it for $4.

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  3. Hoarding is an actual problem. Those people would keep food past it's expiration date and keep food with mold on it. They would have dead animals lost under couches and 1000s of newspapers.

    Food is relevant stuff; if you get it for free or close to it, why not. Many of the people on the show donate at least a portion of their stock pile to the troops or people who need food.

    People stuff their (sometimes excessively large) houses full of stuff, some gets left and never used. The total gym fitness in my parents' basement and all the other workout stuff they have bought over the years are good examples.

    And if you lose a job; dinner is covered.

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  4. I just can't get my head round this idea, scooping everything off a shelf, just seems crazy. If I had been there and wanted a Taco kit, lucky I have one in the pantry for dinner tonight, I'd have nabbed one out her kart! Cheeky maybe, but no more so than someone taking every single item!

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