Supermarkets

CorpGov spends big bucks in research to scientists to figure out what motivates people to do things. Of course, most of this research is not in any particular best interest, but to motivate you to spend more than you need. Everything from simple store layout to what actors or actresses folks would identify with in commercials are heavily planned out. Some gas stations even have TVs now at the pumps to force you to watch ads to buy stuff and big stores like Walmart even have in-store radio to suggestive sell to you!

Supermarkets will go over frugal shopping, some things to watch out for, and some common scams.

Shoplifting is an amoral discussion if an emergency need arises to take something from one of these places.

Sample Surfing
Many large chain delis will give you a sample if you ask, enough corpgov fat and batter to tease but not enough to satisfy. Hit several stores and you might get enough to fill you up, many stores also have one day a week where vendors give lots of samples in the aisles.

Discount Stores
In some poorer neighborhoods, you can often find discount grocery stores that sell odd-lot packages of food. Often these are over-runs of stuff meant for regional chains with unfamiliar or ripoff brand names (Oat Loops instead of Cheerios, for example), stuff that's close to the expiration date or major label items that were meant for export with English-language labels slapped on them (so don't be surprised if you see Arabic corn flakes or instant oatmeal with Chinese text). Many of the major odd-lot stores like Big Lots, Dollar General, and 99 Cents Only sell this kind of food at a major discount. If something is in stock and you like it, buy it, since the supply of these bargains is spotty at best.

Bakery Outlet type stores sell bread, crackers, cakes, pies and cereals that are weeks (if not days) before their freshness dates expire. If you have access to a freezer, stock up!

Coupons
The Sunday newspaper sometimes has coupons in the circulars. Most of the time, these are for newer products or seldom bought items while coupons for staple items are rare. But, sometimes a decent coupon can be found. It usually is not worth it just to buy a paper for coupons. If you already have a Sunday paper, though, it cannot hurt to look.

Shopping List
Instead of reaching for the prepared foods try grabbing these foods which will last for a few days unrefrigerated. You can add or subtract items from this list by figuring the cost against the food value. Staple Ingredients (for staying put and saving money): Used in smaller amounts: Ready to Eat(good to have in you pack if you have to move out):
 * Flour white or wheat
 * Eggs
 * Oil, shortening, or margarine
 * Vinegar
 * Baking soda
 * Pasta
 * Vegetables, assorted for stew and stir fry
 * Dry beans
 * Rice
 * Oatmeal
 * Sugar
 * Tomato sauce packets
 * Liquid soap
 * Kerosene, charcoal, or Sterno fuel- as required for cooking
 * Salt
 * Yeast- in a jar
 * Baking powder- sealed can
 * Aluminum foil, as needed
 * Spices and condiments- as budget allows
 * Ziploc and plastic grocery sacks
 * Parmesan Cheese, as budget allows
 * Vitamins
 * Ramen
 * Fruits fresh and dried
 * Canned meat or fish
 * Crackers and bread
 * Peanut butter
 * Cheese
 * Canned soup and vegetables

Self Check-Out
Make the self-checkout lane work for you! Ring up more expensive foods as cabbage or bananas; they tend to be sold pretty cheap by the pound. There is usually one employee (if that) not very closely watching over four or more self-checkout lines. Be aware of any product recalls, because if a product has been deemed unsafe (salmonella, e coli, etc) the clerk will be alerted if you enter the code for that product. This is probably not too big of a risk, as this happens around the summer once at least every three years.

This also works quite well if your grocery store has a bulk foods section that sells grains, cereals, candies, cookies, etc. When purchasing bulk foods, you're typically asked to shovel the amount you want into a bag, then weigh it, enter the item's PLU, and print a label that gives the total cost and bears a barcode for scanning. In order to get a great deal of high-quality food for very little money, you simply enter the PLU of a much cheaper product (ideally one that looks a lot like what you're actually buying) and print that receipt instead. For instance, you might have filled a bag with organic quinoa at $6.99/lb., but enter the PLU for conventional bulgur at $2.49/lb. The clerk watching the self-checkout line is guaranteed not to notice a difference. Of course, if you're especially bold, you could just fail to print a label at all and discreetly slip the item into your sack while checking out. Without a label, no alarms will sound when you leave the store.

Lifting a Meal
If you feel like eating, it is generally a better idea to load up a basket and then go into the bathroom and eat in one of the stalls. Leave a few items in your basket so you don't look suspicious. Then, you can put everything back or just take it. If you eat in the bathrooms, don't be stupid and remember to wash your hands. Nobody wants a sick Yippie. Another more risky option if the bathroom is out is you could eat some food (including deli food, just ask for them to bag it and you will pay with your other items) in a quiet aisle and ditch the container behind some boxes. Be careful, in some places you can be busted for shoplifting as soon as a security agent or employee sees you take only one bite, chances are they will probably kick you out on the first offense. But 'sampling' food can get you caught for 'theft for the purpose of consumption' or something sounding similar to that. Better to check the dumpsters in back and avoid a chance for quality time with Officer Friendly.

Marketing Scams
Most packaged, branded food is marked up like crazy. Healthier and no name foods tend to be cheaper. Good for you, if it turns out you have to pay. Look for these foods on the very bottom and top shelves. The brand name items the supermarket is pushing will be at the average person's eye level.

Munchies and Hungries
Most of us end up shopping (and shoplifting) when we are hungry or worse stoned and munchy. You will end up wasting your money on cheap packaged foods with little nutritional value. Plan shopping trips and take a list, stick to your well-planned shopping list, corporations have special employees who plan the store shelf layout very carefully to seduce idiots into buying expensive junk. Plan your nutrition, make a diet to plan shopping, like an overweight person on a diet does, but count nutrients and calories for energy and value, not weight loss.

Marketing 101: Corpgov marketing strategies are known to work much better on hungry supermarket customers.

Papers Please
Another method is to enter a supermarket armed with shopping bags and a receipt (from said supermarket). Put what you want into a shopping cart. When you've got what you want, find a low traffic, low-security area (i.e. the bedding section, garden center, discount aisle) and put your goods into the shopping bag(s). Then just walk right out(with the receipt in hand). If you're stopped, hand them the receipt, they usually won't take the time to check for each item. This works best during medium to peak business hours.

Gift Cards
Go to the corporate store and find the gift card on the shelf, the first one in the stack preferably. Walk around the store with it and memorize or write down the security information on the back of the card. It should be a series of numbers. Then return the card as if you decided against purchasing it. Then wait a month or two and check online to see if the card is activated because it was purchased. If yes, then use the card to make purchases online. Don’t worry about ruining Johnny’s birthday. Most of the corporate stores set up refund programs to stop bad press and keep people buying the cards. Please use the card in support of progressive causes (such as donations to legit non-profits) because we should be using these skills to help everyone.

UPC Tricks
Many supermarkets have a section near the back with marked-down items that are old or damaged, with the UPC written over with a new price. Cashiers ring up these items using the new price no questions asked, so one can do this for any item.

If you can find an old CueCat or other cheap barcode scanner you can scan some inexpensive or generic item that you find in the trash and then print new UPC's on sticker paper to stick onto goods at the market, be sure the description is close to what you are sticking or a sharp checker might bust you. Don't try this scam too often with the same checker or at the same store in case the management starts looking for you.

Photocopying UPC's and gluing/sticking them onto more expensive items should work especially if you are in a self-service scan point. It is important to remember that most self-service checkouts weigh the items as you add them to the bag so only fake the UPC on same weight items.

Bakery Coupon Scam
One of our writers sent a letter to a large US bakery company saying that French students were coming to the high school and that there would be a presentation on American foods. They were asked to donate products for the exchange students to sample. One week later four coupons arrived worth five dollars each for that corporations bakery products. This is a great totally legal way to get some basic food if you are low on cash, because even most junk food companies also make bread and other products that are better for you. This also works if you write a polite letter to complain or compliment their products or just to ask questions, this sometimes also works if you call the 1-800 info number.

Club Card Warning
As tempting as a few pence off sounds, don't use a Club card. Ever. These little bastards will keep track of all your purchases, how you paid, when you bought them, and even what store you shopped at. Think of it not so much as giving you savings, but charging you for not being able to track purchases! A Clubcard is the easiest way to destroy any alibis you might need later on -- so don't use them. The best way to deal with Club cards is to simply patron stores that still do not use them. But, if this is not realistic due to location or savings, there are ways around this.

Most stores allow use of your phone number in place of a club card, since people can be generally forgetful. This allows two methods to get past this. You can use someone else's phone number or create a card with a fake name and phone number. You may be able to get another's phone number if you are watchful and happen to see someone key it in. However, be cautious in using this as sometimes they can tell if more than one person is on the card. Especially if you move to another city and use it. Creating a fake card is fairly easy depending on place. Some do not check for ID and most well let you fill it out anyway if you say you left your ID at home. You can just fill out an card application with a false name and number. Just make sure it is a non-local number that could be not taken.

By far the easiest way to get club card discounts is to use the simple excuse, "I left mine at home". Most Supermarkets have generic ClubCards at each register, and the cashiers will have no problem swiping for you. Even if this is not the case, other customers will probably have no problem swiping in for you to move the line. The other easy way is to use the self check-out lane. Many Supermarkets either have a button on the bottom of the self check-out screen such as "Forgot my Card," or it would be under something like "Product Look Up" for things without bar codes.

The US Department of Homeland Security openly claims to purchase an updated database from all major club card stores and credit card companies (credit and debit) so that they have instant access to who is buying what and when to fight "terror". Even a stolen club card number can be quickly attached to your profile even if your name is unknown and can be used to follow shopping and travel patterns.

Working at a Store
If you work at a store where the dumpsters are kept outside, then they can be used to smuggle out stock from inside. Particularly useful is if you work at the kiosk: When restocking the shelf with cigarettes, dropping some into the waste paper bin will mean that the cigarette pack will end up in the dumpster as soon as the bin is emptied. Simply return that night and retrieve! Also can be done with multipacks of alcohol: With crates of canned lager, the cans are normally smaller than usual. Thus, if one of the cans is damaged, the rest will have to be thrown out, as they can't be resold individually (they normally lack a barcode too). Again, retrieve them from the dumpster that night!

The Dumpster
Of course, if all else fails, there is always the dumpster located usually in the back docks of the store. Sometimes, if you are lucky, you can find usable items in here. However, you may also be in for a gross, sticky mess. Avoid going into the compactor model dumpsters as most of the time it destroys anything useful and is highly dangerous. Dumpsters are also a place that attracts disease and maggot carrying insects and harmful bacteria that can make you very sick. Try to stick to packaged or canned stuff you may find or obviously fresh things if you must do this. Some places may have a separate dumpster for expired produce, but more and more places are switching to the compactor models and box recycling to save money on trash disposal bills.

Wholesale Markets
In Hoffman's original book, he had a section on Wholesale and Farmer's markets. In a few cities, farmer's markets are open once or twice a week in season, produce stands can still be found in rural areas along highways, shop these local farmers first before using the globalist wage slavery stores. Wholesale markets are now mostly membership fee clubs like Sam's that cater to bulk buyers and small businesses, you might be able to buy from them if paying cash but the discounts are not that large. As such, these will not be discussed further.