Why extreme couponing is wasteful and GREEDY.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: Here is a link to an ad place on craigslist from a family doing another garage sale after their most recent successful sale. They're selling items they got for FREE with coupons. Pure greed. I tried couponing at bloom since the month of June they were doubling coupons up to $1.99..I went in there after cutting my coupons and found out that the extreme couponers had cleaned out most supplies. A clerk told me that pasta (free after a double coupon) was cleaned out by ONE woman that brought in coupons and just kept her transactions separated (bloom only allows 20 coupons per transaction so she found a way around this). I was told my the same clerk that the extreme couponers will wait until the store opens and the same 3 or 4 people will take the whole inventory. So I used 4 coupons and got almost nothing. Much like the extreme couponers on tv, most of these people were obese and greedy. Does a family of 3 really need 100 boxes of pasta? Or 80 packs of deodorant? How about 55 boxes of tylenol?
People have become greedy. If the deals are so good, get some or DONATE to foodbank! I would like a deal too and I can show some respect to other shoppers and only buy a few of each product.
But really, selling items you got for free at a garage sale? A WHOLE NEW LEVEL OF TACKY. Selling toothpaste for $1.00?! You can walk into wegman's today and it's only 89 cents WITHOUT a coupon.

http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/gms/2480563408.html

Hmmm wonder if they will accept coupons at their sale

I do think the stockpiling for no reason other than for it to be in your house is stupid and just a form of hoarding. I would never clutter my house with such stuff and take away living space for bottles of shampoo. There will always be stores that sell shampoo - cheap shampoo too - and coupons to get a discount so buy when you need it?

[Anonymous]

What about the expiration dates of the stuff in the stockpiles?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: Op here. But how many are a few bad apples? If you watch extreme couponing on tv, 100% of the participants will clean off a shelf. ALL featured on the show have 3,4 or 5 carts full of stuff. I think more and more people see that and think to be successful at couponing you have to hoard stuff. I've given up on trying to match the sales and coupons because of these particular people. I'll still continue to use coupons when I can but only for a few items, not hundreds.

I hate to generalize but from what I've seen, the majority seem to be going overboard and hoarding.

No offense, OP, but if you watch extreme couponing on TV, you are in desperate need of a life.

[Anonymous]

Really, PP? What are YOU doing on DCUM reading and posting comments?

[Anonymous]

I completely agree with OP. It would be one thing if they used coupons wihtout having to completely absorb the resources in the store for others.

I also think they are unethical many times. They always find "ways around the system" and have seperate transactions or argue their way into being able to use more coupons then allotted. You can watch it clearly on the show (yes I have watched a few times) and I hardly think its a rare occurrence when they all do it. When you coupon to the point of shaking you are so nervous about your savings on national tv...its time for therapy and to stop.

It comes down to pure greed and/ or addiction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: Op here. But how many are a few bad apples? If you watch extreme couponing on tv, 100% of the participants will clean off a shelf. ALL featured on the show have 3,4 or 5 carts full of stuff. I think more and more people see that and think to be successful at couponing you have to hoard stuff. I've given up on trying to match the sales and coupons because of these particular people. I'll still continue to use coupons when I can but only for a few items, not hundreds.

I hate to generalize but from what I've seen, the majority seem to be going overboard and hoarding.

A. In case you haven't figured it out, reality shows are about filming wack jobs. They don't make Jersey Shore with a family of four making sand castles at the beach and heading off to their rental for nap time.

B. You watch the extreme couponing show, but you hate them. Very interesting comment on you.

C. Based on your last sentence, it appears that you are actually sour that you cannot play at their level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I think the notion that extreme couponing is always greedy is as stupid as any generalization.

ROFLMAO

do you realize what you said is a generalization????

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What about the expiration dates of the stuff in the stockpiles?

The people who do this have entire rooms dedicated to the stuff they purchase. They organize it by category and then by expiration date. When they realize things are coming up on expiration and they won't be able to use it, they give it away. For the commenters who think this is about hoarding or fear that they will run out of something, it's not. This is a hobby and people get off on spending very little to no money for items. They are proud of it, and of how organized they are. It's almost a full time job, if you do it right. I think it's strange.

[Anonymous]

I would actually like to know how to do this on a smaller scale. I have a friend who gets free toothpaste, shampoo, body wash, etc. and donates it to a women's shelter. Alternately, she organizes care packages to be sent to soliders overseas (her husband is in the Navy so this cause is close to her heart). She does not have the means to make these purchases without coupons and it is not hurting anyone to take a few extra tubes of toothpaste.

To say that ANYONE who coupons is greedy is simply ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I totally agree with you, OP. Extreme couponing is just another case of hoarding and a shopping addiction rolled together. A few things bother me about extreme couponing. First, who needs a 30 year supply of deoderant? Second, coupons are for processed foods usually, which is totally unheathly for people. So not only are the ladies cheating the store and fellow shoppers BUT they also are likely to run up huge medical bills, due to the ramifications of their sh*tastic diet, that cost our society. They should focus on eating healthy not trying to get a can of discontinued salt..eer I mean soup (well really chicken flavored salt). There are much healthier ways to reduce your grocery bill AND still eat nutritious foods, but I guess it lacks the thrill of getting 250 bottles of shampoo for nothing.

I agree with this. In only one case on the show (at least that I have seen on the show), a family actually donted all their stuff to charity. The rest of the shoppers just stockpile crappy product on top of crappy product. I don't know how the spouses live with this "hobby."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I think the notion that extreme couponing is always greedy is as stupid as any generalization.

ROFLMAO

do you realize what you said is a generalization????

I think you need to look up the word generalization.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I think the notion that extreme couponing is always greedy is as stupid as any generalization.

ROFLMAO

do you realize what you said is a generalization????

I think you need to look up the word generalization.

Ha not the pp you are responding to but you are just mad you got called out! HAHA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I totally agree with you, OP. Extreme couponing is just another case of hoarding and a shopping addiction rolled together. A few things bother me about extreme couponing. First, who needs a 30 year supply of deoderant? Second, coupons are for processed foods usually, which is totally unheathly for people. So not only are the ladies cheating the store and fellow shoppers BUT they also are likely to run up huge medical bills, due to the ramifications of their sh*tastic diet, that cost our society. They should focus on eating healthy not trying to get a can of discontinued salt..eer I mean soup (well really chicken flavored salt). There are much healthier ways to reduce your grocery bill AND still eat nutritious foods, but I guess it lacks the thrill of getting 250 bottles of shampoo for nothing.

I am the poster who purchased the soup. I bought the soup at the request of my husband because that's what he likes to eat for lunch and he brings it to work and leaves it in a cupboard there. I am not crazy about him eating it everyday but if I don't pack soup for his lunch he goes out to Mcdonald's. He focuses on things being cheap not how crappy it is for him. He gave me a hard time once because I picked up sushi for a quick lunch when the dollar menu at McDonald's would have been more economical. As far as his food choices, they are not what I feed myself or my children.
I get a box of organic produce every week delivered to my door by the Washington Green Grocer and base our weekly meals off of that box of produce. I use coupons for additional items I will use. Yes, some of them are for processed foods but not the majority of them. I have coupons for lactose free milk, organic coffee creamer, Tylenol, Motrin, vitamins, laundry detergent, diapers, roasted nuts, hair dye, body wash, make-up, razors and lots of other things I tend to use. Sure, I used over 50 coupons the other day, but it wasn't for things I was hoarding, wouldn't use, or to fuel my craptastic diet. It's not like I am out getting all the free ramen noodles I could get my hands on. Yes, I cleared that shelf of soup, that was incidentally low sodium, but that was the first shelf I had ever cleared and probably will ever clear. I won't have a room dedicated to "my stockpile" but I do have a pantry that is stocked with things like coffee, laundry detergent and zip-lock bags.

[Anonymous]

Yaaaaaaawn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I think the notion that extreme couponing is always greedy is as stupid as any generalization.

ROFLMAO

do you realize what you said is a generalization????

I think you need to look up the word generalization.

You just said all generalizations are stupid. Sorry,
but what you said is a generalization so by your logic, it's also stupid.

LOL