Shelf Clearing—- Is it okay to clear shelves? …… I am seeing more and more of this lately and felt that it was time to give my two cents. In the past week I have seen two different situations where people were bragging about the amount of items (many perishable) that they have bought for free (or even made money off them) during their last shopping trip. One girl admitted that she cleared out the shelves at NINE different stores.
I am all for a stockpile of reasonable size and actually encourage you to try to build one up. A few years ago, my hubby lost his job without notice. The unemployment that he received was very low and I was pregnant with our youngest son. At that time, I didn’t have a stockpile but I started to use coupons more seriously and when I saw good deals on items, I would buy a couple extra if I could. I soon built up a little stockpile of things that we needed like shampoo, toilet paper, laundry detergent, and other items. It relieved a lot of strain knowing that I would not have to worry about where to get money to buy those items for a couple of months.I also like to buy a few extra things when I see deals so I can help my family or others out. Paying it forward is an awesome thing to do.
What I am NOT for is people who go in and clear shelves by buying 50 of the same item just because they end up free. Think about the impact that has on others in the same area. There are many people who are living on very little cash and when they see sales on items that they need, imagine how heartbreaking it is for them when they go to the store and see that the items they needed have just been cleared. Suddenly, they have to find some extra cash to buy different items. That could have been money that was needed to pay the babysitter so they could go to work. I understand that sometimes stores are just not prepared for a great deal. I am not calling you a shelf clearer if you go in and there are only one or two items left.
The U.S. economy is in a poor state right now and shelf clearers ruin things for all of us. Not only have we seen a lot of changes in coupon policies at stores, we have seen many changes on the actual coupons themselves. A lot of coupons now have a limit to how many items can be used per transaction or per day. Make sure to read your coupons. The last thing that you want is to be committed of coupon fraud which is punishable by law.
I know in some cases, people will pre-order items when they know they will be needing a larger quantity. That is great as long as it is kept to a reasonable amount and it is for things that you can use or give to someone to use before they expire. I think when you pre-order you should also think to yourself, do I really need 100 of that item or might I have a problem with hoarding? If you are buying items so you can sell them, the majority of coupons tell you that this is not allowed. It is probably also against the law in your state because you are not paying tax.
Lets face it, sales occur in cycles. We see patterns of what items are going to be on sale. Once you know those patterns, you can decide how many items you need to buy to tie you over. I tend to think that having a three – six month stockpile is a nice amount on a lot of items like health and beauty and household but the cycles are usually more frequent than that. Of course things have changed and some things that I used to be able to get for free a few years ago after coupons, I might now have to pay 50 cents for. But if people continue to try to go the extreme with coupons, we will soon be paying a lot more than 50 cents.
