Price Reductions Groupies - bad behaviour

pennypincher2013

For me it is when things turn nasty I walk away. I have witnessed some scenes that staying around in hope of getting some reduced food is not worth enduring. There have been fights (almost physical ones!).
I'll only pick up things I am going to use.
People I have witnessed is a woman telling to her husband to pick up all the reduced veg to sell in their shop. The veg had been marked down to 2-5p. They asked the member of staff if they could have it all and she said yes. Yikes! The rest of the group were not happy with that. I don't know what happened next because I walked away.
I am small and got pushed back and laughed at by a 6ft (ish) guy. I walked away. It's just not worth it.

ThumbRemote

donnac2558 wrote: »

Actually Scavengers would be a more correct term than Groupies.

It's possible you don't really understand the purpose of a money saving site.

pennypincher2013

ThumbRemote wrote: »

It's possible you don't really understand the purpose of a money saving site.

Agree. Some people have to look in the reduced section. It does really help with my monthly outgoings.

Mee

pennypincher2013 wrote: »

For me it is when things turn nasty I walk away. I have witnessed some scenes that staying around in hope of getting some reduced food is not worth enduring. There have been fights (almost physical ones!).
I'll only pick up things I am going to use.
People I have witnessed is a woman telling to her husband to pick up all the reduced veg to sell in their shop. The veg had been marked down to 2-5p. They asked the member of staff if they could have it all and she said yes. Yikes! The rest of the group were not happy with that. I don't know what happened next because I walked away.
I am small and got pushed back and laughed at by a 6ft (ish) guy. I walked away. It's just not worth it.

Sorry to hear about your experience. I've not seen fights as such just 'jostling'.

Mee

takman wrote: »

Why delete your first post!. I hate when people do that after they get replies because it ruins the thread and is unfair to people who haven't seen it.

I'm surprised you are happy to describe yourself as a "groupie" considering what the word is generally considered to mean!. Plus I find it amusing that there are different "groups" in a supermarket and how you describe the relationship between them!. It makes going shopping sound like a drama lol.

But what actually happened that upset you?. You didn't make it very clear in your first post. Were people opening packing in an attempt to get a discount?.

But from your description I must be a "hoover" because in December I bought 12 big tubes of Haribos for a childrens birthday paety because they were reduced from £5 to 75p each. Is that something you would consider bad ?

Sorry for deleting the post - I panicked at the hostility.
I used 'groupie' in general not gender terms (OED def 2b "any enthusiastic fan or follower" ) in describing following discounts from shop to shop and night to night.
I have found and seen much drama surrounding being a reductions regular - you get to know the various tribes and techniques they use to get an advantage (including hiding and hording items). The last straw was seeing the 'grab it all' (hoovers) break packaging on 7/8 packets of grapes in order to get them at a discounted price.
What I clumsily described as hoovering is the process of individuals (more often pairs) taking almost everything - so if there are 10 packs of blueberries - they'll take the whole lot if allowed plus whatever they can lay their hands on and on a regular basis - not a one off... More recently they've resorted to picking up whole crates of produce and walking off.

theonlywayisup

Original post.

I have been a price reductions groupie for all of three years cruising from one supermarket to the next looking for reduced food etc.
I am no angel and I'll grab what I can within reason, but will give to others items I don't want or need. At times there is sense of camaraderie and joking in between the jostling for position. I know some groupies (and I have myself) get upset at the hoovers as I call them who grab almost everything and as many multiples as possible.

I try to remain neutral and guard against stereotyping, but a few evenings ago I felt appalled and I am finding it difficult to be 'open minded'. A few hoovers decided to cross the line in my view. They put 7/8 packets of soft fruit in one of their shopping trolleys dated the next day which aroused my suspicion; the next time I looked they had split the soft fruit between two trolleys and ripped off the covers - I assumed to get them at reduced price. They were forced to put them back as the staff refused to reduce them. They've not been banned, yet.

I guess this is not the worst people have seen and of course stealing items outright is much worse.

I wonder what others have experienced in this regard...

Haveasayinallthis

In my local Tesco you have groups of people hanging around waiting, and then suddenly back doors are opened and one or two trolleys are pushed out with reduced food , then they really scavenge , it's not nice to see and mainly its women , especially middle aged, grabbing anything , the blokes that do scavenge are pushed into it by their other half , on one side I think if they impoverished..fine, on the other hand manners are needed

swingaloo

Happens in our local Tesco every Sunday around 1.15pm. There is one lady who grabs everything (and I mean everything!) she doesnt look whats there but just crams as much as she can get her hands on into her trolley, whatever it is. Then she takes it down an aisle and sorts through what she does and does not want and afterwards puts some back.
They reduce the fruit and veg first and then the meat. Ive seen her with enough tangerines and oranges in her trolley to keep her running to the loo for a month! Sometimes she struggles to push her trolley from the fruit and veg dept to the meat as its so full.

She would have been fantastic on Supermarket Sweep but its very unfair to other customers.

Mee

It seems to be more diverse where I am. As many men as women and different ages, but it's predominately mothers on Sundays (in my area) especially around reduced produce, and there is a gang of mature men on Thursday evenings!

Mee

Haveasayinallthis wrote: »

the blokes that do scavenge are pushed into it by their other half , on one side I think if they impoverished..fine, on the other hand manners are needed

The men in my neck of the woods seem just as adept at scavenging with or without partners. They'll split up and pretend they're not part of the same team, or place a trolley in the way...
They're not necessarily impoverished either, just wanting to pay less and IMHO income/class doesn't seem to be an indicator of manners. In M&S some middle class mature ladies will demand something is reduced (on tap) rather than wait with the hoi polloi for reductions.
Speaking to an M&S Baker yesterday - he's resorted to chucking down reduced bags of rolls and cakes to avoid being scratched by customers as they grab them.