Friday, September 24, 2010

From "Steal This Book" - Supermarkets

I love this (open source) book. One of my favorite sections is on free food, Supermarkets:

Beware the temptation to be a petty shoplifter. You are truly resisting oppression, not just being an angry wannabe revolutionary. Even an angry youth, once fingerprinted, will be in the database for life. How many promising brothers and sisters have successfully fought a political persecution only to be later sent behind bars for a maximum sentence on a shoplifting charge. To lower ourselves in the eyes of the public demeans our cause. We are not in the 60's anymore - we need leaders that inspire popular resistance to the corpgov. Be aware of modern technique for only the worst of emergencies.

Consider the story of Tre Arrow a leader in the eco-green movement who was slapped with some arson charges in 2001 to get him out of circulation. After escaping safely to Canada he is at the time of this writing sitting in a Canadian prison, fighting for asylum against the Canadian courts who want to deport him to the United States. All for being caught shoplifting bolt cutters. If the movement needs something so badly let a non-activist do the shoplifting.

This book/wiki is no substitute for knowing both the laws and enforcement of those laws in the different states and localities. For example some states allow store employees to make a citizens arrest for shoplifting and in others they can talk tough and hope you stick around until a sworn law enforcement officer arrives to collect you. Understand that a cop will almost never take an employee in for assault or false imprisonment even if he did improperly apprehend you.

Supermarkets
In spite of massive markups and increasing food costs, there are still a few ways to get out of a supermarket without getting totally robbed. Shoplifting is a good way to send a known activist off to jail for a long time when no other charges will stick, so think before you steal. "Please do not steal from local owned stores for many have been closing down because of loss. In urban areas there are not very many local owned stores anymore. Loss and the supermarkets undercutting price until the local store closes, are main reasons why my store could not survive." -
author unknown

Getting food extra cheap:

Dumpster Diving
Many smaller supermarkets still have open-top dumpsters where day-old food can be had for free! Happy hunting! Some even separate veggie and meat stuff. Be careful with compactor type trash dumpsters, these are usually shielded so yippies can't jump in and root around when the stock boy hits the compress button. It is possible to bend the guards and reach in but never try to get in. Some compactors have exposed hydraulic hoses, these use quick connect connectors which are disconnected when the garbage truck comes, you could disconnect them when you dive the trash ares to "safe" the compactor, but be sure there is not an electrical assist or that you have not just removed the return line which would not disable the crushing direction. Most good stuff is ruined by compactors so the danger is almost never worth the risk unless you have an accomplice on the inside to load the compactor with good stuff for you and not hit the smash button.

Coupons 
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 including snack cakes. 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.

15 comments:

  1. really like this post. i've often thought the same things myself. with increasing technology, its difficult to get away with things now that were possible in the 60s. ah well guess we just have to evolve and figure out something new.

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  3. love getting free shit via the 1 800 #s!

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  4. Shop lifting is a way to fight against the 8% who are completely rich.

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  5. looks like a book which can help you in the bad times of your life

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  6. Sounds like an Interesting book, However I hardly read anything that doesn't have to do with Angels xD

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  7. I actually knew one person that did the food dumpster thing before, it's really odd. I can see how tempting it might be though. My friend used to ask for free sushi at the end of Tuesday nights because if the bad sales. Pretty smart, cuts out the dumpster part, free sushi!

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  8. heard of this book, buddy of mine was reading it i think

    think i'll look for it at the library

    thanks

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  9. ahh yes abbie hoffman

    how counter-culture of you

    keep it up its the right way to be

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