Guerrilla shopping in its purest form means only ever using cash, it is the opposite and perhaps the antidote to the big shop. When you go to Superco and use your plastic, phone or watch to pay and swipe your Happy Superco Shoppers’ card to earn points ‘they’ know exactly what you have bought, how much you have spent and when. In seconds your lifestyle has been assessed by Algo Rithm. We don’t know who he is, but do we want him to know everything about us? He has friends everywhere so anything could happen. When you go to the doctors or clinic to have your diabetes, blood pressure, cholesterol etc checked they will frown at you and say
‘Hmm, I see you bought a bottle of whisky, two giant Toblerones, a dozen Cadbury Crème Eggs and no fruit or veg last week.’
The guerrilla shopper slips under the radar, using every shop in his neighbourhood and beyond, buying a few items at each, never visiting any location at a regular time or day. There is no record of what he spends, eats or reads.
There are many other reasons for being a guerrilla shopper, apart from being a criminal or paranoid. If you are on a tight budget you can take advantage of the best prices and offers and get your clothes and crockery at charity shops.
If you do not drive and wish to avoid Dearburys’ Delivery knowing exactly where you live as well as what you eat, then you must shop at every opportunity, buying only what you can carry, fit on your bike or clamber onto the bus with.
Adventure is a popular reason for guerrilla shopping, providing excitement without going hunting or to a war zone and fun without going on holiday. Guerrillas do not ‘go shopping’ they go on an expedition to find vital supplies. Will you manage to get enough for dinner, perhaps come back with a surprise bargain from the charity shop?
Even in rural areas the guerrilla should be able to shop; the milk machine at the dairy farm shop where you put your coins in and fill your reusable bottle, the free range eggs with the honesty box at the farm gate in a lonely lane, farmers’ markets and ‘pick your own’ fields…
In Southbourne Grove we have a treasure trove of shops, the only place we’ve lived which has gone up rather than downhill. As well as Sainsbury Local, Tesco Express, CoOp and One Stop, the guerrilla shopper could buy one onion in the greengrocers, a chicken leg at the butchers, a roll at the bakers and brooms and batteries at Southbourne General Store. There are also all the shops you could want for gifts or leisure and plenty of coffee stops. The only thing we and other shopping areas have not got any more are banks…
If you are using cash you still have to get it from somewhere. Cash machines mean you have to use your card; Algo Rithm will know you have been there and a hidden camera will take your photo…
Have you tried guerrilla shopping? ~What are your favourite shops?
Times and Tides of a Beachwriter 
Hmm, I like the sound of this guerrilla shopping.
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Yes Liz, you must try it.
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It was how my mother shopped when I was a kid in Vermont.
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Some things go in circles Liz, I could write a blog about my mother’s varied shopping experiences.
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🙂
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I’m a guerilla shopper it’s much easier to do so here… great post that highlights just how much BB knows about us 🙂
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Hello Carol , yes I’m sure your local guerrilla shopping goes well with your delicious cooking.
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It does indeed, Janet I hope you are keeping well 🙂
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Yes thanks Carol, though most of us had bad coughs and colds over Christmas. All our frost should kill some germs hopefully.
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I am old school in many ways, and even though I wasn’t familiar with the term “guerilla shopper,” that’s what I am. I prefer dealing in cash mainly because credit cards and bank cards with fees are a giant waste of money. The interest rates are no different than modern-day loan sharks.
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Hello Pete, yes well done for keeping cash flowing and welcome to the guerrilla shoppers!
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Always used to do that. Like so many during the pandemic I slipped into the habit of using card rather than cash. I think I need to get back there again.
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Yes Mick cards were handy when we weren’t supposed to be handling anything!
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At one time, that described my shopping style in various London suburbs. Buying each day, nothing ‘in stock’ or bought in bulk. But now I would have to walk almost four miles to the nearest shops across country roads or fields, and there are not enough honesty boxes to supply the ingredients for a full meal unless I eat eggs seven days a week. So if I have to take the car, I might as well go to ‘Clubcard Maxistore’, and be monitored. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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Ha ha, yes Pete we need rural viewpoints and unless you have a farm yourself, daily provisions could be a problem.
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But cash is on the decline and will be gone in a decade or two. In Iceland, where we went last year, there is no call for cash anywhere at all. It’s all card use.
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Hello Grace, yes it’s tough for money, when I’m fumbling with coins I wonder why I didn’t use my card, but we must keep cash – look out for a blog on why we need cash…
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and cheques… we need to fight for cheques… and people who serve you, rather than machines that tell you you’ve out your pumpkin in the wrong bag, or its liable to go off soon or something… guerilla shopping, yep, quite agree. Come the revolution, it’ll be ironic if Pete is the only one to starve…
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Giant cheques for lottery wins could be the only cheques to survive!
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That would be sad
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The ‘covid years’ were the final death-knell to an above-the-counter cash economy. As for the underneath-the-counter one, well, booming might be an apt descriptor … which sadly leaves it wide open to all sorts of exploitation.
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Yes lots of our shops had no cash notices. Our greengrocers had always been cash only, but they started using cards, though at least they have a cash only under £5!
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I am a guerilla shopper to an extent. I try to pay in cash and use charity shops quite a lot. However during the C problem all the local car parks changed to ‘card only’ machines so Algo knows where I have been!
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Yes it is hard to use cash only, but just using it at all is good.
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Algo knows your whereabouts, your habits and pretty much everything about you when all those databases are linked. So I am uneasy about Algo to say the least. I make it a thing to pay cash wherever possible and practicable. I like the idea of being a shopping guerilla.
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Hello Paul, welcome to the shopping guerrillas.
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I find it annoying that in each shop I go to in the town centre they will ask me at the checkout if I want to buy a pen or a roll of sellotape for instance. Some even ask for my email address. Sam once replied that he was after a bag of cement to the usual question of whether he wanted anything else (in a greetings card shop!).
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Ha ha, don’t we all wish we could be so quick off the mark with a remark! At Mountain Warehouse ( how many mountaineers shop there? ) they always ask for my email and I always reply ‘I gave it to you once before and you never kept in touch.’
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Nice one!
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I went guerilla shopping and found one at the fish and chimp shop. They wanted a monkey but I negotiated them down to a pony.
PS – I’ll be back with a serious response in the next episode.
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Sounds like a great shopping trip Doug!
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