My Freegan Customers...

We first posted this story last year, but for some reason Georganne and her "freaking Freegans" have been a popular topic as of late. We've received seven random e-mails on the topic. Maybe it was reposted on someone else's blog -- who knows? It's ironic; when your yard is buried in five feet of snow, like ours are right now, cleaning the basement isn't at the top of your list of things to do. Here's the post. Enjoy!

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Yeah, we know this post isn't really about retail, but it is about consumer attitude. And besides, it's Saturday so bear with me. It’s annual TRASH DAY in my home town. That's TRASH DAY in capital letters because it’s like an all-you-can-throw-away smorgasbord. And it’s free. And since we Benders have a pile of boxes in our basement, that we’ve moved several times but never opened, we felt it was time to toss them.

So we took everything out of the boxes – this was hard! How do you throw away your kids' childhood? Every little sweater and toy tells a story, but we managed to get through it and bag everything up in garbage bags. Then we tied the handles and hauled them to the curb.

That’s when all hell broke lose.

Car after car of human raccoons drove up and tore through every bag. In the rain. By 10:00 we were outside re-bagging everything that was once neatly bagged but was now strewn across our front lawn. At 7:00 the next morning we had go out and do it all over again.

The highlight of this entire fiasco was the noon arrival of people who identified themselves as Freegans.

Freegans, in case you missed it, are “scavengers of the developed world, living off consumer waste in an effort to minimize their support of corporations and their impact on the planet, and to distance themselves from what they see as out-of-control consumerism. They forage through supermarket trash and eat the slightly bruised produce or just-expired canned goods that are routinely thrown out, and negotiate gifts of surplus food from sympathetic stores and restaurants. They dress in castoff clothes and furnish their homes with items found on the street.” (Source: New York Times)

Okay, if that’s the lifestyle you choose to lead, I’m cool with that, but I'm not cool with their need to rub my consumerism in my face. The Freegans had a comment about every single thing, in every single bag, they opened. When I came outside to ask them to please re-close the bags when they finished, one said in a rather snotty tone, “This stuff’s too good to throw away. You should have donated it.”

I’m thinking, Honey, you're digging through my trash and you’re giving me attitude? So I asked her if she watches TV. She says yes. I say, “Ever see TLC’s Clean Sweep? Trash gets divided into three piles: Keep, Throw Away, and Charity. The bags for donation are still in the basement. And besides, we are donating this stuff. To you.” She mumbled a few things under her breath and then loudly announced her annoyance that the bags were double tied. Oh, I get it now: we were supposed to make this easy.

I suppose in some crazy way these people were my customers. My dis-satisfied customers. If people get that annoyed going through trash (which incidentally, was a gift because it’s illegal in Illinois) I can’t even begin to tell you what they must be like as customers in a real store. But I'm certain you could tell me! I can tell you one thing for sure: if we ever do this again, we’re getting a dumpster.


George