Contact Your Local Freebie Provider

I recently watched The Devil Wears Prada with my wife. I thought it was alright for a chick flick. In the movie an aspiring journalist gets a job working for a devil woman who happens to be the editor for a fashion magazine. In one scene of the movie, the main character meets her friends at a cafe and gives them hundreds-of-dollars worth of merchandise for free. She had the merchandise because her boss had given it to her. They were brand new cast offs from the previous year or simply items that weren't going to be used for the next issue of the magazine. Though the movie is fiction, this scene demonstrates a resulting truth of an over-consumerist corporate society.

I'm convinced that any business produces it's products in enough excess to be able to provide some of them for free. I came to that conclusion by trying to think of something that may not be available for free. I though of money. I figured there isn't a business that I can go to and ask for money. That's got to be absolutely contrary to the nature of business (unless I was a student or charity, then its tax-deductable). Then I thought of a business that only deals with money and nothing else - banks. And it just so happens that people can get free money from banks by simply using the bank's services.

Then I was convinced. If a person can get money for free from a business whose only product is money, then why can't a person get pretty much anything for free from business that only deal with the desired products? Here are some other examples:

Books - I've seen libraries give away books on more than one occasion, or sell them for some incredibly low price like 25 cents.

Movies - Movie theaters show free screenings all the time. Rental services like Red Box offer a free rentals for signing up.

Food - A bagel shop that offers "fresh-baked" bagels every day has to do something with the bagels that they didn't sell the day before. Pizza delivery places have undelivered pizzas at the end of the day almost every day.

Toothbrush - Dentists give away toothbrushes all the time. You could probably go to any dentist's office and ask for one and they'd be willing to give it to you even if they're not your dentist. Why? Because the toothbrushes have the name of their business on them and they're handing out promotions.

The average person can take advantage of the fact that businesses produce too much by contacting businesses in their local area for the inside scoop. Businesses don't wast their time and money promoting the fact that they're giving something away; you have to ask for it to find out.

Sometimes this strategy for getting free stuff requires thinking outside of the box. I doubt a local electronics store will give away free electronics. Generally, if they have excess electronics they know they can sell inventory to second-hand electronics stores, and the product eventually gets filtered down to be offered at a price where it will sell.

However, if you can think beyond the electronics store and think of something like a trade show where they make demonstrations, or a school that has funding to update their computers, or a non-profit that deals only with recycling and refurbishing computers, then you'll probably find one for free.

Contacting local businesses is a particularly successful strategy for getting free items when the items have an expiration date,  like foods.

The Free Garbage page describes a group of people, called Freegans, who get food for free by dumpster diving outside local grocery stores. Food has an expiration date, so when the store is no longer allowed to sell it, they throw it away. Take the initiative to get the food before it even arrives in the dumpster by contacting the manager of the store. Look for more than just the large grocery stores too. The local mini mart has to change their foods every so often. Also pizza and bagel shops that offer "fresh-baked" goods have already been mentioned.

Contacting local businesses and organizations can also be successful when seeking free services. Simply contact the school that teaches that service and offer to be the subject. Teeth cleaning from a dental hygienist, photography, hair cuts and salon services, floral design, plumbing, mechanics, and a variety of other services are often available for free from the school that teaches the service.

When my car broke down in high school, I brought it to the mechanics shop at the school. My friend fixed it for free. He got school credit, and the school paid for the part that I needed.

In short, one of the ways you can get freebies is by contacting your local freebie provider - the business that produces or deals with the product that you're interested in. The fact that businesses produce in enough excess to be able to give some products away makes virtually any business your local freebie provider.

The word "business" is used in the general sense to include production, retail stores, and promotion of a product. All you have to do is be able to think outside of the box and have the courage to ask for the freebie.

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