A woman’s video advertising a steal of a deal at her local Home Depot is raising awareness of a certain kind of bargain shopping for viewers.
In the video posted to TikTok, user @emoneymakerr, who primarily makes content about finding the best discounts for high-dollar items from AirPods to gun safes, shows viewers how she was able to score a $83 Hoover vacuum for the low-low price of one penny. She didn’t just buy one, she got three.
“You aren’t going to believe what happened today at Home Depot,” she says in the video. “We got an alert around 3 a.m. from our Discord about this penny item, and so we ran to the store first thing, and we were the first ones to secure a bag—and not just one, we found three of them. As you’ll see here, once we got up to the register, they rang up for just a penny a piece.”
The video has drawn over 225,000 viewers on TikTok, and sparked discussion among viewers about how they can take advantage of such steep discounts.
The Daily Dot has reached out to @emoneymakerr via TikTok direct message, as well as to Home Depot regarding the video.
What is a penny deal?
While the concept might be new to some, the penny sale or penny deal has been around for a long time. It is thought to be an internal method of signaling that an item is going to be discontinued by the manufacturer or otherwise not to be sold and removed from inventory.
However, some still get left out and find their way into the hands of lucky customers.
Is this a common find?
This is not the first time someone has pointed out that Home Depot and other retailers might accidentally be leaving penny deals on the shelves for customers to find.
Last year, another customer explained how the markdowns work. He told viewers that items with prices ending in .03 are the lowest they will be in that store and are likely to be penny deals when scanned at checkout—at least in his experience.
Viewers weigh in
Some viewers with experience in retail shared how they were trained to address “penny deals,” when it was time to check out a customer.
“I use to work at Home Depot and they wouldn’t let us sale items that rang up for a penny,” one commenter wrote.
“My store will pull an item if it rings up a 1€,” another user said. “I was told both times they need to crush it. I offered to pay full price on a mail box but they refused. It’s wrong on many levels.”
“I work at Home Depot stop telling lies,” a commenter wrote. “I change prices there on the Met team and you. CAN’T buy penny skus.”
@emoneymakerr GET UP AND GO TO HOME DEPOT NOW! These penny deals DO NOT LAST LONG ! #clearance #reselling #hiddenclearance #clearancefinds #arbitrage #amazonfba #RetailHacks #ShoppingTips #Savings #tistheseason ♬ Delta Dawn – Tanya Tucker
Others were doubtful of the deal being described, as several commenters wrote that they had gone to multiple Home Depot stores looking for these vacuums only to find that they rang up as full priced merchandise.
“I went to 3 different HD’s and they all range up full price,” one commenter wrote. “I went up to the service desk and was told this is a Scam for ppl to buy subscriptions.”
“I went to 2 HD and called ALL the HD in a 100 mile radius and they were ALL full price!” another said. “So I called a family member that has worked at HD for 31 years. So I found out this TT is a total scam!!!! There are ZERO HD in all the US that has this VACUME or any others for a penny. Also NONE have been sold for a penny.”
“Just went and they had the same one and when they rung it up showed full price,” a third said. “Good find for you tho!!”
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