A question of collection methods ethics....

[Pennybug]

OK... So I have been doing a decent amount of traveling lately and staying at hotels frequently. One of the 1st things I've been doing is grabbing all the soap, coffee, pre-wrapped cups, tea, and alike stuff. I throw this stuff into my "survival box surplus" items. Figure this kinda stuff when accumulated could make for good extra portable supplies/barter items if ever needed (for the fertilizer in the ventilator scenario). I know... this may be a little over the top... but hey... it's free! SOOOOOOO... what are the thoughts here? Ethical (yes) or not (no)? Anyone else do anything similar? Curious...

[Shags29]

I've always looked at it like this. I have already paid for those things anyway. Thats part of the price you pay to stay there. Now if you are taking towels then thats a whole nother deal.....lol. After all hoarding is in our blood!

[Know Common Cents]

I take 'em all. I agree that they're built into the price of the room. I keep the ones I know I'll use and donate the rest to a local homeless shelter. (They put them in "kits" for the newly homeless people who come into the shelter for the first time.) Also good to find one you like and save a wrapper in the event that you need to buy more for yourself.

[shinnosuke]

Another way to look at this is, yes, the items are built into the price of the room, but the hotel expects a certain percentage of guests to leave at least some of those items behind. If everybody started taking them, the hotel might have to raise rates. That said, I always take what I can use like soap and shoe polish buffing mitt, etc.

[Nickelless]

Another way to look at this is, yes, the items are built into the price of the room, but the hotel expects a certain percentage of guests to leave at least some of those items behind. If everybody started taking them, the hotel might have to raise rates. That said, I always take what I can use like soap and shoe polish buffing mitt, etc.

But do you actually use those things already, or would you just find uses for them if you took them? If you use them already, that's one thing, but taking them with no intention for their normal use is a whole different story. I could theoretically take the bars of soap from a hotel room, but I typically use shampoo to wash from head to toe, so for me to take the soap would IMO be tantamount to stealing it since I don't normally use soap per se.

But I think the bigger issue is why we'd consider foraging off of others for the sake of our preps instead of finding dedicated sources for our preps that wouldn't necessarily raise their prices if everyone took freebies from them, as hotels might if enough people took their soap, shampoo, etc.--say, if one person stayed in a hotel room but took excess shampoo that they didn't use during their stay which might otherwise be used by the next guest, but then the hotel would have to stock up on those items. You could argue that the cost of those incidental items is built into the charge for the room, but if the cost for incidentals goes up for the hotel, they'll likely have to raise their rates. I've been buying cases of many prep items over time but I'm not creating an undue shortage or added expense by taking them because I'm paying for them. That's not to say that the price of certain items that I'd normally buy anyway might not go up, but the bigger question with the example you're using is why, if you can afford to stay in a hotel room, would you not buy those items more cheaply in larger sizes for the sake of your preps? You can get a single use out of a hotel-size bottle of shampoo or coffee pack...or you could buy a 15-oz. or larger bottle of shampoo for about a dollar and have it last a lot longer, or buy a can of coffee, in my case, Cafe Bustelo, and get a week or more worth of coffee for less than $4. (I drink a lot of coffee!) The bottom line as I see it is that if you're looking at freebies as a way of stocking up on things, you're totally missing the bigger picture of cutting unnecessary costs in other areas so that you have more money to buy things you need and would normally use anyway.