<story><title>Retail Arbitrage at Walmart [video]</title><url>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FknkqT5tHK8</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>headsupftw</author><text>Most Americans don&amp;#x27;t know there&amp;#x27;s a subeconomy in the U.S. where Chinese merchants buy items from retail stores and sell them to customers in China. The successful ones hire people to shop in stores. What do they buy? iPhones, diapers, baby formula, LV purses, lottery tickets...</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>kirykl</author><text>This was enormous for Apple during the iPhone 3G launch. Nearly every retail purchase was 5 iPhones, the max per customer. It was profitable enough that these were all bought on contract then cancelled, which I think was the only way at the time.</text></comment>
<story><title>Retail Arbitrage at Walmart [video]</title><url>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FknkqT5tHK8</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>headsupftw</author><text>Most Americans don&amp;#x27;t know there&amp;#x27;s a subeconomy in the U.S. where Chinese merchants buy items from retail stores and sell them to customers in China. The successful ones hire people to shop in stores. What do they buy? iPhones, diapers, baby formula, LV purses, lottery tickets...</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>camhenlin</author><text>Even cars: there is a huge business of people buying up brand new luxury cars in the US, then immediately putting them on a boat to China. The manufacturers hate it, and try to write sales contracts to prevent it, but it&amp;#x27;s so lucrative that it constantly attracts new people into the game</text></comment>