What kind of rules should we be sensitive to? Perhaps it's the law, or maybe it's when signing a contract, or perhaps it's when businesses are running promotions and we need to pay attention to the rules?
I read an article titled "The Meaning of Getting the Best Deal: Being Sensitive to Rules by GeekPlux" and summarized it as "being sensitive to rules". I think this is accurate, and it's also the title of the article.
What is "Hao Yang Mao" (薅羊毛)?#
Regarding the term "Hao Yang Mao" (薅羊毛) itself, according to Baidu Baike, it is explained as follows:
The original meaning of "Hao Yang Mao" (薅羊毛) refers to the act of poor people secretly pulling some wool from the sheep when they were herding sheep for wealthy families. Each person would only pull a small amount, but over time, it would accumulate and could be used to make clothing and other items. Following the practice of "Hao Yang Mao knitting sweaters" by Bai Yun, a character from the Spring Festival Gala skit, it was defined as "Hao Yang Mao". In the skit, Bai Yun was portrayed as being foolish and only pulling wool from one sheep, which was quickly discovered by others. Since these sheep were public property, the wool was also considered public property. "Hao Yang Mao" was seen as a theft of public property and was a serious political issue at the time.
Nowadays, it basically refers to obtaining various types of economic benefits at various stages of consumer activities. For example, the coupons you receive before making a purchase, the rewards you receive from lottery activities when dining out, and the most common one: cashback for leaving a positive review.
Therefore, the act of "Hao Yang Mao" is based on being legal and compliant, allowing oneself to profit through various means.
Is "Hao Yang Mao" exploiting loopholes?#
I don't think so.
For example, if an app launches a new user invitation activity, but you use technical means, such as emulators or virtual cards, to deceive the system and make it mistakenly believe that a new user has been added, I think this behavior is what can be considered as exploiting loopholes.
Wool comes from rules, so I think it actually helps to improve the rules of this world. In recent years, the country has been encouraging "reasonable tax avoidance," which can be called "companies exploiting the country's wool." It is helpful for companies to understand the consequences of their actions during the production and operation process, which benefits the entire country.
However, you may have heard of news like "a certain online store suffered heavy losses due to 'Hao Yang Mao' enthusiasts"; this type of situation may occur in offline activities organized by various companies, where electronic coupons distributed offline are claimed online without proper verification by the organizers, resulting in losses. Another situation is when coupon rules are set incorrectly, leading to stacking of discounts that shouldn't be allowed or ordering of products that shouldn't be eligible for the coupon. The last situation is pure hype, where a false price is set, followed by a large discount coupon that makes the final price actually higher than the cost, resulting in complaints.
I think these situations can only be considered as "not illegal," but more of a moral issue. It depends on how companies measure the losses and impact. However, as consumers, we can consider ourselves as having gained from the first two types of "Hao Yang Mao".
What kind of "Hao Yang Mao" is worth it?#
E-commerce coupons#
I have joined many "XX coupon exclusive groups", and with a quick search, you can find that most of them are promotions organized by the stores themselves, which are then provided to promoters by official promotion platforms of major e-commerce platforms to achieve promotion.
This kind of "Hao Yang Mao" is obvious and not very worthwhile. Most of them are robots tirelessly posting this kind of information, and it's not certain whether they are actually good deals. But at least you get to see low-cost advertisements. There is actually a better solution for this, which is to use coupon search robots and only search for what you need. This kind of "Hao Yang Mao" cannot be considered fake, but it's still not worth it.
Credit cards#
GeekPlux wrote about "How I Manage 21 Credit Cards", and I think this is a very impressive "Hao Yang Mao" behavior.
If you have seen various credit card advertisements on different platforms, you would know that there are various offers such as bundled memberships, gifts for card usage, and cashback. For example, Apple's Apple Card:
It has the following cashback rules:
- 3%: Apple products, including Apple Store, Apple's official website, App Store, iTunes, iCloud, Apple Music, and other purchases.
- 2%: Any purchase made using Apple Pay.
- 1%: Any purchase made using the physical Apple Card.
As you can see, if you use this card solely for purchasing Apple's own products, it is undoubtedly a good choice. But what about any purchase that supports credit card payments?
2% cashback seems decent, but because the environment in China is different, most cashback offers prefer to use random range cashback (which is really annoying, let me complain a bit). However, for certain designated merchants, some credit cards can even offer cashback rates as high as 10%.
There are many ways to take advantage of credit card benefits in China, such as limited-time cashback (within a certain period after card activation, limited to holidays), limited cashback after reaching a certain spending threshold each month, multiple times the points, coupons, physical gifts, etc.
And this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to credit card benefits. In theory, the more credit cards you have, the more optimal benefits you can cover.
Personally, I don't recommend going to such extremes because if you miss out on some rules, not only could you be "exploited" but it could also be troublesome to protect your rights. However, I recommend trying the following situations:
Regular spending at specific merchants#
For example, if you enjoy having coffee every day or going grocery shopping once a week at a specific brand or location.
Being able to manage multiple credit cards effectively#
At the very basic level, you need to remember your payment due dates, do proper financial planning, and avoid overspending (make sure you have the money for your purchases instead of knowing you'll have to pay in installments or borrow money).
If there is an option for interest-free installments, the difficulty of managing your finances will increase.
Coupons#
Coupons can be divided into two categories: merchant discounts (on products or services) and payment discounts.
Merchant discounts#
Why did I separate these "merchant discounts" from the previous e-commerce coupons? Because I think these discounts are more valuable than the others.
For example, McDonald's has a "member day" every Monday, where they offer a special discounted set meal or individual item, and sometimes even free items (to be used after making any purchase), as well as occasional freebies in collaboration with payment apps.
With these discounts, because the prices set by the merchants are stable, you will more clearly feel that "you have gained something". Even with free coupons, if you were already planning to have a meal, the arrival of the free item adds more joy to that meal.
However, there are also tricks to merchant discounts. I remember reading a story before: for a bottle of beverage, the goal is to target three types of consumers. One is the high-end group, so the bottle of beverage will be sold at the original price or at a higher price in high-end supermarkets and retail stores. The second is the general public, so the bottle of beverage will be sold at the original price or slightly cheaper in regular supermarkets and retail stores, or even in vending machines. The last group is consumers with lower purchasing power, so the discounts for this bottle of beverage will be distributed to the target users in various forms, attracting them to purchase at a relatively lower price compared to the original price.
This way, the purchasing habits of these three consumer groups are taken care of, and the selling prices can still make a profit. This selling strategy can be considered quite clever.
There is also another type of merchant discount, which is most commonly found in restaurant ordering apps. You can get discounts based on the total amount spent, such as "spend a certain amount and get a discount". However, merchant discounts can also fall into the following category:
Payment discounts#
When making payments, you may come across various limited-time discounts, which are usually provided by payment apps. They may be for new users or you may just be lucky.
Common examples include in-store red envelopes and coupons, which are all payment discounts. The sources of these discounts are usually within payment apps, and the amounts are generally not large, but the discounts are relatively stable and usually have no spending threshold.
There are also discounts provided by merchants themselves within payment apps. I'm not very familiar with the purpose of these coupons, perhaps they are for joint promotions with payment apps, or maybe the merchants don't have the capability to develop their own coupons?
However, I personally like these types of coupons the most. Let's take McDonald's as an example:
Sometimes McDonald's will distribute free medium fries through payment apps, which are normally priced at ¥13. Then, the merchant will also provide payment discounts through the payment app, such as a ¥25-¥5 red envelope. At this point, I ordered a favorite 1+1 combo, originally priced at
¥12but now it's ¥13.9 (sad, crying, powerless). Although due to the usage rules of merchant coupons, only one coupon can be used per order, when you make the payment, you will find that the threshold for the payment discount is calculated based on the original price, which is ¥12+¥13. So it perfectly meets the ¥25 threshold for the payment discount, which means the final payment is (12+13)-13-5, and you only need to pay ¥7.
With the addition of occasional coupons and small red envelopes, you can get a meal for just over ¥5.
For these kinds of discounts, I can only say that it depends on personal experience. Overall, it is worth it.
Red envelopes#
This is real money, whether it's in the form of gold or financial products, it won't disappear if you don't spend it.
Whether it's worth it or not depends on the difficulty of obtaining them and the quantity. For example, a certain red e-commerce platform, it spreads like a virus and it's difficult to get anything.
Rules and regulations#
Make good use of rules and find a balance or a high-yield strategy.
- Find a balance between getting a degree and slacking off.
- Get the highest salary/annual bonus within a reasonable scope of work.
- Pay the least amount of taxes within a reasonable scope.
- Recently, I have been paying attention to connecting a computer platform membership to the TV.
Why can't I see these "Hao Yang Mao" opportunities?#
On one hand, it may be because you are not sensitive enough to the rules, and on the other hand, it may be because you are "very rich".
Finding these "Hao Yang Mao" opportunities requires time and effort compared to the normal usage process. You need to read, analyze, and remember the rules, and then take advantage of them. If you are not sensitive enough to the rules, you can learn. As for wealthy individuals, their time is more valuable.
However, I think this is actually a problem similar to "losing oneself in materialism". Each person's time is not fully occupied by 24 hours, and sometimes the purpose of "Hao Yang Mao" is not necessarily to save money. Some people do it because they have the idea of "not missing out on a good deal" and the thrill of finding a loophole.
Or when ordering at a restaurant, taking a short time to study the discount rules, saving money on the next meal or making the current meal even better. I think it's worth it.
As GeekPlux said in his article: Making good use of rules is the greatest respect for rules, looking down on rules instead of being trapped by them.
As for information channels, you may come across one while watching videos, or you may find one while browsing new media. However, the information that reaches you may already be outdated, or it may simply be an advertisement from the merchant.
So, the rules worth exploring are those that you frequently encounter and use, and occasionally stumbling upon a good deal is a pleasant surprise in life.
I wish you can "Hao Yang Mao" in the new year, find more good deals, and become the one who looks down on rules.