Borrowing Tips / Borrowing Hauls

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About

Borrowing Tips / Borrowing Hauls refers to a movement on TikTok collected largely under the hashtags #borrowingtips and #borrowinghauls in which TikTokers demonstrate how to shoplift from certain chain stores, and show off what they’ve recently stolen. TikTokers use the term “borrowing” rather than shoplifting and claim the videos are jokes for the sake of discretion. Many TikTokers who upload borrowing tips videos claim to only shoplift from chain stores as a form of protest for various reasons, such as the use of sweatshops and paying their workers unfair wages. The movement is similar to the Tumblr Shoplifting Blogs used by Tumblr users to demonstrate how to shoplift items from stores.

Origin

Throughout 2013 and 2014, Tumblr blogs that described how to shoplift and showcased shoplifted goods began popping up on the platform. The blogs were widely reported on, with many people showing both support and opposition to the trend. On May 7th, 2014, BBC Trending uploaded an investigative report on the trend to their YouTube channel (shown below, left). On December 8th, 2018, YouTuber Savantics uploaded a video in opposition of the trend, garnering over 620,000 views in just under 2 years (shown below, right).

It’s unknown who uploaded the first borrowing video to TikTok. One of the earliest examples was uploaded on December 9th, 2019, by TikToker coolcatali. In the video, she demonstrates to her viewers how to remove a type of security label found on clothing in stores like Adidas and Tommy Hilfiger (shown below, left). The video gained over 190,000 views in just under a year. Coolcatali continued to upload borrowing videos well into 2020, with one of her most popular uploads garnering over 1.1 million views in 11 months (shown below, right).

Spread

As the trend began to take off multiple new outlets and websites reported on it, including the Daily Mail on January 32rd, 2020, and The Sun on February 28th. On May 8th, YouTuber READY TO GLARE uploaded a critical video detailing TikTok’s shoplifting community, garnering over 218,000 views in 6 months (shown below). This is one of the earliest critiques of the movement.

The trend slowly gained traction throughout 2020, with many users creating accounts specifically for sharing shoplifting tips and showing off their hauls. On July 25th, borrowingbitxhes, an account made specifically for showing off borrowing tips and hauls, uploaded a borrowing tips video that garnered over 1.4 million views in 3 months (shown below, left). On August 6th, TikToker helpingyouborrow, another account dedicated to shoplifting videos, posted their first video, garnering over 1.7 million views in 3 months (shown below, right).

On August 24th, StayHipp published an entry on TikTok’s shoplifting community. On November 9th, Vice published a story on the community. As of November 10th, videos using the hashtag #borrowingtips have garnered over 98 million total views.