8mo ago

Don't care what the reason is.

227 comments

If you see someone shoplifting, remember it isn't your job to deal with it, stores pay security for that. getting involved is providing free labor to the company, and they get enough of that through wage theft.

I use to work at a grocery store and for every food item that was stolen, dozens more of the same product was thrown out for being past expiration. Like many companies they want the shelves to be full at all times, which means they over produce and order product. Nothing was recycled or donated, just straight into the trash. If I ever saw anyone stealing while I was working, I just saw it as less work I has to do with taking count and throwing out food later. Plus someone actually got to eat it!
- Similarly- my daughter's last science unit (for some reason) had a big thing about how you shouldn't waste food to help the environment. And I'm fine with telling kids not to waste food to help the environment. But maybe it should also mention that McDonald's throws out every perfectly edible burger that's sat under a heat lamp too long and maybe that should be a bigger concern if we're talking about food waste and the environment.
  Even at the middle school level, they're blaming the individual when the corporation is so much worse.
- Nothing was recycled or donated
  How come they never donate? Seems like a no no brainer and it would help out.
  
  My guess is they don't want to be responsible for lawsuits if someone eats food they had to throw out and it causes a problem. (past expiration date, damage, ect.) Then again I am not a multi-billion dollar business executive so the reason could very well be "fuck the poors" for all I know.
  
  This will reduce demand, which will lead to reduced prices and hurt earnings. Capitalism requires lack, including food.
  
  I believe some store locations did, or at least said they did. I'm not sure why the ones I worked at didn't. Even if the food didn't go to people, I've heard they can go into making feed for animals and fats from unused foods can go into make up. Probably what other people have said, if they start donating, then less product would be purchased. I don't have a better answer unfortunately, I wasn't given one when I asked.
  
  because then people can eat that food instead of buying. u are thinking like a human u have to think like a capitalists
  
  Supermarkets in my country do. They also have bins for items that are getting really close to expiration, where you can buy them with a hefty discount. Another supermarket puts orange stickers giving a discount on close-to-expired products.
- It's ignorant what they do.

None of these companies are worried about me when they jack their prices up while people are struggling. I don't know why I would ever give a shit about them. I'm just here to buy moisturizer and stay in my lane.
- Here is some of the Loblaws grocery store markup that was leaked.
  
  The figures in the screenshot are too small to see clearly; not wanting to be "that guy" who just says so and buggers off, I found an article that has the full-size copy of each page: https://thedeepdive.ca/selling-butter-at-54-profit-leaked-docs-show-loblaws-exorbitant-markups/
- Look at Mr Moneybags over here, buying moisturizer.
  
  Leredditor joke
- Theft does make prices go up though, you know? It also makes stores close in underserved communities.
  
  Cool, still not my problem. They can hire people to care about it, I'm not ratting people out. And let's be real, a lot of those companies lie and blame theft for higher prices and store closures and then it turns out they're actually full of crap. Target got caught doing that like 5 minutes ago.
  
  See you're assuming they wouldn't jack up the prices even without theft, as someone who studied business it's literally taught to see how far you can push before the breaking point. line go up. It does suck in undeserved communities but there's not much we can do, people in those communities often vote against their best interest.
  
  if the community couldn't afford it, they were being exploited not served. dont pretend these people are being supported by these corporations.
  if the prices go up, you should steal too. market pressures, babe.
  if this isnt sustainable, then let's build guillotines and do something else.
  
  Prices go up regardless of wage increases or thefts. Prices are coupled with only one thing and that is corporate greed.
  
  It also makes stores close in underserved communities.
  That is corporate PR bullshit that you swallowed hook, line and sinker.
  https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/target-blamed-theft-violence-crime-closures-rcna130443

If I saw someone shoplifting anything I wouldn’t lol none my business
- Yeah, I'll start caring about shoplifting as soon as it becomes remotely the same magnitude of a problem as wage theft.
  
  for as long as wage theft has been an unrecognized unremedied problem.
- Only time I'll say something is a mom and pop store. Then the thief is being shitty. Go steal from a Walmart, not here.
  
  I dunno. Oftentimes desperate people are more liable to steal from those stores than to steal from Walmart because the security is more lax. people like to say that, oh, Walmart builds it into their budgets, the theft, so they do nothing about it, but that's totally false, there are plenty of instances where Walmart or whatever other shitass big box store will call the cops or try to detain you with their personal security. Not to say that people should rob local businesses over Walmart if they have the choice, right, but that's why people might do it.
  
  usually but not always valid. still don't snitch, Nazi death squads improve nothing.
- The right answer. You never know what people have on them. I personally don't want to get shot or stabbed. Corporations have insurance, AND make enough profit for me to care.
- I might if they were bad at it, to try and help. I certainly wouldn't snitch
- Only time I'd disagree with this is if it was a local family/co-op ran store. I couldn't care less about the bottom line of a corporation

What?
I've watched people shoplift food several times, and they weren't poor people just looking to eat. I watched someone run out of a M&S store and into an awaiting car with a huge bag full of meat around Christmas time, probably several hundred pounds worth.
If someone was stealing a loaf of bread or something for themselves, I didn't see a thing, but let's not pretend that people aren't stealing to make some money. Lots of people steal stuff to resell, or because they're just dicks...
- let’s not pretend that people aren’t stealing to make some money
  When you rob one grocery store of a 10 lb brisket, its called shoplifting.
  But when you rob every grocery store of 10% of their net revenue, its called paying your shareholders a dividend.
  
  You can give a shit about two things at once. Imagine that lol.
- Don't really care about some corporations losing out on their margins after nickel and diming everyone as high as they possibly can. Especially if the end result is someone or multiple people eating.
  
  Here they've had shittier protections against shoplifting, no bags to shops and whatnot because junkies kept stealing expensive meats and cheese to sell. It sucks. Here they're even given money to live on, housing, free food and whatnot. Hasn't stopped it.
  
  This isn't Robin Hood. These are two guys that clearly wanted to steal food at a peak time to sell it elsewhere. The same number of people are eating, possibly less so because these guys are probably flogging their stolen shit in a pub somewhere and will likely dump what they can't sell.
  This place is so weird sometimes. I don't know if it's a Lemmy or American thing, but this kind of stuff is pretty common in the UK...
- but let’s not pretend that people aren’t stealing to make some money.
  Perhaps it's safe to say they're poor. Poor people often don't have enough money. Still sounds like a job of desperation.
  
  Desperation to avoid getting a real, legal job, maybe.
  Perhaps it’s safe to say they’re poor.
  It is not. I've seen these scumbags' subreddit, I've seen their Tumblr tags. They're not poor, they're just scumbag thieves.
  An actual poor person stealing necessities because they have no other choice does NOT have this ridiculous entitled mindset.
- I watched someone run out of a M&S store and into an awaiting car with a huge bag full of meat around Christmas time, probably several hundred pounds worth.
  And yet Google tells me that M&S has a revenue of £11.93 billion.
  So why are you caring about them losing a few hundred of that?
  
  Because others can't buy meat because some bellends wanted to steal it to sell during Christmas?
  I don't give a fuck about M&S losing profit. I do give a fuck about obvious crime that puts people out...
- Who cares lmao
- If you're nicking stuff M&S it can't just be any theft
  
  Yeah, to be fair I feel like I've been robbed any time I get lunch there...
- Yeah we need to stop the resale markets
- You don't know that the person owned the car. Breed is not nutrients rich. People can't live on breed.
  
  What the fuck are you talking about? They literally ran into a getaway car with their friend to leave the scene of the crime as fast as they could. You don't steal hundreds of pounds of meat at Christmas because "you need nutrients"...

Unless you live where I do, where people steal mass amounts of junk food from convenience stores and then resell it at the nighttime markets to our struggling, marginalized, population of unhoused folks at an exploitative mark-up.
Because that is actively harming me, and the community I live in.
Though even with all that, confronting or reporting them isn't helpful. But if asked, and I saw it, I would say so.
- Hey, this is a thread about supporting shoplifters not price gougers.
- Why dont those people just buy the food from the Store ?
  
  Stores close and you can't get fentanyl at those stores as easily.
- nah still fine. if its cheaper than corpo prices, and nobody but corporate ghouls loses, why risk hurting someone over that?
  
  They mentioned "exploitative mark-up". They arent cheaper, they are just more convenient.
  
  They sell it at higher prices to the mentally ill and drug addicted people who are at those markets which are usually referred to as "open air drug markets." I don't like that term but it may give you reference to how this harms the community, though.

Here it's often junkies stealing expensive meats and cheese to sell. I probably wouldn't say anything but I don't really give a shit if they get caught either.
- Who is buying expensive meats and cheeses from a junkie? That doesn't add up.
  
  Have you never been approached by a weird dude at a gas station who is selling "fresh" meat out of a cooler in the trunk of his car?
  We live in very different places. (Not sarcasm, this has happened to me about a dozen times)
  
  Other junkies, alkies, people they have debt to. Often used in lieu of money since they've already spent it.
  It's a thing. I've been (am still) around enough junkies that I've had some debts paid in premium meat and cheese. I didn't even think it might sound weird to some, I'm just so used to it hah.
- Saw one get caught here just a couple of weeks back, had a similar thought. Didn't care that the store was being stolen from, also didn't care that he got caught. Found it a little funny when he just walked back into the store through a different entrance after he got kicked out and the "loss prevention agent" got all "what did I just tell you?!" Idly hoped that the guy had someone who cares about him in his life trying to help him.

I'm not in a position to tell if someone can afford to eat. They might look like they're employed or be dressed expensively, but people can fall on hard times suddenly
So I'm not going to report anyone for anything except crimes against individuals
- Thats what food banks are for. Theft is illegal and unethical.
  
  The only way you think stealing to live is unethical is if you value property more than life.
  
  Letting people starve is worse, throwing food and faking shortages to raise prices should be punished by death.
  
  On a grand scale: That's what states are for. On a personal scale: If states let people go hungry, don't make their life harder than it already is, don't be an asshole.
  
  how is stealing from a corporation unethical exactly.
  
  Let's see... I'm starving and impoverished. I could steal some fresh, nutritious food or I could go to the food bank and have an expired can of creamed corn.
  You're right, food bank.
  
  Yes stealing food is unethical. If someone steals your food you should take it right back off them.
  That's why I do all my shoplifting at the duopoly stores that are currently under government investigation for wage theft and price gouging.... and not the community grocer who isn't stealing from the public.

devils advocate: what if that person stealing a sandwich turned out to be convicted murderer Robert Durst
On November 30, Durst was caught inside a Wegmans supermarket in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, after trying to shoplift Band-Aids, a newspaper, and a chicken salad sandwich, despite having $500 in cash in his pocket.
- Ok, if you see Robert Durst stealing a sandwich, report him immediately. Otherwise, don't.
  
  What if I see him murdering someone?
- I am less inclined to confront an actual murderer. So my answer is nope and noper.
- Then I sure as fuck don't want to risk a confrontation with a murderer over a supermarket sandwich
  
  no but seedo you not care about freedom?
- I'd be much less inclinded to get involved with a murderer
- The answer is a most definite nope.
- He wasn't just stealing food. If someone needs food, you look the other way. But non-essentials? That's a different story.
  
  A sandwich feeds you for half a day, a gucci bag can feed someone for a week. Or at least enable someone to buy other essentials like diapers that are much harder to steal.

In the self checkout I watched a man with his children have his card rejected, so he just walked out with the food.
The security guards came up to ask me if I knew what way the man went.
I pointed up in the air to the security camera dome and said, "he sort of went that way, boys."
- Can't jack the prices and not expect consequences.
- Massive store near me remodeled about two years ago with a focus on tons of new self checkouts.
  Recently, all have been closed.
  Surprised that so much walked out the doors via self checkouts that it’s cheaper to pay employees and take whatever aggregate losses there might be from higher wait times!
  That is to say, the man with his children apparently wasn’t the only one.
  UBI now!
  
  Self-checkouts were so convenient, now they've had some of them gated and some just closed down because people kept stealing. Sucks.
  
  Costco appears to have even abandoned it, and for reference, the customers not only pay to be there but on average has a household income over $70k.
  The frog boiling point might not be here yet, but when is it? When people making over a hundred k are willing to risk it all to steal?

I agree with the titties.
- All glory to the hypno tits!

If they're shoplifting, I'm shoplifting.
Its only fair.
- Nobody disagrees.

Shit if they're stealing a TV from major corporate retailer that has pushed out all the local competition: I didn't see that shit, either.
Oh and people who need baby formula from Walmart: The locks used on those cabinets use a universal key. Obtain one and even if they lock up the baby formula, you can still get it. Even if you intend to pay, it's a time saver if your Walmart is like mine and nobody ever shows up to assist you at the locked cabinets.
- The health and baby stuff sections are like "am I even in the same store?"
- Obtain one, simple
- Ahh yes moral licensing. The finest of ethical theories...
  
  The rest of us proceed forward, and you are ignored, as usual. 😎
- You think you're hurting the corporation, but you're hurting its employees. If a location becomes unprofitable because of too much theft, it just closes, and now all those people are out of a job because of entitled thieves' greed.
  Also, the formula is locked up because people steal it to turn a profit fencing it, not to feed anyone who needs it out of the goodness of their heart.
  
  Those people being out of a job could very well be a blessing in disguise. If you work in retail long enough, you know what this means.
  
  It's not the thieves fault that people need to sell their soul to a corporation to live.

Not my circus, not my problem.
Stock shrinkage is expected and baked into the markup you are paying.
- So I guess your saying since stopping one theft from happening won't significantly change that markup, you should not even try to stop theft (even if bringing down prices is a good thing for poor people who don't steal). But by that same logic, why bother trying to reduce your carbon footprint? I mean look, if I see someone walking out of the grocery store with food I'm not gonna say anything. But I wouldn't extent that to retail theft in general.
  
  Easy, one is about survival of the planet and species. The other is not giving a damn about an organization that is insured for that exact purpose.

Yep not my circus not my monkeys
- AA?

If you see someone shoplifting ~~food~~ anything, no you didn't.
FTFY.
- even if you did, what would you gain from reporting it? triumph?
  
  If I wanted to victimize poor people to protect billionaire parasites I'd join their taxpayer-funded gang of rapists, murderers and torturers over at the local cop-shop.
- unless they're bad at it and need help.
- Absolutely. It's far easier to steal a few small, expensive, easy to resell things then take the proceeds and buy a week's worth of groceries than it is to steal a week's worth of groceries. Food is bulky.
- Fair.

How to make food deserts 101
- Surprise - They were planning to abandon it from the beginning!
  
  Why would a business abandon a profitable location?

I ain't seen shit. I don't know nobody. Hell, I ain't even there.

Sure I saw them stealing. I most likely won't care enough to elevate it. I've got places to get to.

I didn't what ?

LOL I am out of microblog memes, seems like too many people here (for my taste at least) coming up with excuses to entirely forgive crimes no matter the context.
- That's the point of microblogging. You don't have to think about what you're upvoting for any longer than it takes to read a sentence.
- When you're bootlicking, do you prefer the texture or taste of the boot? Or do you like both equally? Genuinely curious
  
  It's amazing how ironic and reactionary this is :)

What if they're rich
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/middle-class-mum-shoplifting-m-s-b2451024.html
- middle class
  rich
  Lol. "Middle class" doesn't exist anymore, it's only a term used by out of touch politicians to refer to people who can maybe afford to go out to eat once a week.
  
  To you maybe, guessing you don't live somewhere that still has actual proper toffs
  
  If you say so 🤨
- The answer is still nope.
  
  What if they're landlord
- Yet, shoplifting happens more often in poor areas. I'm sure you can cherry-pick op-eds about middle class and even rich people doing it, but in reality, it's mostly survival.
  
  I guess you're right, i forgot it's mostly american here where small, family owned market did not exists, because american keep driving themselves into a corner.

yes i did
- I see people stealing food all the time at my work, I just give them a nod and mind my own fuckin business, I just want to go home.
  
  believe it or not, but i have absolutely 0 Problems with that. If you wanna do that, then please do it.
  But i won't do the same.
- u wouldn't understand since u survive entirely on what u lick of corporate boots

Remember kids, if you see someone shoplifting, ahhhh oh no I'm having an asthma attack on no my heart palpitations! ahhhhh! Oh I feel really faint I'm having a heat stroke or something!
I dunno, or something like that. In any case, it's pretty much always ethical to steal from corporations, most especially big box stores, as an absolute moral value, and I do indeed find it kind of hard to be swayed from this as an opinion at all.
People stealing stuff that you think they don't need? They probably needed it. Prices going up? Probably they should stop paying their CEO so much. Big box store pulls out, creating a food desert? Probably they were looking to downsize anyways. Increased security, decreased convenience and social cohesion because now thievery is allowed? I dunno, I'm pretty sure if beforehand your "social cohesion" was predicated on the poverty of some other class of person, it wasn't actually real, or was a farce, an illusion. The people who were robbing, were secretly rich? Doesn't commonly happen since the rich steal in other ways, and the relative impact is so small as to basically not be worth mentioning. I dunno, uhhh, what else what else. People stealing stuff so they can be scalpers? I dunno, harder issue to solve. Probably those people sound like they should also be stolen from, since they're kind of simulating the big box store at a lower level. Seems more, systemic, maybe.
Did I miss any?
- You didn't miss any.

We don't get to choose the laws we follow; not without consequence.
- But you CAN choose what ice cream flavor is your favorite, shame you chose "boot"

Never snitch ever.
About 10 years ago there was this guy that killed his gf in my neighborhood. I heard the gunshot go off while watching the daily show and I just kept watching TV. It wasn't my business to find out what was going on.
- And do you think your neighborhood is a better place to live in now? Do you think the gf's family agrees with your inaction as a social good?
  
  I mean it is a better place. Gentrification and all.

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