I have no respect for people shoplifting non-essential items (like makeup, etc) but essential items like food is a different story.
In my opinion it depends more on whom you are stealing from than what. Food is okay, anything else not absolutely required for immediate survival isn’t is a somewhat cruel and arbitrary position.
Even a dirt poor person has more needs than just food sometimes, to stick with your example even a dirt poor woman or girl may want to feel pretty for a moment, and I feel that’s nothing bad either. Granted this is a slippery slope to outright lawlessness, but there certainly is a lot of room for valid needs that are less immediate than nourishment and shelter, but still important to people feeling human at all. Counts twice for people already in the extremely dehumanizing position of being poor.
She may need it for an interview to improve her prospects too. As long as it’s from a big place like Walmart I see no harm in someone desperate doing it to improve their situation.
The Walton family will be fine.
My policy has become: “If you see someone shoplifting, no you didn’t.” All businesses write a little bit of theft loss into their budgets. I don’t care what shoplifters take. It’s not my concern. Let the egg heads in accounting and the beef sticks in loss prevention figure it out. That’s what they’re paid to do. Not you.
Mines a bit different, but similar. “If you see someone shoplifting, no you didn’t” only applies to chain stores. Walmart? Fuck 'em. Target? Get all you can. Local boutique store downtown? The fuck is wrong with you, go steal from a corporation that deserves it.
This is a really good caveat - if you’re going to take, take from those who can afford it the most, not the small-time local shops
I am with you- unless it’s a small business. If I saw someone stealing from some little mom and pop shop full of Amish-made soap and jam, I’m going to say something. Because I don’t want mom and pop to go hungry either.
If you’re gonna cut staff and build a giant bank of self check kiosks instead, then I consider it a perk of my temporary employment at the checkout line. I’ll take pork chops and veggies in lieu of a paycheck thanks
Even if you’re not trying to steal from the self checkout half the time they don’t even have the item in the database… Like I’m not paying for a dozen doughnuts when that’s the only option, but I got one… so I guess it’s a roll now…?
I think I might have cared in the past because “it’s against the law” but I’ve grown up and don’t care about that at all anymore… My opinion on shoplifting is now just “why would I even care?” I wouldn’t do it personally, but I have no problem with other people stealing shit (especially shit they need to live and thrive) from a soulless corporation. I wouldn’t be happy if they mugged a random person… But Target? Why would I care?
Makeup is an essential item for professional women. I’m not saying it’s right that it’s essential, I’m just saying it is.
What about all the women who get by without wearing make-up?
Lots of people get by without wearing glasses too, but that doesn’t mean that my blind eyes don’t need them.
Lots of people get by without a therapist, but that doesn’t mean my crumbling mental health doesn’t need one.
Everyone needs different things to lean on – don’t shame others for having their own needs, even if you don’t understand what it’s like to be in their head. :-)
I personally have to lean on my private yacht to get by, so im glad people who judge me for it are in the wrong
This is my emotional support 4090. I need it.
They don’t get jobs as flight attendants. If you already work in an industry that mandates make up use, and you’re doing it tough, shoplifting make up seems like a smarter financial choice than getting fired over a lack of make up and having to find work in an entirely new industry.
As someone who currently doesn’t even own a single article of make up (unless you count tinted zinc), yes, you can get by without it, but not everyone can, and loosing your job over other when you’re already struggling financially isn’t ideal.
stealing is always the smarter financial choice
They’re just casual women, they don’t go in the professional circuit
I missed the professional part of that last comment
Good for them, but a desperate person is going to look for any edge they can get.
Professional streetwalkers, maybe
That’s your privilege showing. Women 100 percent aren’t taken as seriously in general but especially if they aren’t ‘prettied’ up.
You’re confusing getting attention with being taken serious.
The world is burning down around us, and the only people with the power to make an actual difference are throwing gas on the fire. Why the fuck should I even notice somebody shoplifting? Save your disrespect for the real criminals of society.
Reminder Wage Theft has by far the greatest total value compared to all other kinds of theft
(legitimate question) why don’t people in need use food availability programs like food stamps instead of stealing for essentials?
Because if you make over $1400/month then you don’t get food stamps. That isn’t even rent where I live.
The median STUDIO apartment costs $2100.
when you have children to feed and you’re hungry yourself - standing in line to fill in a form and wait an interderminate amount of time to be potentially denied something that comes with a huge amount of restrictions it’s just easier to steal.
There is enough food and wealth to feed and home everyone. Theft is a service issue.
“Are there no prisons?” asked Scrooge.
“Plenty of prisons,” said the gentleman, laying down the pen again.
“And the Union workhouses?” demanded Scrooge. “Are they still in operation?”
“They are. Still,” returned the gentleman, “I wish I could say they were not.”
“The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?” said Scrooge.
“Both very busy, sir.”
“Oh! I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course,” said Scrooge. “I am very glad to hear it.”
You better believe I read this in Michael Cane’s voice, conversing with some muppets.
The difference between stealing luxuries and necessities.
We judge ourselves by our motives, but others by their actions.
That’s a lot to say in 11 words.
holy fuck
At Walmart, or at least the one I worked at, every single case and jar of baby formula was tagged with a security strip that sets off the alarms at the door, on the inside of the container to make it difficult to remove. Baby formula was the most stolen item in the store. It’s also one of the most expensive food items in the store.
Coincidentally, I would also find empty packaging with the security strip still attached in the handicap bathroom that was far away from the front doors and the alarm sensors.
How fucking depressing is it to live in a country where people have to steal baby formula just to feed their babies?
Sounds like the education system should be improved to inform people of just how expensive and time consuming it is to procreate. All the time you see people do it who definitely do not have the means, and then being forced to steal and/or just suffer for years
Humans are animals. All of us. Our genetics drive us to procreate. That is our base nature. Now, you can easily argue that our Big Brains have the capacity to reason, understand, and logic our way to a path that avoids self destructive behavior. That is true. Yet here we still deal with things like drug abuse, war, violent crime, and yes…unwanted pregnancy.
You aren’t going to stop people from banging and having kids. It’s written into our genes. What you can do is make a society where those numbers can be reduced as much as possible with education (you got that part right, but that access should be from primary to higher education), cheap/free contraception, abortion access (dare I say “free” medical care?), and basic food/child care that is accessible to all. So that poor person’s kid has a shot at not following the same path.
Wagging your finger in sex ed saying “no, no…don’t fuck, it’s expensive to have a kid” really isn’t going to fix much.
All for improving that education system!
But we’re also already in a situation where infertility is on the rise and people with means are culturally enticed to worship their careers so much they just skip procreation altogether.
Stable relationships in which to foster healthy children are also becoming rarer across the board.
So now all the powers-that-be that encouraged this Grand Canyon-sized, gilded-age class gap in the first place, and said “Well if you’re poor you’re obviously unfit to survive so don’t make more of you lol”, and also decided “retirement age” shouldn’t be a thing, are currently losing their minds as they read reports about our population falling “dramatically below replacement levels.” :D
“NoBoDy’S LeFt To WoRk AnYmOrE :(” lol
Maybe we shouldn’t blame poor women for stealing to feed their babies and should blame the government that allows it to happen?
Yeah, the government should just sterilize poor women so they don’t get a baby to steal baby food for instead. That fixes the problem right?
;P
Me omw to shoplift a magnet:
I’m certainly not a snitch, but my respect only goes towards people who are stealing what they need rather than what they want - the former is surviving the struggle, the other is kleptomania
Stealing Pasta and canned veggies = necessity.
Stealing Nike TNs when you’re already wearing a pair = yeah fuck you.
Exactly, exactly - though I wouldn’t judge people taking non-food items like soap, detergent, and other basic hygene products either. They’re low cost goods most people need but might not be able to afford.
What’s your opinion on stealing name brands?
Whenever I mention groceries being expensive, I have a few people comment that it’s my own fault for buying name brands, and I agree, name brands aren’t worth it when you’re pinching pennies.
But I have allergies, and I have to be careful with shared equipment. I’ve had allergic reactions to certain brands of oats but not others, so even a cheap staple food like oats I may end up paying way more than the average person because I can’t risk certain brands.
Sometimes that works in the opposite direction too, in a quest to find a brand of veggie stock powder I wasn’t allergic to, I ended up riding my bike to the next town to try their asain grocers and found a huge 500g tin of stock powder for like $4, easily 5 times cheaper than any other brand at my usual store, and I wouldn’t have gone hunting for it had the previous brand not changed their ingredients as part of a whole shrinkflation/cheaper ingredients for the same price end product initiative.
But I often wonder if people saw someone like me stealing, or using food stamps today buy name brand products, would they prejudge me as being superfluous without knowing my allergies already severely limit my diet, brand restrictions limit it even more.
I would try not to worry about what others think so much in these kind of situations. Eat your Quaker Oats in peace.
I’m not personally that worried, I just don’t understand how so many people in this thread are saying they would/wouldn’t judge a shoplifter based on a bunch of arbitrary criteria for what they think is an essential item. You can’t possibly know what’s essential to an complete stranger.
People are judgemental and kind of brainwashed to respect the property of corporations.
You think the slaves that made those Nike’s aren’t getting their days pay because some cunt in another country stole them? Fuck Nike.
I doubt people are stealing directly from Nike. They would be stealing from Foot Locker or some shit, which means Nike already made their buck off the shoes. But whatever justification people need to snag a free pair of shoes, I guess.
Feel free to try going anywhere without shoes, I guess.
It’s not my job to care or judge what someone else needs.
Here people are stealing expensive cheese and meats to sell to pay for drugs
I’m not particularly sympathetic towards that.
Sick, where is this place I can go to for cheap cheese and drugs?
I think most stores stock cheese and it’s fairly cheap if you use the five finger discount
The fuck? How/where do they sell them? Who in their right minds would buy cheese or meat from a sketchy source?
You don’t buy artisan cheese from your local toothless meth head ?
I did that once…poor toilet never saw it coming.
Toilets don’t have eyes.
That would be a blessing, as it was extremely messy.
Streetfood vendors mostly don’t care about sources as long as the goods are good. I had a favorite place before that sold chocolate bars with no markup compared to nearby stores, and I was wondering why they’d even sell them given that chocolate doesnt really go well with their main offerings. Until I witnessed a junkie carry a box to them from the nearest supermarket and it all fell into place. Selling stolen product right across the road might’ve not worked in their favour though as the place changed hands not long after.
A long time ago, I lived in a trailer park, and a homeless guy would come by once a week selling steaks at a lower price than you could buy at the store. Some people would buy them. Needless to say, everyone there was in a pretty bad situation, so a luxury like cheap steaks was tempting.
I hate that my first thought was “How would you know for sure what the meat came from?!” Eeegggh…there’s a creepypasta plot ready to go…
I would have bet this was gonna be a trailer park boys reference when I started reading but holy shit, it may be a real thing. Meat theft rings
Lol. Forgot about that episode. Yeah, my story was real. I think that episode came out a year or two later after I got out of the park. The TPB really nailed trailer park life (real life being more depressing and violent of course).
My brother in law used to work in an off licence (booze store) so got to know a number of customers, some of which were drug addicts. They would steal from the local supermarket which was right next door. Things like expensive meats, cheese, coffee, spirits, etc. high value products which are easy to shove in a bag or jacket. They then go and knock on the door of anybody they remotely know who lives nearby, ask if they want to buy some cheap goods. Often about 50% off.
I know people who would buy this stuff. It’s usually stuff straight from the shop but I suppose you can never say for sure.
I doubt they sell it, I bet they go back to the same chain of stores and try and get a receipt-less return for cash.
No they sell it. I know, I’ve bought some
They sell to people they know. And they’re still in their packaging and you know they’ve recently stolen it, so why not. Really cheap too
What expensive cheese comes pre-packaged?
A lot where I live. It’s not like turbo fancy cheese but bigger pieces and stuff. It gets expensive.
Here (the Netherlands) the supermarket stuff is usually not great. For good cheese you go to a specialty shop or to the market and they’ll cut the cheese to order.
Ah, here in Finland such specialty stores are really rare
Because I don’t know if they’ve been storing it at the appropriate temperature for it not to spoil?
If it’s stolen the same day then there’s no huge risk, if you prepare it soon after. With cheese even less risk. But of course there’s always some risk buying stolen shit from junkies.
Often from what I know it goes like this: they owe money to someone, can’t pay it back because naturally all the money goes to drugs so instead they’ll steal shit for you. So you’d be sending them to steal specific expensive shit and would be waiting for it and know it’s stolen the same day and whatnot.
Though it’s fucking idiotic to loan money to junkies in the first place but I guess this way you’ll recoup some of it at least.
I just don’t understand why you’d steal stuff that easily spoils in order to resell it when there’s durable goods that don’t need an uninterrupted cooling chain, I guess.
They steal stuff that doesn’t spoil as well. It’s been on the news for a couple years now but laundry detergent. Shits expensive and never spoils.
Laundry detergent and baby formula are basically currency in some areas I’ve read.
Placement in the store, how easy it is to steal, how easy it is to offload etc. Food stuff like that is easy to steal and it’s not too cheap to not make it worth the effort but also not too expensive to make it harder to offload. Also even corner stores have that stuff so you can go to multiple places in one go, I’ve been told that’s an important factor. And those corner stores are often busier and less guarded.
What would you rather steal?
I bet there are restaurants that will. Especially if it’s still packaged.
Why is this downvoted? I personally watched a local foodbank handout kick out somebody because they found out she was a local restauranteur trying to score free food in bulk lol.
Yeah, I worked for a sketchy mom and pop restaurant and while I never witnessed it, I PROMISE they would buy stolen food to save a buck.
If I see someone stealing food, they could be stealing to sell it for drugs or they could be stealing to feed their hungry family. Why should I worry about the former when the latter is also a decent possibility?
I don’t know, worrying about it didn’t cross my mind
If you’re gonna steal cheese why wouldn’t you steal the best cheese?
Right, especially if you’re going to sell it. It used to be that you could sell the cheap stuff to Russia but even they aren’t buying it anymore.
How else are people supposed to get drugs
Could use the benefit money for it. Which they do. Welfare benefits in Finland are top notch, but yeah there’s never enough money for (enough) drugs. So lot of them do crime, burglaries, stealing from stores, stealing bikes and whatnot to get more money for (more) drugs.
It doesn’t make me very sympathetic to them stealing from a store though. It’s not like they’re stealing to not starve or something.
You’re not wrong.
You probably are getting a few downvotes from people in places like the US, who are more sympathetic to food theft because we have ridiculously thin social systems here that don’t care about peoples’ struggles but are first in line to dish out punishment.
If Finland’s welfare is that good, you’re probably right. Drugs are a cruel master and are never satisfied. :(
Yeah, it’s a situation where I feel for them being addicts and all, but with there being housing, access to rehab and all sorts of programs, food aid, ample benefits and so on, it’s harder to feel for them stealing to finance buying more drugs.
What about someone who helps and teaches others how to shoplift effectively?
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What was your motivation for stealing?
Whose pocket does it come out of when someone steals from Walmart?
Whose pocket does it come out of when Walmart does its stealing?
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- the store . easy question. They pay more for insurance, and maybe the store stocks more garbagey stuff so the loss isn’t as much.
- people who chose to shop there. Another easy question.
These were hard for you somehow?
How exactly do you think it impacts other people shopping at Walmart when someone steals some food there?
They stole the last sweet roll and I was going to buy it! /s
By the Nine! Is this a based Elder Scrolls reference?!
They shut the stores down. Then the food deserts are made.
It comes from Walmart the billion dollar corporation.
Walmart, which steals from the pockets of all their employees in the form of wage theft, and steals from us in the form of tax avoidance, paying employees just enough so they qualify for foodstamps and Medicaid (programs which come from our tax dollars) and pay to show them how to sign up for those programs instead of paying them enough money for groceries and insurance (which they have way more than enough to be able to do). Money they have by stealing customers from small business by underpricing for a loss until Walmart is all that’s left so they can raise money and steal from those customers by inflating prices for profit of the owners.
You only think it’s simple because you don’t actually know the problem.
If you hold a light in a dark infinite room, with all the things you see being the things you know and the circumference of the circle of dark around you as the things you don’t know that you don’t know,
Your light would be a dim candle that doesn’t even let you see enough to know what the problem is, let alone that light being bright enough to know the answer.
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stealing a loaf of bread? good
stealing silver from a bishop? also good because he’ll also give you some silver candlesticks too
But if Javert casually nukes a couple of planets with trilithium, nobody cares
Another reason that I need to read this book!!
Fuck that, I’m going to say something.
Whoever you shoplift you raise the price I pay at the store.
The problem with that argument is that prices can’t be raised indefinitively without negatively impacting revenue. If prices go up, demand goes down. So, yeah, basically all arguments that increased costs get handed off to consumers are flawed, if a business can increase its profit by raising prices, they are going to do so sooner or later, anyway. They might wait for an excuse to do so, but even then they won’t wait forever.
The problem with that argument is that shoplifting also negatively impacts revenue and reduces their profit margins.
And they can’t necessarily compensate by rising prices. So I don’t see what your point is.
And that is priced in already.
Exactly. So rising shoplifting trends would increase it more.
What you’re missing is that there is no trend. The “shoplifting wave” was capitalist propaganda
Its already included in the price. Whether you report it or not
The price will be much much higher if shoplifting becomes generally acceptable.
When people shoplift from big chains it doesn’t even register for the company, much less impact their pricing in any way
Individually no.
But the more people that do it the more common it will become and they will absolutely care.
It’s already inflated to account for shoplifting.
I’m already paying extra because shitheads don’t want to buy the products they use. It’s like paying extra tax that goes to benefit the undeserving directly
Agreed. Your reasons and their appropriateness isn’t my problem. Nor the cops’ problem. Nor either lawyers’ problem. Whether your reasoning justifies the crime, that’s on the judge to set aside a verdict if a jury returns a guilty verdict.
I’ll go one further and say that people who steal, claim it’s for a noble purpose but run from the cops, didn’t commit.
Wikipedia article on fried dough? What am I missing?
