The social contract is just that, a contract. The unwritten contract of most developed countries has long been:
*Work hard. Get an education. Don’t steal. Don’t commit acts of violence. Don’t try to foment unrest or rebellion. Walk the straight and narrow. In turn, you’ll have a peaceful and adequate life. You may not be rich, but you’ll have all your needs met during your working years, and you’ll be able to retire when old with a bit of dignity."
For generations, the social contract was that anyone who played along and did things “right” would have a decent life. That decent life might mean living in a modest apartment your whole life, but it was achievable by the vast majority. Traditionally, if you couldn’t achieve self-sufficiency, it’s because you either were excluded from the social contract (like certain minority groups), you were born with some debilitating disability, or because you did something very wrong (like commit a serious crime.)
But contracts are two-way streets. When one side breaks the contract, it breaks for both sides. In wealthy countries, this old social contract has been broken by the rich. Millions are finding they did everything they were supposed to, and they still can’t get a decent life. So with the contract broken, there’s far less reason to follow it.
Most people do not avoid committing crimes simply because they fear the law. Most folks have an ethical belief that stealing and violence is wrong. Most people wouldn’t do these things even if there were no police or prisons. But when you break the social contract, the portion of the population that finds committing crimes to be morally acceptable will inevitably rise.
Honestly, this is by far the best argument I’ve seen so far ITT, but I will say it does require substantiation. Like many people who did just as you said, I feel cheated because none of my efforts were rewarded according to my expectations, but I’m afraid a conviction requires more evidence than that.
Seriously, I am on your side. If you have information that will help to convict the boomers, I’m all ears.
You seem to be under the mistaken impression that this is a court of law…
Oh come on, man, I want to convict the boomers as much as anyone, please just give me a valid reason that’ll hold up to their own standards.
Honestly, this is bizarre and you’re creeping me out.
One thing about me is that if I see a customer pull out their hammer and break the glass deodorant safe, I pretend I didn’t.
Well I wasn’t planning on shotgunning a redbull but here we are.
Guess you’re gonna have to steal the apple flavor…
Both of these statements are correct. And if you blame the locked cases on shoplifting rather than blaming the shoplifting on the fact that greedy, soulless merchants will jack up their prices in response to sunrises, sunsets, or passing fancies, then fuck you along with capitalism.
Funny enough, the products locked behind glass at my store have actually been getting cheaper while everything else has been getting more expensive.
Turns out if it is inconvenient enough to buy certain products people will just not buy them there
Literally every store in the area does the same so it’s probably not that
Nah, this is probably suppose to make the poster look hypocritical, but I think the sentiment of basic life essentials still stands.
Imagine this person lives in an area where fracking, data centers, and beverage companies have stolen or destroyed access to water; then complaining about bottled water being locked up because of shoplifting.
Tooth decay can kill you eventually, but hydraulic despotism can kill you pretty quickly. The slowly boiled frog vs the one dropped immediately into the pan.
I’d like to see a single town or urban area that is directly affected by all three, otherwise I’m going to assume you’re overreacting.
Went to buy $2 nail clippers from Walmart. Locked in one of these cages. Hit the button, wait a few min, no one comes. Oh, they keep the overstock on top of the cabinet. Reach up and grab what I want and check out.
Unbelievably stupid decision making
if it’s not an expensive item that I can’t get elsewhere, then I just don’t buy it from that store. I have gone into stores and walked right back out when I saw that a pair of gloves was behind a lockbox.
it’s like Canadian Tire not allowing backpacks - I will always ignore that rule. I’m not waiting in line to leave my bag at customer service and let some random minimum wage worker have access to my things. the experience there is so shitty anyways, and why is it impossible to leave the store without going through the cash queue
Do I have a fundamental misunderstanding of Canadian Tire? I thought they just sold tires. If I’m correct about that, why the backpack policy? Do they really think people are going to be able to surreptitiously shoplift tires?
yes, you do lol
it’s a home/tool/auto/garden/sports/outdoors store. a Walmart without food, regular daily wear clothes, or a tech dpmt.
they’ve started locking down all sorts of shit in the past few years, it’s absurd. like, I’m not going to wait for an employee to unlock the case so I can get a box wrench. I’m just gonna go to a different store.
I remember during covid started when they’d just made changes to prevent people from leaving the store without meandering through the 100ft long checkout queue. also absurd. I didn’t buy anything because you don’t have what I need, let me the fuck out, I’m supposed to not be up close to people but I have to squeeze past in a four foot wide aisle??
As someone who used to have to make those cases. They don’t care about the clippers it’s the expensive makeup that’s in that same section and we only had a case that could do that entire area.
Some things are in the case by proximity more then anything else, thus it can be on the overstock because whatever
Yeah someone planogrammed cheap items into the anti theft case because there was extra room and they didn’t want it to look ugly. No thought was put into it beyond that.
I don’t report shoplifting people either because they desperately need it while the CEO of the franchise earns millions. When shoplifting is a common thing forcing the store to put products behind locks, society has failed as too many of the population are struggling financially.
Yeah, the locking products up thing is not happening here at all (except for valuable electronics, jewellery etc obviously) but also most of everyone can comfortably afford the necessities around here
Same in my country. It only happens in countries with vast amounts of poverty.
This was back in 2023, but I once got the estimated losses from shoplifting from the four major UK supermarkets (Tesco, Asda, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s) and compared them to the shareholder/investor payouts. In all four cases, the latter was greater and it wasn’t even close.
It was 2020, covid was in full force, all prices went up. Ahold said they were forced to do so, due to extra shipping fees etc and shortages due to covid. Many people were struggling financially. Their personnel also couldn’t get raises while they were more exposed to get covid, had to work more due to colleagues being ill. The store chain said the profits on products was minimal, that they were struggling not to sell products at a loss. That they had no choice but to raise prices, while also bleeding themselves.
Turns out that year they had more yearly profits than ever before. Check this chart.
I’m unable to steal. I’m too honest for that, my autistic brain just can’t. But I so much believe companies like Ahold deserve to be stolen from. Fuck them.
If you’re a good person, and someone desperately needs something, why don’t you just offer to buy it for them? Why make them go through the indignity of having to risk shoplifting?
If they get away with it, the store will raise its prices to make up for the shortfall, and you’ll be paying for it anyhow.
This is naive. Sure, in a perfect world everyone helps people in desperate situations or they have support structures that can help them. This is not that world. Sure some shopplifting is for unnecessary stuff but most of it is from desperation because people struggle to afford necessities. It is a much better approach to blame the systems and structures that lead to people having no other options rather than blaming the poor people just trying to get by.
By your logic why aren’t you, presumably a good person, paying for every persons groceries who cant afford them. Is it because you are actually a bad person? No, its because that is neither feasible nor tenable. And the CEOs of large corporations actively work to maintain things as they are because they make incredible wealth.
As to increased prices, every corporate grocery store or big box store has insurance and works losses into their budgets. They can easily absorb it without increasing their costs. On the other hand do you know what the most common form of theft in the US is? Wage theft. So the same CEOs making bank also keep pay from employees who are already struggling.
In short, fuck the corps, shoplift if you need to, don’t be a snitch if you see someone else.
No, you are naive. Yes, grocery stores do calculate losses into their budget and thus are able to absorb a certain amount, but you know who pays for it? Everyone who doesn’t shoplift, by paying more than they’d need to so the store can afford the insurance policy. No store can absorb unlimited losses, they’ll simply close up shop if they can’t turn a profit, and then your neighborhood will turn into a food desert.
Cool strawman. Obviously unlimited losses would ruin anyone but that is impossible and most stores operate well within their expected loss margins, so markups are arbitrary or caused by inflation. Backing up a bit, you are again blaming the more vulnerable group in this. Be mad at the CEOs and politicians that keep people poor, not the poor people trying to survive. Crime drops in direct proportion to drops in poverty
Also, you keep repeating corporate propaganda. It is more common for these companies to use shoplifting as an excuse to close stores that they already intended to close rather than closing them because shoplifting was actually a problem.
Okay, so if unlimited losses are impossible, everyone should just steal, right?
That is the most bad faith interpretation of what i said. When i said it was impossible i meant that in reality the vast majority of people will not steal, not that everyone should steal all the time because there will never be consequences. And i am not saying that stealing is morally good in all cases. I am saying that large corporations, their executives and the politicians they fund keep people in poverty so they can become ultra wealthy from the record profits these companies make (weird they can make record profits while everyone is apparently stealing so much stuff from them), so yeah, if a poor person steals from one of these companies to get medicine they need or food they can’t afford, i think they should and that we should not condemn them for it. I would rather a company lose a buck than someone go hungry. And even if it was true that it was happening at a scale where they had to increase prices, i would gladly pay that if it meant my neighbor could eat without being arrested. These companies are not struggling and theft of this nature does not happen on a scale to warrant any of their current interventions including increasing prices.
I find it interesting that you refuse to engage with my actual core argument and instead have opted for picking at random sentences. Engage with this: the systems that cause and deepen poverty are the problem, not the poor people tryong to survive. These systems are perpetuated by large corporations and the ultra wealthy, they are the ones you should be angry with. You are closer to the person stealing to survive than you are any billionaire.
And i am not saying that stealing is morally good in all cases.
Okay, in which cases would you say that stealing is morally good?
Please be as precise as possible. This is very important.
Literally gave a guy $100 once (everything in my wallet) so that he wouldn’t need to keep begging in the parking lot. I was working minimum wage. Problem is, now I literally don’t have enough money to do that again. Now see, maybe if the next person also did this, that might help solve the problem. Perhaps it might evolve into a community of people paying it forward and helping the brother next to them in a slowly strengthened network of support.
In other words, a much more expensive, unsustainable and unreliable version of a strong government funded social safety net.
Give a man a hundred dollars, he’ll feed himself for a day. Teach a man how to make a hundred dollars… you know where I’m going with this.
So you’re one of those “just get a job” idiots…
Maaaate. You’re telling people they are naive, but you are the perfect example of what that word means.
How so?
So I, someone who also doesn’t make much money, should use the little money I have extra to pay for others, while these stores make billions profit per year? You know how much people are poor? You’re doing exactly what mega corporations do: blame the consumer. I do help out some friends of mine who are poor AF. But the issue is mega corps creating vast amounts of poverty out of greed.
When it comes to shoplifting supermarkets, I’m of the opinion that that is a symptom of the state failing to, or worse, choosing not to, take care of those who, for whatever reason, can’t take care of themselves and those they are responsible for.
You don’t know what it’s like, you don’t have a clue.
And if you did you’d find yourself doing the same thing too.
~ R. Halford et al, 1980Ask them to unlock it then leave it on a different shelf.
nah they gotta walk the item up to the cash for you
Like you’re a criminal
Yes, yes… if we just shit upon the poor and desperate just a little bit more, capitalism will finally work and we will all live in a Utopian meritocracy. Remember hygiene is a privilege, not a right!
It always gets under my skin that my local grocery store has two camera screens to deter shoplifting. The first is in the liquor aisle, which is fair enough, fine, whatever.
The second one, however, is in the baby supplies aisle. Absolutely go fuck yourself Kroger. This and the self-checkout that accuses you of stealing and calls an attendant if you rearrange your bagged groceries to fit on the stupid scale makes me wish there were better options where I live.
I’m a Food Lion man. The reason being is that aside from the checkout line, I’m rather certain no Food Lion has had its interior updated in 25 years. It’s a normal, bog-standard grocery store, that is so frill-less and basic that the only Shin Ramen is spicy and it isn’t because black and gold are out of stock. It’s all they thought to get.
Food Lion man
A terrifying chimera
Piggly Wiggly Man appears
Who called the cops‽
Ok but green is so good…
To bad Reasors bought out our Food Lion and now Brookshires bought out Reasors groceries. So I have that or Walmart for choices where I live.
While I can’t speak for that store I used to put up and manage security for a blue store. The formula was put under higher watch mainly to make the drug dealers and the scam artists.
Had a case happen at my store a yongish guy came in and “swept” the entire stock he could reach into the cart and rush out an e door. Talking to pd he was linked to using the formula for the mix in of some drugs.
And they’re always understaffed. I hate having to wait several minutes for someone to come unlock the contact solution I didn’t realize I needed until I was trying to go to bed
Next it will be curb pickup or delivery only. Customers won’t be allowed in the stores at all.
And, as soon as they can, it will be robots in the stores filling orders.
Honestly, I could see this model work for households who rely on large, predictable, repeat orders (i.e. families with small children), but I don’t think it’ll ever replace normal grocery stores, because a lot of profit is generated by people just browsing the aisles and buying stuff they didn’t even know they wanted, and online stores are still fairly bad at replicating that experience.
I agree that online stores don’t do it as well as in person ones (being committed to being in a specific place where you buy stuff I think makes people engage more intentionally and consider items in front of them), but I wish more people talked about how shitty SEO (search engine optimization) is one of the ways online stores do this, so I wanna take this opportunity to share that idea
Instead of having to walk to the back corner of the store to get milk or Christmas decorations, you have to scroll past a million items that aren’t quite what you’re looking for but are closely related by keywords. And in this metaphor the store can be infinitely big.
I hate shopping online 🥹
It should be called SED (de-optimisation).
This would be where you type in exactly what you want (including SKUs or product codes) and it suggests a million different things that are either tangentially related or not related at all, in an effort to distract you from buying what you want.
This has already been happening; before the GenBS search apocalypse, it was quicker to use a search engine query for “store product” to take you direct to the listing.
For example “M10 bolts Bunnings” would show me exactly what I asked for, instead of using the useless Bunnings search feature.
For prepackaged and bulk it would work good, but I’m not buying fresh produce sight unseen.
100% my biggest pet peeve when ordering grocery delivery, and no robot will ever be able to solve that.
and no robot will ever be able to solve that.
Well, they theoretically could, but they never would, because the robots are owned by the company and the company wants to screw you over.
Well, they theoretically could
I don’t see how. No robot could ever imitate your preferences for produce selection 100% accurately. I don’t think even any human could (unless you provide them with an unlimited budget).
you just have to find someone who’s grown the crop and is a chef. have them cook for you a few times, talk to you about what you did and didn’t like about it. you know, farm to table type shit, right? then they buy the food for you and move in, and are named Hikaru and cook for you every day and we have a pony named Glue Factory who likes to eat caramel.
fuck you bezos. there’s no way AI could ever match that.
yeah, part of successful grocery management is knowing how often to rearrange the store that your customers don’t hate you for moving the damn kefir. my bagels need kefir!
also i don’t trust a robot to pick the right fruit for me. a good onion smells different than the rest of the average shit in the pile.
yes, this is how i
traveldriveconveyexist dammit
What was old becomes new again
This is why I like shopping at Aldi rather than Woolworths or Coles (besides the corporate Duopsony screwing over suppliers and Duopoly screwing over customers).
I have the choice of queuing for a checkout, and chatting to the other customers (if I am in a social mood), or going straight to the automated checkouts which don’t treat you as a criminal for not having a loyalty card.
I miss Aldi. My region really needs to get it
Stores will turn into warehouses.
They largely already are
Vending machines
I’ve had this thought for a while. I don’t know how big of an issue loss from theft actually is, but if you own a store and perceive it to be a major issue, why give the customer access to anything? You could make it distopian and shitty like you’re saying it could be, but honestly, if you do it right it doesn’t have to be. Reorganize the store so the customers can see what is available, but they get a code or ticket instead of the item. Then have the employees pick the items once the customer is ready to pay. We already have a counter serve model like this for a butcher or baker. Convenience stores do this for highly regulated items like cigarettes and liquor. Just do it for everything. If that was the premise from the start, I wouldn’t mind because it would be less hostile. The current half asses model of I pick most of my stuff, but then I have to call one of 2 pissed off overworked employees to unlock the other half individually is hostile to the customer and the employee.
That’s how stores used to work until I think the early 20th century
I hate ordering things online… but I think you’re right
If what I want to buy is under $200 and locked up, I usually go to another store to buy the item. I am not waiting for an employee to show up and unlock $200 item.
It often only takes a few months of huge losses in sales for the shelves to all be unlocked at a store.
I went to target and they locked up the underwear. I’ve never been back to target
*next store has the same locked cage because they too don’t want their $200 items stolen*
From the store’s pov shit being stolen is worse than it taking a bit longer to sell
the item doesn’t take time to sell. the item takes time to restock. you gotta think like a manager. where are the cost centers.
Item not being sold -> don’t have to restock. Win-win
corporate keeps fuckin sending these damn crates tho
That really depends on how much is stolen.
If margin is idk 30% then losing 3 sales to prevent 1 stolen item loses you money, assuming you account for the stolen item at what you paid for it rather than the selling price (which makes sense unless you expect it to sell out, i guess you can add a bit for storage+set up cost but that’ll be near nothing for a single item).
Last time I was at Walmart I asked an employee (who I knew. I’m a known quantity in my town. If I was shoplifting, the shop deserved it. Or I forgot like idk a watermelon at the self checkout my object permanece sucks) if they minded if I just popped the lock one of these days if i was in a hurry. They laughed and assumed i was joking, because I joke a lot. I just gave them that “no, I’m good with locks and don’t like waiting” shrug. You know the one. Then they quietly said no I like having a job. And I dropped it.
But man those locks suck and are always right under cameras.
Bullshit 🤣
I am very tough internet shit.
The time it takes to call someone over is minimal. But yeah I’m sure you pay for your shit, then go into another store, wait for a person to unlock the item because you live in an area with theft and it’s all locked up 🤣.
Dude, no one comes. They used the door to replace a person, do you think they have the staff to man the doors they just installed?
People don’t shop for those items from those places unless they absolutely have to. I’m of the same opinion as OP, and I’m pretty sure it’s the majority opinion.
Dude, no one comes.
I needed something from Best Buy the other day that was locked up. I pretty easily found an employee who tried to be helpful but had to call a manager over to open the case. As frustrating as it I that I couldn’t just get the thing I needed, it has to be straight up demoralizing for the employees to know that they aren’t trusted either.
You think I don’t think this shit is demeaning as fuck? Rather than pay, what, $100 bucks a day on a LP employee, they installed doors and forced their remaining employees to deal with the irate customers who are pissed about being forced to ask permission to buy a $4 deodorant.
It’s not about theft, it’s about forcing 1 or 2% more out of a balance sheet. They don’t give a fuck that their service is less usable. We’re just the vessels for their profits.
Stores should be grateful when people steal condoms.
Why, then their crotch spawn don’t grow up to need baby formula from nestle. Then they become good little consumers, as intended
/S
why /s? the insane pronatalist propaganda in the recent years benefits no one except fascists who need future meat shields to fight their wars, and capitalists who need future buying power
Dunno. It was 3am
