The stores already did they math. They know how much they may lose to theft, but it was worth it to them because they could save money by eliminating employees. This is loss that they accepted long ago
My local supermarket has signs saying “we will prosecute shop lifters and involve the police”, but only next to the infant formula and nappies. Absolute disgrace
Here is the thing, the people who are typically stealing formula, diapers, laundry detergent, razors, etc. aren’t stealing 1-2 packs for their own use.
Those items are stolen in bulk by more organized shoplifters who will hit half a dozen stores in a day and literally fill carts and then resell them because they are easy to move, relatively shelf stable, etc.
Morally, I am a bit conflicted. Fuck large corpos, but large corpos take large shrink (what theft, damaged goods, etc are called) budget overages out on the stores with less hours available for employees…
So yeah, fuck big box stores and if people are stealing food, look the other way. Organized theft? Idk, hurts the employees more than the big box store
Edit: Since people are doubting what I am saying, I’ve witnessed and experienced this first hand at retail stores.
Here are some additional sources.
https://abcnews.com/US/baby-formula-targeted-organized-retail-theft-rings/story?id=13293485
A simple web search of “shoplifting ring baby formula” yields dozens of results.
Idk, hurts the employees more than the big box store
Wut, how are employees hurt in any way ?
Should probably look at the corpos like Nestle’s extortionate pricing of newborn supplies to the point that a black market emerges first. (And then whining about low birth rate)
Because in some (most) parts of this world, the concept is
Privatize profit, socialize losses.
So the company gets to keep all profit during good times, but employees “solidarily pay” for the losses.
If the store budgets to lose 1% of their goods to shrink, and the store exceeds that budget, then corporate will make the budget up in other ways.
When I worked retail, the largest budget item was labor. You can cut labor fairly easy to make up for shortfalls on other budgetary items, leaving a skeleton crew
Then why are they ever running any more than a skeleton crew? For fun? You claim they could easily cut labor, but if it was that easy then they would’ve done it already. They’re always looking to maximize profit.
Skeleton crews are overworked and burn out faster, leading to more turnover. They may save you money in the short term but they cost more money in the long term. They also open the door for more shoplifting, as an understaffed store is an easy mark. Lastly, they reduce sales because a poorly staffed store is a messy and understocked store. If things get bad enough, people stop shopping there outright. No one wants to shop in a place that feels dirty and unsafe.
For a store to actually run well you need more than a skeleton crew.
But it’s definitely possible to scale down a couple days of the week and make your employee’s lives hell.
If you always run a skeleton crew, eventually the store starts to get unorganized and boxes of packed inventory begin piling up everywhere
Oh, so the store can’t actually “cut labor fairly easy”.
Nice can you back this up with any evidence?
I provided evidence to a sub comment.
You want evidence? Isn’t the fact that the formula is all locked up with signs threatening prosecution a pretty good clue?
Those items are stolen in bulk by more organized shoplifters who will hit half a dozen stores in a day and literally fill carts and then resell them
This is the insane claim being parroted, not that they’re being stolen in the first place.
Its not being parroted. I’ve worked at retail stores and witnessed it firsthand.
Here are some additional sources.
https://abcnews.com/US/baby-formula-targeted-organized-retail-theft-rings/story?id=13293485
A simple web search of “shoplifting ring baby formula” yields dozens of results.
Please do some basic research before calling someone’s experience “insane”.
You want evidence?
Sometimes all you need is to think your way through by reasoning. Some things are self-evident.
Ah, so no evidence? Thats the difference between a fact and a well reasoned guess. So we’re making up stories to suck the toes of CEOs now on here, cool.
You’ve gotta have some faith in your ability to think. There is no evidence that the sun will come up tomorrow, but the world keeps spinning. If I sip on a Slurpee, but don’t have a receipt, do you believe your eyes, or do you need the receipt? By the way, pretty well all of Science is based on well-reasoned guesses, then the move towards the truth of the guess is refined over time. Confirmation of facts is a good thing, but not always necessary, according to the universal “walks like a duck” rule. As far as sucking on toes? That says more about you than it does about evidentiary verification.
Maybe simply explain your reasoning for people who don’t come to the same conclusions as you.
Might be a good idea if I’m having a debate. I’m just internet quipping, nothing more.
The sun doesn’t revolve around the earth FYI. My eyes indicate you’re a dunce, must be true!
I was wondering if you’d latch onto that and ignore everything else. Maybe we’re testing each other.
It’s called Critical Thinking Skills, and they should be the absolute top priority in public schools. You can always look up facts on the phone in your pocket, we need Citizens who can THINK properly.
I’m sure you could also pull up stories of the “welfare queen” by searching those words, but that doesn’t mean it’s as widespread or as big of a problem as portrayed.
Ok. So what source is acceptable to you?
I provided my experience, then was asked for evidence. I then provided evidence and that isn’t good enough.
Please provide counter evidence before complaining that my evidence is not good enough. You are placing the burden entirely on me and that isn’t how fair and equitable debate should work.
Name and shame
Well, maybe people shouldn’t have kids if they can’t afford them?
Maybe they could afford them when they got pregnant and then lost their jobs. We don’t know all the details of every different situation and it might be better to have a more compassion and less judgment.
Good point. Let the little fuckers starve to death. That’ll teach them for getting squeezed out of a peasant vagina.
You just forfeited your right to ever complain about population levels.
It’s hard not to steal from big box stores, all you have to do is not scan something. I don’t think I’m alone in having absolutely no qualms about people doing this.
Especially on items where the pricing is predatory, which is most of them, but some more-so than others.
Recently we were setting up reticulation for our veggies. It’s just a network of pipes, but you need clips and connectors and bubblers and things. Of course you have to buy them in packs of however many, but sometimes it’s just a nylon clip which I’m certain cost less than $0.01 to manufacture, but a pack of 12 of them costs $5.
I get that the $5 is the cost for the infrastructure to produce, transport, stock, and then sell an item, but that also means that me not paying that $5 hasn’t actually cost the vendor anything.
Someone still bears the costs to produce, transport, and stock it. You only save them the credit card processing fee (or the cost of handling cash, or similar) by stealing it instead of buying it. Even if they have insurance, insurance very efficiently charges the statistical average risk (plus overhead and profit…) to the purchasers of their insurance. Higher theft results in higher insurance costs.
If you want lower cost nylon clips, consider 3D printing, especially if you know someone that already has a printer. Because the filament can be transported quite efficiently, the environmental impact may also be substantially lower, especially for small items.
Not really. What is the marginal cost of producing transporting and stocking a small plastic bag that weighs a few grams ?
I’m not genuinely advocating theft as a method for acquiring parts for one’s retic set up.
I’m saying that it feels extortionate at the checkout and I’m not going to feel guilty if a couple or parts end up coming home with me without being scanned.
Im happy not to steal. But if it scans cheaper wrong, or it wont scan, it goes in my bag.
Of coirse if you see soneone else steal food. You didnt.
Im finding the constant monitoring quite creepy and the cashier is now a shorter queue. So the convenience is gone. However, the ability to identify the vegetable by picture as i weigh it os good.
Im in australia. Coming from europe, i find it really creepy thatnits nornal here to check your personal bag for theft on the way out of some shops. Id prefer digital surveillance than the same surveillance by a person. Obviously, od much prefer both.
By stealing you just encourage the store to raise their prices. You literally give them a reason as to why they should make stuff more expensive.
It’s cute you seem to genuinely believe that
Grocery stores have some of the thinnest profit margins out of any industry. If theft related shrink stopped happening it would eventually be reflected in prices.
Absolutely. Theft, broken stuff, waste, etc. it’s literally all calculated into the prices. It’s absolutely crazy that people don’t realize that. Lol
That’s the price companies chose to pay instead of workers. I like self-checkout, mostly because I don’t have to talk to someone doing something that I’m capable of, but I know many people appreciate having a person doing it for them. Furthermore, there should be an employee immediately available when using self-checkout, but that’s just my two cents.
i like self-checkout cause it’s easy to steal from
Baist and chargrilled, ham
Valid
When self checkouts came around, I was a big fan. I hugely preferred it because I’m pretty socially awkward. I used it pretty much exclusively for a decade or so.
But this past year, something flipped in my brain. The rise of AI taking over everything, economy in shambles, general shit state of the world, I don’t know… But now I go out of my way to avoid self check outs. I will stand in line waiting for a cashier even if there’s self checkout wide open. I want that cashier to have a job. I want them to be able to afford their groceries.
My grandmother died 25 years ago, and I remember being with her at a store with self-checkouts (they had them now and then back then, the tech wasn’t so different), and she kept refusing, and stayed in line for the live cashier.
Finally, after about the third request from the bubbly, smiley young woman, my grandma snapped, “I want a human to check me out! I’m trying to save your JOB, young lady!”
And the girl stopped smiling and left her alone.
As far as grocery stores go, I’m pretty fortunate. I live in an area (St. Louis) where we’ve got good unions for the grocery stores. Schnucks and Dierbergs are the dominant grocery stores here - both local and great union representation.
I hate using the manned checkout at Sainsbury’s. No I don’t want to talk about my day, no I don’t want to talk about the weather.
Manned checkout at Aldi or Lidl though, bliss. Bags at the ready and try to keep up as they throw it all at you. Got Lidl+, yep scan, pay, done.
The nation trying to survive is now a national crisis.
An employer steals from you and it’s a civil matter, you have to go to court and you have to follow a very time sensitive process. You get accused of stealing from yout employer, you’re lucky if the cops don’t immediately beat the shit out of you. Even if they do though and you’re found not guilty, you likely signed a employment contract that says you won’t hold your employer accountable. Regardless, our legal system is built on a century of case law that favors the employer in almost every situation.
Theft will be the only thing left if these goobers get to complete their goal of squeezing the last blood from the stone
Worse yet, self-checkout is wage theft when you think about it.
it is not. having to work less is not fundamentally a bad thing. the problem is that the people will not get paid the same for working less, even if there is not as much work to be done
That’s one part of the problem. The other part is that I have yet to receive a paycheck for my work at the self checkout desk.
How much were they paying you to wait twice as long for a cashier.
I’d rather wait a minute to be served after a long day at work.
Oh, and I often have to wait for the cashier at the self checkout anyway because an item didn’t go through or I’m trying to buy alcohol or maybe scanned an item twice by accident. I’m not a paid professional, after all.
That said, if you prefer doing the work for free, you do you.
Huh. Maybe grocery stores should hire cashiers again.
The Aldi near me had self-serve registers for about a year, and removed them. I’ve seen and heard of other stores doing the same.
It seems like human workers may have some advantage over the robots after all.
Same in nearby Carrefour. A year of self service and then all manned registers again. The theft was rampant.
That would cost $51 billion. Can’t have that.
That only means we have to STEAL $52 billion dollars worth of inventory to make it worthwhile.
Fuck Trickle Down Economics, let’s enforce Robin Hood Economics - Steal from the rich, Give to the poor.
I hope it becomes 100% and the company hires people to stop it.
