Growing Retail Theft: "Dick's Shrinkage"

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

I mean, I guess we're talking about semantics here, but I'll just start taking 2-5% of your money and call it whatever? Not every business is Walmart. Here in Salmon Arm about 80% of the retail stores are not big corporations and they're feeling the same issue.

If it was constant, it would suck and just be the cost of doing business. It was that easy for a long time. The issue is that it's growing and fast. That's going to destroy A Touch A Texas in the mall beside me before it'll destroy me. Is that "whatever"?

In the grand scheme of things? Yeah. What are you doing about it, what are they?

“Whatever” doesn’t mean stealing is OK and people should feel comfortable stealing. It’s a reflection of the effort put in by people whose job it is to stop it from happening.

I’m not saying you don’t care enough. But malls, big box retailers, and major grocery stores want to pretend it’s a big deal when they do basically nothing to prevent it.

Do you think someone working at Dick’s or Walmart or Superstore should see someone stealing and give a crap enough to do anything other than tell someone whose actual job it is to stop it that it’s happening?

Originally Posted by Doctorfever

I guess some people suck. Some people’s attitudes toward theft suck too. People should be teaching their kids that theft isn’t “whatever”. It’s wrong. Period.

No ####. That’s why it’s against the law.

[Doctorfever]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

In the grand scheme of things? Yeah. What are you doing about it, what are they?

“Whatever” doesn’t mean stealing is OK and people should feel comfortable stealing. It’s a reflection of the effort put in by people whose job it is to stop it from happening.

I’m not saying you don’t care enough. But malls, big box retailers, and major grocery stores want to pretend it’s a big deal when they do basically nothing to prevent it.

Do you think someone working at Dick’s or Walmart or Superstore should see someone stealing and give a crap enough to do anything other than tell someone whose actual job it is to stop it that it’s happening?



No ####. That’s why it’s against the law.

Makes sense. It’s the retailers fault people are stealing. “You are not doing enough to stop it”. Great take.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by Doctorfever

Makes sense. It’s the retailers fault people are stealing. “You are not doing enough to stop it”. Great take.

Since you’re struggling:

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

It’s already against the law, what more do you want?

What do you expect any retail worker to do about it?

Like it or not, it’s “whatever.” If it wasn’t, police would take it more seriously. Malls would be properly staffed with security. People wouldn’t just watch something that preventable happen.

Don’t be afraid to use your brain.

Police don’t do enough and nobody hires enough security. Places like Superstore and Walmart can afford more security, let’s not pretend otherwise.

[Doctorfever]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

Since you’re struggling:



Don’t be afraid to use your brain.

Police don’t do enough and nobody hires enough security. Places like Superstore and Walmart can afford more security, let’s not pretend otherwise.

Guess you’ve had a change of heart since your previous post.

Stealing is whatever, just don’t hurt anyone on your way out.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by Doctorfever

Guess you’ve had a change of heart since your previous post.

No, I’ve already explained that. Police, malls, and retailers might talk game but it is whatever. You think grocery chains that are raking in record profits give a #### about theft? lol. Come on. You think Walmart can’t afford to hire security? Guy, wake up.

Are you going to keep enlightening us with hot takes like “this illegal thing is WRONG! it is not OK!”? Great stuff. Nobody knew stealing was wrong. Blown away over here.

[Doctorfever]

Whatever.

[iggy_oi]

Originally Posted by Mr.Coffee

What are you getting at? Which solutions? Taxes? Unions?

I actually don’t really think either will work. I’m also not against trying them though, may as well, but, they won’t work. Human nature will find a way to corrupt and concentrate power no matter what solution is thought of. Why? Because it’s human nature.

The floor is yours Mr.Coffee. I’d be very interested to hear in greater detail how you’ve rationalized your theory that lower income workers having a higher earning potential would make the problem worse. Do you think it’s rich people robbing these stores?

As a side note, increasing income for people reduces the need to increase taxes because revenues would already increase as a result of their increased earnings.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by Doctorfever

I agree with you. I haven’t met a parent that teaches their kids theft is “whatever”. However they do exist, unfortunately.

https://youtu.be/JltfsoYIJmM


Ahh wherever. It’s just theft. Not a big deal.

South Africa might not have been the best choice....

[Dynamic]

This thread has too much people making excuses for stealing and almost sympathizing with them. If the government said that starting today you could physically stop thief’s in your store without potential legal repercussions that would stop much of this garbage. Once the figured out companies would rather just pay insurance than actually stop them from stealing, it will only get worse. Everything then gets more expensive for everyone because believe it or not insurance is not free.

[btimbit]

Imo, there's still a reasonable middle ground between thinking stealing is wrong, and not feeling sympathy for retail giants who take their losses out on their employees and customers while posting record profits

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

America seems nice

https://vancouversun.com/news/local-...rise-inflation

The Retail Council of Canada says that on average retail thefts have risen by about 300 per cent since the pandemic began in 2020.

“There is absolutely an increase in (shoplifting) incidents and in volume of goods stolen, that’s the first thing our members consistently tell us,” said Greg Wilson, director of government relations and regulatory affairs for the Retail Council

And more alarmingly, retailers are reporting a huge spike in abusive behaviour toward sales staff and cashiers.

“We’re very concerned about the dramatic increase in violence in retail stores,” Wilson said. “Honestly, just the harassment of frontline retail workers, I don’t think I’ve ever talked to a government official before about concern about retail store workers being harassed.”

Retailers also report a rise in brazenness, such as thieves walking out of stores with shopping carts full of items that weren’t paid for.

“But also we’ve seen people who are repeat offenders and we’ve dealt with the same people 18, 30, 40 times in some cases. It almost seems like the system has no way to properly address people who are in that type of crisis who are hurting other people along the way.”

[WhiteTiger]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

I've been a parent for 20 years.

I've met lots of parents.

I've yet to meet one that teaches their kids that theft is "whatever".

Sometimes kids veer away from how their parents have tried to raise them.

"Eating free at Walmart"

[Fuzzy14]

I seem to recall a news story at the start of the pandemic involving drastic increases in meat thefts. People just packing roasts and ribeyes in their jackets and booking it.

Alot of this theft comes from a mix of desperate people on one hand, and people who have noticed there are no consequences to their actions on the other.

[WhiteTiger]

Originally Posted by Dynamic

This thread has too much people making excuses for stealing and almost sympathizing with them. If the government said that starting today you could physically stop thief’s in your store without potential legal repercussions that would stop much of this garbage. Once the figured out companies would rather just pay insurance than actually stop them from stealing, it will only get worse. Everything then gets more expensive for everyone because believe it or not insurance is not free.

Yup, the legal consequences for the person stopping the theft are greater than the person doing the theft. Thus, we are seeing a lot more theft.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by jayswin

You're response doesn't really make sense to his post? He wasn't claiming theft doesn't make things worse at all. He was suggesting that capitalism and company greed are driving us off a cliff right now and they will continue to do so, and as long as they do so theft will likely be the least of our societies problems as we are destroyed by the rich.

Is it greed increasing the cost of retail items? Are brick and mortar retailers more profitable today than they were 5 or 10 years ago?

It’s not as though this is the first time stuff has gotten more expensive. Look at the eye-watering inflation rates of the 70s and 80s. Which was combined with far higher unemployment than we have today. What kind of losses from shoplifting were retailers hit by back then? Were thieves brazenly walking out with goods the way they are today?

[Jason14h]

This is basically the sick of the crack heads thread but replacing crackheads with shoplifters

If you make something socially acceptable - stealing , drugs in public - you will see a rise . And that rise will lead to another rise

There are a ton of very complex and different reasons why a person partakes in either on both ends of the spectrum , but in the end if a society accepts the behaviour it will continue to spread regardless of any other actions

Giving these looters $1000 a month for food isn’t going to stop the looting . It’s just going to make the looters $1000 richer

No one is worried about the toothpaste being taken here and there by a grandma or a kid eating a grape . It’s the organized full looting that is now socially accepted .

These aren’t “down on their luck citizens “ . These are criminals

[CroFlames]

Maybe being a godless society has led to the uptick in theft? People aren't afraid of the eternal frying pan anymore.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

Maybe being a godless society has led to the uptick in theft? People aren't afraid of the eternal frying pan anymore.

That's just silly.


Maybe if people still believed in Santa Clause they'd behave better.


See? Silly.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

I mean, I guess we're talking about semantics here, but I'll just start taking 2-5% of your money and call it whatever? Not every business is Walmart. Here in Salmon Arm about 80% of the retail stores are not big corporations and they're feeling the same issue.

If it was constant, it would suck and just be the cost of doing business. It was that easy for a long time. The issue is that it's growing and fast. That's going to destroy A Touch A Texas in the mall beside me before it'll destroy me. Is that "whatever"?

As a percentage of sales how has the value of stolen goods changed over the years?

[GGG]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

That's just silly.


Maybe if people still believed in Santa Clause they'd behave better.


See? Silly.

It might be silly but to some degree it’s likely true. Religion likely evolved to maintain social order through self enforcement.

You only need to look at effectivenes of pandemic measures to see the difference between individualist and collectivist societies. Religion was one of the few remaining collectivist pulls in North America so its decrease without replacement is likely to lead to more individualist actions.

This doesn’t mean religion is good or beneficial just that the means of enforcing the social contract will change as a society becomes less religious