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> $10,000 per day at her store. That seems intolerably high but I’ve never worked a day in a grocery store. Do grocery stores generate enough revenue to sustai

> $10,000 per day at her store. That seems intolerably high but I’ve never worked a day in a grocery store. Do grocery stores generate enough revenue to sustain? Fifty two-hundred dollar carts of cash is a lot to let go.

devmor 4y ago
The anecdote is almost certainly made up nonsense. Grocery stores are incredibly low-margin businesses.
- flangola7 4y ago
  A lot of people seem to have been raised with this attitude that pretty theft from a ruthless retail corporation is some kind of unthinkable sin. My mom and dad regularly lifted from wally world to make sure our family had enough. Always taught my siblings and I that stealing from regular people or small local/ethical businesses is wrong, but against enormous manifestations of brazen greed it was was open season. As I grow older and more crotchety old person assertive I realize it's more true than ever, and much more even than when I was in need of baby food 40 years ago. I miss you dad.
  - davidgay 4y ago
    > A lot of people seem to have been raised with this attitude that pretty theft from a ruthless retail corporation is some kind of unthinkable sin. You're not actually stealing from the "ruthless retail corporation". You are stealing from the customers who don't steal.
    - flangola7 4y ago
      Incorrect, it is stealing from the retail corporation.
jcranmer 4y ago
Looking up statistics, shrinkage rates at a grocery store are typically 2-3%. Theft appears to be about ⅓ of shrinkage (food spoilage is a bigger cause than shoplifting), so about 1% of revenue amounts to theft on average. The larger supermarkets seem to pull in on the order $100-150k/day in revenues, with the median half of that. So... yeah, the numbers don't add up. If it's $10k/day, even at an extremely large store, that's 6-7% theft rate. Given that grocers aren't high-margin, that's stark enough to wipe out any revenue. $1k/day theft rate is a more reasonable estimation.

devmor 4y ago

The anecdote is almost certainly made up nonsense. Grocery stores are incredibly low-margin businesses.

flangola7 4y ago
A lot of people seem to have been raised with this attitude that pretty theft from a ruthless retail corporation is some kind of unthinkable sin. My mom and dad regularly lifted from wally world to make sure our family had enough. Always taught my siblings and I that stealing from regular people or small local/ethical businesses is wrong, but against enormous manifestations of brazen greed it was was open season. As I grow older and more crotchety old person assertive I realize it's more true than ever, and much more even than when I was in need of baby food 40 years ago. I miss you dad.
- davidgay 4y ago
  > A lot of people seem to have been raised with this attitude that pretty theft from a ruthless retail corporation is some kind of unthinkable sin. You're not actually stealing from the "ruthless retail corporation". You are stealing from the customers who don't steal.
  - flangola7 4y ago
    Incorrect, it is stealing from the retail corporation.

jcranmer 4y ago

Looking up statistics, shrinkage rates at a grocery store are typically 2-3%. Theft appears to be about ⅓ of shrinkage (food spoilage is a bigger cause than shoplifting), so about 1% of revenue amounts to theft on average. The larger supermarkets seem to pull in on the order $100-150k/day in revenues, with the median half of that. So... yeah, the numbers don't add up. If it's $10k/day, even at an extremely large store, that's 6-7% theft rate. Given that grocers aren't high-margin, that's stark enough to wipe out any revenue. $1k/day theft rate is a more reasonable estimation.