6 ms·

If you're stealing from Dollar Tree, you're either truly needy or just in it for the thrill of being antisocial. Their stuff hasn't got any value in the store,

If you're stealing from Dollar Tree, you're either truly needy or just in it for the thrill of being antisocial. Their stuff hasn't got any value in the store, much less fenced.

orionblastar 3y ago
It is for the thrill of it. For experience only. If caught the amount of merchandise is small.
- PhasmaFelis 3y ago
  Until you do it enough times that it adds up to a felony amount. That's when they'll go to the police with the security footage they've been collecting on you the whole time. That's how they do it these days. They know you're stealing. They don't care about giving you a slap on the wrist. They want to put you in prison.
- Ekaros 3y ago
  Wouldn't increase of punishment make it better. Risking it all for that moment of thrill. Couple years is prison surely would up the thrill to max.
op00to 3y ago
This is flatly untrue. There are both sophisticated and basic criminal enterprises based around stealing from places like dollar tree and selling to your corner store.
- tehwebguy 3y ago
  I don't get it, if Dollar Tree sells basically everything for $1.25 the wholesale cost must be so low that corner stores have basically no room to save money by buying stolen goods. Anyway, if there are really criminal enterprises doing this it seems like it would take marginal investigative work to uncover and nail down.
  - spiderice 3y ago
    Yeah GP really needs a source for their claim. They’re basically saying that criminal organizations can steal incredibly cheap trinkets and sell them below cost… apparently at volume. Seems ridiculously unlikely.
    - WillPostForFood 3y ago
      I don't know about incredibly low priced items (Dollar Tree), but the kjist is correct around organized shoplifting at retail. Retailers say organized retail crime has made their theft problems only worse. Crime gangs often look to steal products from stores that can easily and quickly be resold on online marketplaces such as Amazon and through other illicit markets. “More products today are locked up because the problem has gotten so much bigger,” said Lisa LaBruno, the senior executive vice president of retail operations at the Retail Industry Leaders Association. “Criminal actors can steal high volumes of products and sell them with anonymity.” Retailers have supported a bipartisan bill that would require online marketplaces to verify state-issued IDs for millions of high-volume third-party sellers. President Joe Biden supports such a measure and this week also called on Congress to impose liability on online marketplaces that sell stolen goods on their platforms. Amazon said it does not allow third-party sellers to list stolen goods and works closely with law enforcement, retailers and other partners to stop bad actors. “We regularly request invoices, purchase orders, or other proofs of sourcing when we have concerns about how a seller may have obtained particular products,” a spokesperson said. https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/08/01/why-does-the-drugstore-lock-up-toothpaste-and-deodorant/ https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/08/01/why-does-the-drugstor...
      - lazyasciiart 3y ago
        A lot of the official stories about security and theft at retail stores are just not true, of course. Locking up products correlates well with under-staffing: the grocery near me went from having liquor for sale on the shelf and a dedicated checkout counter staffed right there, to having all the liquor locked up and no staff member visible for miles.
- jrflowers 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - mikeyouse 3y ago
    Are you unfamiliar with the multi million dollar business that criminals have figured out? Turns out homeless people don’t steal deodorant for fun but because they’re paid to do so by organized gangs. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-12-03/members-of-bay-area-retail-theft-ring-that-stole-millions-plead-guilty https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-12-03/members-...
    - jrflowers 3y ago
      [flagged]
      - qwerpy 3y ago
        Are you only able to communicate through thick, smug sarcasm?
        deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
        jrflowers 3y ago
        Are you sure you replied to the right comment? This thread is about the sophisticated and organized homeless gangs robbing us of generic branded eau de toilette
        WaxProlix 3y ago
        Can you engage with comments only through a dense layer of thoughtless hyperrationalism? Or is there a point that's been made here which you're missing?
- taeric 3y ago
  And this feels like a plot from a movie. Plausible, to a large extent, but ridiculously improbable. Do you have any references to dig into on this? I'd, sadly, expect that the majority of real "theft" in places like this are going to be wage theft.
  - klyrs 3y ago
    Movies have convinced people that theft is this major, glamorous affair. It's really not, 99% of the time. People steal excavators from construction sites. People steal from themselves to defraud their insurance. Employees and managers steal from the stores they work at. Sometimes I leave the office with a dry erase in my purse. And yeah, wage theft is a major problem.
  - op00to 3y ago
    https://nymag.com/news/features/tide-detergent-drugs-2013-1 https://nymag.com/news/features/tide-detergent-drugs-2013-1
prepend 3y ago
Is anyone truly needy enough to shoplift? I’m not sure how we would get good data but I’ve known a lot of shoplifters and none of them needed the food.
- deadbunny 3y ago
  [flagged]
- jrflowers 3y ago
  I like this reasoning. To take it further, is anyone truly needy enough to shop at a dollar tree? I’m not sure how we would get good data, but I suspect everybody has what they need at all times based off of the fact that I’ve never known anyone that is starving.
  - NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
    I'm not especially needy, but I enjoy Dollar Tree shopping for a few reasons. One, it's literally the closest store to my home with any inventory. It's around the corner in my backyard. So that's a plus. Two, I was introduced to this mode of shopping when I told my friend I needed to purchase a greeting card. Of course, cards cost $4-5 retail and she protested, saying the Dollar Tree would have cards for $1 and under. I found this to be true; they have two-for-ones, and they even have packs of ten. So I pick up all my greeting cards there. There are other items that are ideal to source from the Dollar Tree. When you want some tacky, simple holiday décor. When you want books full of glittery stickers or markers for a kids' project. Crystal Geyser spring water, or a simple sore-muscle cream that only contains capsaicin. I don't think choosing where to shop is a question of being needy, but judicious about value vs. cost vs. effort. I do plenty of thrifting and big-box shopping as well. There are certain things where I simply insist on purchasing new/retail and you won't catch me pulling it off the shelf at a thrift.
    - sdsd 3y ago
      You've misunderstood the person you're replying to. He's not saying that dollar tree is for poor. He's intentionally making a logical fallacy - 'no one needs to go to the grocery store [in this case, dollar tree] since whenever I visit my friends' houses, they always have food!' >Or as he puts it: I suspect everybody has what they need at all times based off of the fact that I’ve never known anyone that is starving. He's making fun of the guy in the original comment, who questioned whether anyone needs to shoplift, because his personal friend circle didn't include people who had to shoplift out of necessity.
bdcravens 3y ago
They often sell products that are just overstocked elsewhere. Near me, they've lately been selling bags of Starbucks brand coffee for their typical $1.25, and my wife used to buy a brand of juice that easily cost 2-3x that much elsewhere.
- SoftTalker 3y ago
  It’s not real Starbucks.
  - krustyburger 3y ago
    Come again? Starbucks products sold at Dollar Tree are as real as those sold in other food stores. The Starbucks grocery business is owned by Nestle.
    - SoftTalker 3y ago
      I mean, it's likely not the same as what you'd buy in a Starbuck in the USA. It's was probably packaged for Mexico or someplace, didn't sell, and the overstock was sold to Dollar Tree. They did this with Colgate Toothpaste a while back. It was a minor scandal. It was real Colgate, but not the USA formula. It was not ADA approved and didn't have the same flouride content.
  - bdcravens 3y ago
    Hence "Starbucks brand" (real in the same sense that Versace eyewear is actually made by Luxxotica)
- gotorazor 3y ago
  I mean, even if that is the case, how much did Dollar Tree pay for that coffee to resell it for $1.25 per bag? These guys said they loss $100 mil to shrinkage? Or, did I read that wrong?
  - bdcravens 3y ago
    Their gross margins are around 30%, so I'm guessing $0.50-$0.75. They have about 8000 stores, so that's about $35 in shrinkage per store per day.
bloodyplonker22 3y ago
It's not that they truly need it at all. It's that they have gotten so used to doing it due to the non-existent consequences that it has become a way of life for them now.

If you're stealing from Dollar Tree, you're either truly needy or just in it for the thrill of being antisocial. Their stuff hasn't got any value in the store, much less fenced.

orionblastar 3y ago

It is for the thrill of it. For experience only. If caught the amount of merchandise is small.

PhasmaFelis 3y ago
Until you do it enough times that it adds up to a felony amount. That's when they'll go to the police with the security footage they've been collecting on you the whole time. That's how they do it these days. They know you're stealing. They don't care about giving you a slap on the wrist. They want to put you in prison.
Ekaros 3y ago
Wouldn't increase of punishment make it better. Risking it all for that moment of thrill. Couple years is prison surely would up the thrill to max.

op00to 3y ago

This is flatly untrue. There are both sophisticated and basic criminal enterprises based around stealing from places like dollar tree and selling to your corner store.

tehwebguy 3y ago
I don't get it, if Dollar Tree sells basically everything for $1.25 the wholesale cost must be so low that corner stores have basically no room to save money by buying stolen goods. Anyway, if there are really criminal enterprises doing this it seems like it would take marginal investigative work to uncover and nail down.
- spiderice 3y ago
  Yeah GP really needs a source for their claim. They’re basically saying that criminal organizations can steal incredibly cheap trinkets and sell them below cost… apparently at volume. Seems ridiculously unlikely.
  - WillPostForFood 3y ago
    I don't know about incredibly low priced items (Dollar Tree), but the kjist is correct around organized shoplifting at retail. Retailers say organized retail crime has made their theft problems only worse. Crime gangs often look to steal products from stores that can easily and quickly be resold on online marketplaces such as Amazon and through other illicit markets. “More products today are locked up because the problem has gotten so much bigger,” said Lisa LaBruno, the senior executive vice president of retail operations at the Retail Industry Leaders Association. “Criminal actors can steal high volumes of products and sell them with anonymity.” Retailers have supported a bipartisan bill that would require online marketplaces to verify state-issued IDs for millions of high-volume third-party sellers. President Joe Biden supports such a measure and this week also called on Congress to impose liability on online marketplaces that sell stolen goods on their platforms. Amazon said it does not allow third-party sellers to list stolen goods and works closely with law enforcement, retailers and other partners to stop bad actors. “We regularly request invoices, purchase orders, or other proofs of sourcing when we have concerns about how a seller may have obtained particular products,” a spokesperson said. https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/08/01/why-does-the-drugstore-lock-up-toothpaste-and-deodorant/ https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/08/01/why-does-the-drugstor...
    - lazyasciiart 3y ago
      A lot of the official stories about security and theft at retail stores are just not true, of course. Locking up products correlates well with under-staffing: the grocery near me went from having liquor for sale on the shelf and a dedicated checkout counter staffed right there, to having all the liquor locked up and no staff member visible for miles.
jrflowers 3y ago
[flagged]
- mikeyouse 3y ago
  Are you unfamiliar with the multi million dollar business that criminals have figured out? Turns out homeless people don’t steal deodorant for fun but because they’re paid to do so by organized gangs. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-12-03/members-of-bay-area-retail-theft-ring-that-stole-millions-plead-guilty https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-12-03/members-...
  - jrflowers 3y ago
    [flagged]
    - qwerpy 3y ago
      Are you only able to communicate through thick, smug sarcasm?
      - deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
      - jrflowers 3y ago
        Are you sure you replied to the right comment? This thread is about the sophisticated and organized homeless gangs robbing us of generic branded eau de toilette
      - WaxProlix 3y ago
        Can you engage with comments only through a dense layer of thoughtless hyperrationalism? Or is there a point that's been made here which you're missing?
taeric 3y ago
And this feels like a plot from a movie. Plausible, to a large extent, but ridiculously improbable. Do you have any references to dig into on this? I'd, sadly, expect that the majority of real "theft" in places like this are going to be wage theft.
- klyrs 3y ago
  Movies have convinced people that theft is this major, glamorous affair. It's really not, 99% of the time. People steal excavators from construction sites. People steal from themselves to defraud their insurance. Employees and managers steal from the stores they work at. Sometimes I leave the office with a dry erase in my purse. And yeah, wage theft is a major problem.
- op00to 3y ago
  https://nymag.com/news/features/tide-detergent-drugs-2013-1 https://nymag.com/news/features/tide-detergent-drugs-2013-1

prepend 3y ago

Is anyone truly needy enough to shoplift? I’m not sure how we would get good data but I’ve known a lot of shoplifters and none of them needed the food.

deadbunny 3y ago
[flagged]
jrflowers 3y ago
I like this reasoning. To take it further, is anyone truly needy enough to shop at a dollar tree? I’m not sure how we would get good data, but I suspect everybody has what they need at all times based off of the fact that I’ve never known anyone that is starving.
- NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
  I'm not especially needy, but I enjoy Dollar Tree shopping for a few reasons. One, it's literally the closest store to my home with any inventory. It's around the corner in my backyard. So that's a plus. Two, I was introduced to this mode of shopping when I told my friend I needed to purchase a greeting card. Of course, cards cost $4-5 retail and she protested, saying the Dollar Tree would have cards for $1 and under. I found this to be true; they have two-for-ones, and they even have packs of ten. So I pick up all my greeting cards there. There are other items that are ideal to source from the Dollar Tree. When you want some tacky, simple holiday décor. When you want books full of glittery stickers or markers for a kids' project. Crystal Geyser spring water, or a simple sore-muscle cream that only contains capsaicin. I don't think choosing where to shop is a question of being needy, but judicious about value vs. cost vs. effort. I do plenty of thrifting and big-box shopping as well. There are certain things where I simply insist on purchasing new/retail and you won't catch me pulling it off the shelf at a thrift.
  - sdsd 3y ago
    You've misunderstood the person you're replying to. He's not saying that dollar tree is for poor. He's intentionally making a logical fallacy - 'no one needs to go to the grocery store [in this case, dollar tree] since whenever I visit my friends' houses, they always have food!' >Or as he puts it: I suspect everybody has what they need at all times based off of the fact that I’ve never known anyone that is starving. He's making fun of the guy in the original comment, who questioned whether anyone needs to shoplift, because his personal friend circle didn't include people who had to shoplift out of necessity.

bdcravens 3y ago

They often sell products that are just overstocked elsewhere. Near me, they've lately been selling bags of Starbucks brand coffee for their typical $1.25, and my wife used to buy a brand of juice that easily cost 2-3x that much elsewhere.

SoftTalker 3y ago
It’s not real Starbucks.
- krustyburger 3y ago
  Come again? Starbucks products sold at Dollar Tree are as real as those sold in other food stores. The Starbucks grocery business is owned by Nestle.
  - SoftTalker 3y ago
    I mean, it's likely not the same as what you'd buy in a Starbuck in the USA. It's was probably packaged for Mexico or someplace, didn't sell, and the overstock was sold to Dollar Tree. They did this with Colgate Toothpaste a while back. It was a minor scandal. It was real Colgate, but not the USA formula. It was not ADA approved and didn't have the same flouride content.
- bdcravens 3y ago
  Hence "Starbucks brand" (real in the same sense that Versace eyewear is actually made by Luxxotica)
gotorazor 3y ago
I mean, even if that is the case, how much did Dollar Tree pay for that coffee to resell it for $1.25 per bag? These guys said they loss $100 mil to shrinkage? Or, did I read that wrong?
- bdcravens 3y ago
  Their gross margins are around 30%, so I'm guessing $0.50-$0.75. They have about 8000 stores, so that's about $35 in shrinkage per store per day.

bloodyplonker22 3y ago

It's not that they truly need it at all. It's that they have gotten so used to doing it due to the non-existent consequences that it has become a way of life for them now.