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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.
by 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 agoI 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 agoI'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 agoYou'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 agoI regularly buy products there. For instance, if I need something for cleaning my car, they often have smaller-sized products (like Armor All wipes in packages of 10 vs the big canister at larger stores). When I was packing up my old house, I bought cheap products for the bathroom after all our good stuff was packed up. I've bought cheap batteries there when I was traveling, shipping tape, etc - all kinds of stuff when I really don't care about the quality or quantity.
- imgabe 3y agoThis is just bad. You are not making the clever joke you think you are. For one thing, shopping at Dollar Tree is not an antisocial behavior that harms other people, so you do not need to justify it by saying you needed to do it. You are free to shop at Dollar Tree whether you "need" to or not if it pleases you to do so. The equivalency you're trying to draw between shoplifting and shopping at Dollar Tree isn't there.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- jrflowers 3y agoWait can you explain the clever joke?
- dragonwriter 3y ago> For one thing, shopping at Dollar Tree is not an antisocial behavior that harms other people Clearly, anyone who believes “there is no ethical consumption under capitalism” would disagree. A fair number of the people who would readily acknowledge that there is ethical consumption under capitalism, and even those that see consumption under capitalism as presumptively-but-not-categorically-ethical would also disagree. [0] [0] for some reasons they might, https://time.com/6273646/dollar-stores-osha-labor/ https://time.com/6273646/dollar-stores-osha-labor/
- imgabe 3y agoPeople believe all sorts of crazy things.
- dragonwriter 3y ago“Having ethics beyond ‘whatever acts of trade are legal are ethical and ‘harmless’ regardless of their context and actual consequences’ is crazy” is, well, I’d describe that as a crazy thing that, apparently, some people believe.
- 3y ago
- mushbino 3y agoAlmost 10% of children in the US are food insecure, 60% of Americans can't afford a $1,000 emergency, and 40% can't afford a $400 emergency. We also have a homeless population of 500,000 and rapidly growing. Do you happen to live in a place that's considered to be a bubble?
- prepend 3y agoThere’s certainly people who need food. I’m not arguing that starvation doesn’t exist. I’m arguing that most shoplifters aren’t starving. And if they were, they wouldn’t shoplift food from dollar tree as the food is all in small packages. People who starve don’t become stupid and would likely shoplift more expensive, nutrient dense items.
- jrflowers 3y agoI like this reasoning. The act of stealing from a dollar store indicates that a person is not starving because a starving person would plan out a more efficient theft at an establishment that carries larger items.
- prepend 3y agoMore like there are two piles of food: one large and easy to access, one small and harder. Which is a starving person more likely to take? Starving people are just as rationale as the next person, there’s no reason to think they stop making decisions the same way a non-starving person would. I made no logical statement about whether stealing indicates you’re starving or not. I said that starving people are less likely to steal from the dollar store. Logically, these are very different things.
- jrflowers 3y ago>Which is a starving person more likely to take? This makes sense, the answer is certainly not “the one that’s in front of them at a store that’s likely in the part of town that they live in.” The first thing a starving person does is sit down and do a SWOT analysis of various foodstuffs that factors in location, transportation, and nutrient value. After they finish their individual analyses they compare notes with other members of their criminal cohort and split up territory based off of who is hungry and who is saving up for a Lamborghini Urus.
- prepend 3y agoI’m not sure how that’s relevant as shopping at dollar tree isn’t a crime. I’m nothing thinking that shoplifters are Jean Valjean stealing bread. If you’re starving, then there are many better ways to get food than stealing from a dollar tree.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- tehwebguy 3y agoGiven that most things cost money it makes sense that everybody without any money would be "needy enough to shoplift."
- AussieWog93 3y agoFrom what I've heard, the most commonly stolen items are things like chewing gum and energy drinks. So in the cast majority of cases, probably not.
- PhasmaFelis 3y agoHave you, personally, ever known anyone who couldn't afford food? But you know people like that exist, right?
- Supermancho 3y agoI was unable to afford food around 1995. I have both dated and had family members on food stamps/EBT, which will easily keep you alive in California and Washington state (don't know about the rest of the nation). I know multiple people who could afford food, but spend it on alcohol/drugs consistently and end up with very little to eat (going to food banks and such).
- pengaru 3y agoEBT eligibility varies substantially across the nation. California being on the maximally eligible end of the spectrum AIUI. Even if you have EBT though, not all stores accept it, and you can't put gas in your car using EBT, nor buy non-food items like booze. So it's easy to understand why broke people would shoplift. Baby formula in particular is a hot item for shoplifters since it's so easy to turn into cash. (and also why it's locked up near the cigarettes in many stores)
- zmnd 3y agoI am originally from one of the poorest countries, and my family constantly struggled with food for about 10 years. So I am well aware of the struggle. As well as I am exposed to poor people who immigrated to the US. With all of that, no, I don't believe that there are people who actually starve in here. There are extensive food bank networks, generous religious organizations (most of them not that pushy), and in general people in the US are kind, despite what media says. I saw plenty of videos of people from my country showing food they got from a food bank, and most of them highlight how generous it is. Despite all the struggle, my family never stole. And poor people around me rarely stole as well. Thieves whenever caught were judged by people around, and there was always social pressure to keep everything orderly. What surprised my in the US is how normalized the whole thing is. It's always "stores have an insurance", "they are just trying to survive", and other excuses from people who never lived in poverty and just want to feel better about themselves.
- s5300 3y ago[dead]
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- berbec 3y ago> Is anyone truly needy enough to shoplift? Please tell me this is a troll. Please.... * Eating it anyway when you learn how to cook. * Buying anything on sale, because you can't buy anything else, and anything is better than nothing. * Mom/dad don't bother saying "we'll buy it next paycheck" * Clothing is something we only buy for the oldest. If these things are foreign to you, I am very glad. No one should have to deal with these choices. I will accept the idea that many (most? almost all? i don't care) shoplifters could have paid for the product. That still means the idea that "being poor enough to need to steal" is incomprehensible tells me that you either never experienced poverty, or forgot. I've been lucky enough to not need to steal to provide for my family. If I was hungry, I'd might steal some food. If my wife was hungry, I'd do a hell of a lot more than stealing food.