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Paul Vail's avatar

I've worked retail (for a big hardware concern that will remain unnamed). Watched daily as thieves walked out our doors with hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars in merch. We can't say or do a thing. Why are we even there?

In our area, we had a senior citizen waterer in a garden center of another chain pushed to the ground and die of their injuries from a thug stealing a few tools. We've had LPs and staff fired for pursuing a thief with a cart full of tools who shoved a older woman to the ground as he made his escape.

And we undergo hours of training on how not to pursue. Anyone may be a shoplifter. We cannot profile because we've seen older white men in 3-piece suits steal, little blue-haired ladies, as well as street riff-raff. Not to mention the Retail Organized Crime element that know our rules on shoplifting prevention better than we do.

To get paid mediocre wages at best (usually between $15-18/hr after years of working for these chains), to watch C-suite management rake in six and 7-figure bonuses for their 'improvement' of EPS quarterlies based fully on stock buy-back programs - rather than share in that massive profit in the form of better wages for the people who actually generate the net gains. Corporate retail is broken. Indentured servitude to an uncivil customer base (don't get me started on the impoliteness of the general shopper) is the lot of many if not most retail staff. We are continuously harranged by our managers to push credit cards, or spruce up our stores for some VIP-regional VP walk through visit, while understaffed for the tasks and customer load, woefully underpaid. And the icing on our cake is to watch the daily thieves gain more for ten minutes of stealing than we'll make for a full day. It is disheartening to say the least. Someone is buying their goods. Someone looks the other way. Maybe that could be a follow up article.

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SPW's avatar

Shoplifters are bad but was watching reports from my flooded hometown, Asheville and there were people getting into looting businesses that had somehow managed to retain some merchandise rather than have it end up in the Tennessee River. Businesses at ground level in Biltmore were completely blown out because water got as high as 12 feet or so. The whole situation is sickening.

As if the President doesn’t have enough on his plate, now he has to deal with a potentially terrible strike and Netanyahu going crazy in Lebanon.

An insane kind of fact check free “debate”is on slate to happen tomorrow. I’m sure who’s more likely to tell the truth so probably won’t watch. CBS should be ashamed of itself for making such a chicken-s decision.

Great news out of Scotland and really good news for all the young people who got vaccinated. No cervical cancer is a wonderful thing and, amazingly, vaccines work!

I can’t imagine beeping cars. What a nightmare avoided.

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dj l's avatar
Oct 1Edited

the flooding & lives lost from the hurricane is awful!!!!! Ashville is a lovely town!!! I'm not a fan of the Biltmore - too extravagant & the "quarters for the help in the basement" was sickening... but the gardens are wonderful! So you're saying there's now looting going on in town??? That's really really awful!

Biden said he'd keep out of the strike. He needs to keep his word. And Netanyahu is doing what needs to be done, he is not going crazy. Hezbollah & terrorist groups are crazy.

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SPW's avatar

Are you familiar with the Gandhi saying, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind”? That’s the crazy going on in the Middle East.

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dj l's avatar

it would be wonderful if Israel didn't have to defend itself. It would be wonderful if a cease-fire would be honored. It would be wonderful if ships in the Red Sea weren't attacked by terrorists. Turn the other cheek? Should Ukraine turn the other cheek?

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dj l's avatar

and meanwhile more stores close & move to safer locations &/or lock up merchandise behind plexiglass... so far, none of that is happening where I live.

possible strike - oops, dh & I need a new mattress, I guess we should go shopping TODAY

studio watching - won't be, but I did enjoy Captain Kangaroo!

Newsom vetoed beeping cars - surprise!! Maybe he read 1984 & decided that was going a bit too far w/ Big Brother watching

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David Hazlett's avatar

1. Regarding retail theft, certainty of punishment can deter some or maybe the majority, but that will only work if business owners and the criminal justice system are on the same page. They aren't now.

2. I hope President Carter enjoys his 100th birthday and many more to come. He is a Navy veteran, a nuclear engineer, and a humanitarian without equal. I would not refer to him as an optimist, however, at least from his time in office. I served under President Carter in the Air Force during his presidency, and he was anything but optimistic then. With crazy inflation, high energy prices and 20% mortgage interest rates, he told Americans to wear sweaters if we were cold, and made nationally televised speeches about malaise and a crisis of confidence, scolding us for wanting a way of life as good as our parents had. Our military pay didn't begin to keep up with inflation, and our unit was short on everything except missions. He basically handed Ronald Reagan the election in 1980. President Carter could have rallied the country, like President Roosevelt did during the Great Depression and the first years of World War II but for some reason he didn't.

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Terry Freedman's avatar

It's ridiculous, but maybe looking at it charitably the rule is there for shop workers' own good. In England the general perception is that you can get away with shoplifting if the value of the goods is under £200 (see https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42492488), and as it's also the general perception that the police won't turn up, any sensible shop worker just lets the thieves get on with it.

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dj l's avatar

so shop owners should price everything over the 200 lb mark, then go up from there 👍

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Terry Freedman's avatar

LOL

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Lisa Maniaci's avatar

In all jobs there are people who are lazy, confrontational, unethical, immoral, and more, yet most only get a note in their file and are allowed to continue to suck the life out of everyone around them. When a celebrated employee does something wrong in violation of the company handbook, the first thing that happens is they get fired??

I'm sure it was instinct that made him follow that woman, not a desire to violate the employee handbook. They lost a great employee because they chose to cut ties instead of reeducating him. Now who is watching their bottom line? I twenty-something with his head buried in his phone all day?

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Lisa Maniaci's avatar

OMG, cars that beep at their drivers if they go over the speed limit? NJ would become the loudest state in the union. If you're not doing 80 on the turnpike you're a hazard and need to get out of the way.

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Tommy Jennings's avatar

I get it - safety for employees. But the deeper issue is, of course, when is too little, actually, 'TOO LITTLE'. Open the gates to any store, and welcome those who want to just take what they want have a field day. It's a conundrum, to be sure. But if I had an employee that respected their workplace, and their employer, I'd want every employee to have the attitude of 'do not take "my" stuff'. And if a worker was fired for chasing a shoplifter, and was subsequently fired for their actions, I would hire him/her in a minute. Sure, they went against policy. But just a sure, they were protecting the assets if their employer.

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Ian Forsyth's avatar

In Ontario Canada theft is common. All grocery stores have constructed screens and obstacles akin to crowd control to limit the quick in and out theft. Liquor stores have not but have instituted single file line up to buy even with multiple tills open. So the honest get to be herded to attempt to limit the theft. And it shows no sign of letting up. Inflation is at 2% officially. Not a chance is that real.

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Gus papagiannis's avatar

Hello, thank you for the Walmart story. I live in Vancouver, British Columbia and we have to pay for gas before pumping. In 2008 a law was passed called "Grant's Law". This came about after an attended was killed trying to stop a gas thief who drove off without paying $12.00. The attended tried to stop the thief and was dragged 4 miles. The law came into effect to prevent gas and dash crimes.

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Bubba's avatar

Lawless or hands-off shoplifting creates a society where I can do whatever I want; you can't catch this! So end results prices goes up. Victimless crime that raise the retailers bottom line. We all lose.

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Danny's avatar

So the alterative is to do nothing. Really Bill? There are answers that would drastically slow shoplifting. But it would take common sense law enforcement and prosecution. Something that is missing in today's damaged culture and political leaders that are out of touch. They have the same thoughts, do nothing because... Evil prevails because good people who can do something do nothing. Are you advocating do nothing?

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Bill Murphy Jr.'s avatar

I'm not advocating doing nothing.

But I am definitely against the idea of untrained $20-an-hour (or less) employees chasing after shoplifters.

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Greg Colley's avatar

I lost power for just over 49 hours last weekend. I updated my Facebook page every few hours. After power was restored I watched the news and saw the extent of the damage in the south. I felt horrible knowing millions of people will be without power for weeks and over 100 families have lost loved ones with over 600 still missing. Be grateful for what you have and do whatever you can to help those less fortunate.

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RWinDC's avatar

Instead of chasing shoplifters, do what Presidential candidate Kamala Harris did: “Make more of their crime (even) less criminal. Write the title: Proposition 47, The Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act so that citizens will approve changes.”

According to GrowSF, the law approved by voters had three outcomes:

* Overdose deaths skyrocketed after Prop 47's passage

* Shoplifting became endemic after Prop 47

* Serial shoplifting is no longer a felony after Prop 47

https://growsf.org/blog/prop-47/

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Bill Murphy Jr.'s avatar

Tons of unintended consequences with Prop 47 obviously.

But Prop 36 should fix, right?

Also Prop 47 didn't just come out of nowhere. California had a federal court order to reduce # of prisoners, didn't they? Between letting people with serious felonies out early vs bumping the threshold theft for a felony from $450 to $950 could be lesser of two evils.

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Walter Himmel's avatar

Only in an immoral and fearful society would we demonize those who refuse to be robbed or to sit passively while crimes are committed. Welcome to 2024. If we continue to countenance theft and violent behavior, we will continue to move in the direction we have established. We will get precisely the society we deserve. Good luck with these materialistic, self-serving, short-sighted justifications.

It is obvious now that large crowds continue to watch passively when violent crimes occur right before their eyes.

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