Let's say that your cat hypothetically likes to steal from department stores, semi-professionally.
Do you think it actually hurts the clerks trying to make a living, and damages the atmosphere of the store?
Or do you think that charging $100+ for items that cost less than $5 to make in a sweatshop is just another form of thievery?
Speak honestly.
>>16595912
I don't like adding an extra thing for those employees to potentially be chewed out about.
I shop at dollar stores, second hand stores, and cheap online stores (taobao, aliexpress, etc).
>>16595912
selling things for a price people agree to pay for them is never theft.
Sure stores might mark up a product 100%+ but that doesn't mean that money goes right into scruge mcducks vault, it pays for the costs to operate the store and inventory the goods until someone buys them. If you do steal from people at least be honest with yourself instead of hiding behind edgy bullshit.
How bout you hypothetically get a job and use your hypothetical money to buy your own hypothetical shit, hypothetically.
The prices may be wrong, but stealing is wrong as well. Haven't you heard that "two wrongs don't make a right"? Besides, the risk of you getting caught far outweighs whatever you're stealing, trust me. I used to be a cashier and I saw shoplifters get caught several times. It always made me feel sad seeing the look on their faces when they realized they'd been caught, and they always got some severe punishment.
>>16595912
At my store, we get in trouble if people steal during our shift. It directly affects my job, my relationship with my boss, the work environment, and my future.
It may not be "fair" for corporations to charge people higher prices, but if the public is still willing to buy them, then it's really not the company's fault.
Honestly, stealing and paying NOTHING for something that cost money and labor to make is much worse morally, in my opinion.
I always try to give the customer the best deal and save them the most money according to the promos we offer. But I have no sympathy for theives. Unless you're stealing literally because you're about to die on the street, you deserve to rot in jail for a while
this stupid "shoplifting community" online has really got it in their heads that stealing is ethical because it hurts big corporations, but the Walmart CEO doesn't give a shit that you stole some bonne bell lipgloss and a pair of socks. the people that care are the actual workers and employees, because their lives get shitted on every time you steal something and their higher ups punish them for it.
stop making people who are probably poor to ower class working already shitty jobs have even shittier lives.
>>16595973
>>16595995
That's more or less what my friend needed to hear. They don't care about breaking laws, but they do care if bystanders get hurt as a result of their actions.
There are other ways to make money, and there are other ways to break the system. It's about resistance, but this works as a reminder that there's still humans directly affected by the machine.
Of course, my friend knew that, but they just wanted to know the extent to which it actually affected the people at the bottom of the pyramid. They'll stop.
>>16596010
i'm glad you're a good enough friend to have some sense to help them understand what stealing actually does. and i'm glad your friend is seeing who it affects, too. good job OP.
>>16595912
I hate thieves
even worse are thieves who steal things they don't need
they rob honest businesspersons of income, it puts preassure on retailers to demand lower prices from supliers
if you steal a shirt from a factory, you hurt the workers, if you steal from a store, you hurt the truck driver, the store clerks, the factory workers, everyone.
sure you don't hurt them that much, but many of them struggle to get by on tiny wages
worse you make storepeople treat ordinary shoppers like potential theives, and you normalize crime
if your friends shoplift, why not mug someone?
if people steal from your store, why not steal from it yourself?
if you steal from a store, how is anyone else expected to trust you?
can your friends and family trust you?
I don't think it makes you humal filth, but it's certainly not excusable
>>16596070
If you're already seen as a bad person by most people you know, partially due to circumstances that are not in your control, then it becomes easier to embrace that identity.
Part of the appeal comes from weighing the pain caused for the honest, against the paranoia inflicted unto the billionaires who directly cause the death, starvation, and oppression of over half the world's population, living on a few dollars a day or less.
Disrupting the system makes it a bit harder for these people to sleep at night, since the death they cause doesn't seem to. But it also hurts those sadly dependent on their oppression more than my friend realized.
My friend is capable of making a living in other ways, and fighting these institutions in other ways. It's not about stealing minor luxuries or being edgy. It's about getting by in a society where most are already guilty, and sending out a message, even if that's just one ripple in an ocean.
That said, it's over. And personally, though we both know that this doesn't involve me, I don't care about being human filth, because for most of my life, somebody already decided that I was. So I am.
>>16595912
You're hurting all the taxpayers when we have to shell out $50k+/year to keep you incarcerated.
>>16596109
>taking no responsibility for own actions
>stealing things
>making excuses
>paying judge and jury, like a robin hood who just kept the gold
>embracing a life that is going nowhere
you two should both be good freind, you are both scum
Don't steal shit unless you absolutely have to have it to live. Prices go up for non-dickbags, employees can get in trouble, and you'll get fucked in jail for pulling a pussy crime.
>>16596124
Assuming that my friend would keep shoplifting, which they won't, and is dumb enough to get caught, which they aren't.
They're good at what they do, whatever it happens to be. And they have no interest in dealing with self-righteous people like you, as
you most likely have skeletons of your own in your closet anyways.
>>16596148
Actually they used to steal food for the homeless regularly, donate to charity, and still volunteer at the soup kitchen.
Anything else? I'm going to bed in 15, so I can stop transcribing this when that happens. It's just interesting to see how people respond, since this has never been brought up semi-openly before.
It's emotionally draining for the clerks and stresses out the other workers. When we (regular mom and pop shop workers) hear about a theft we're told to be on the lookout for that sort of thing in addition to our regular job. Even if we do catch somebody stealing shit we can't call them out on it out of fear of lawsuits, so we need to drop what we're doing, find our boss and tell him what's going on before the thief leaves. It's a pain in the ass.
>>16595912
In order to stay open, a store must make a certain amount of money. To make that money they have to sell a certain amount of goods at a certain price.
If you steal goods, they're not going to make the money they were counting on. Then one of two things will happen:
1. They won't be able to stay open, and everyone who works there will lose their jobs.
2. To make up for the loss they'll have to raise all their prices, and everyone who shops there will be hurt.
Shoplifting is NOT a victimless crime.
I'd just be proud of my cat's apparent sentience.
When stores are shoplifted from, as far as I understand, they generally just inflate prices to make up the difference. So in stealing, you're just making every one else's life harder.
With that said, nothing really matters anyway, so as long as you don't get caught and are only harming people indirectly you aren't any worse than the rich people selling us the stuff in the first place.
>>16595912
>Do you think it actually hurts the clerks trying to make a living?
companies come up with something called 'internal controls' that include measure to prevent theft/fraud. if their company gets audited by cpas and their internal controls are deemed to be reliable, assuming employees are doing their job correctly, things like fraud/theft should be minimized. should a shoplift find a way to find to steal and the store loses more than whats acceptable, then yes the bottom line employees might take some flack. but honestly from what ive seen its the managers get hammered the most.
>damages the atmosphere of the store?
any place or area where crime happens more than other areas has a certain taint
>Or do you think that charging $100+ for items that cost less than $5 to make in a sweatshop is just another form of thievery?
this isnt related to the other points but your approach to the question stems from ignorance. you should be asking about margins. like another anon said, there's other costs to factor beside that $5 in materials/labor. youre trying to address profit margins and net margins. but this is probably a more legitimate criticism of prices than it is a justification for stealing
I used to manage in a company where our store had a horrible "shrink rate," or a percentage of total stock that never made it to purchase or the sale racks. This was a direct result of two managers who didn't really give a shit, and employees who didn't care all that much either.
Of course, upper management doesn't see it as two bad apples, it's EVERYONE'S fault. I'd get ripped on frequently as our loss prevention corporate rep would come in and try to steal things, harass my employees, and enforce me to publicly humiliate them over small shit.
All because two guys couldn't be arsed to come out of the back office and actually manage.
I know we already came to an agreement here but the stolen merch sure as hell didn't affect the CEO's multi-billion dollar golden parachute when he left the company.
It's hurting the wrong people.
>semi-professionally
>>16595912
Well the mark up on items is just our society and reality. And speaking from experience working retail I treat shoplifters as scum and also causes me to do a lot of paperwork and possibly call the police and file a report so it shits on the employees day.
Its okay to steal from big businesses like Walmart
It's not okay to steal from small businesses
It's okay to steal food from a big business like Walmart
It's okay to steal a little bit more than food at a big business like Walmart
It MAY not be ok to clean out A shelf of non-food items because that goes noticed in someone might get blamed
Then again it's a dog eat dog world
>steal from department stores, semi-professionally
>semi-professionally
your friend is a moron and should kill himself
