80 points
*

Did you see someone shoplifting? No you fucking didn’t, narc.

EDIT: Okay, so just grabbing a top level comment to dispell some misinfo.

Stealing baby formula to onsell online does happen: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/05/02/magazine/money-issue-baby-formula-crime-ring.html

Parents stealing baby formula out of desperation also happens: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/the-desperate-reality-of-stealing-baby-formula-because-you-cant-afford-it_uk_64635704e4b09eef8308cfc6

The problem here is that baby formula is something people need to feed their babies, and our society has decided that if you don’t have enough made up arbitrary tokens, you don’t get to feed your baby.

If I don’t know 100% that the person I saw stealing baby formula is doing it as part of a crime ring, then I’m not going to ruin a parent’s life because they did what they needed to feed their baby. Even then if the crime ring is selling it at a discount then I don’t particularly care to stop them either.

If you want to tell people that shoplifting is such a problem and you want to focus on the crime rings and ignore the poor people, your priorities are messed up. Also none of you know how to source your claims. Also, don’t start with some BS about how nobody ever does it to feed their baby, that’s just false.

In conclusion:

Did you see someone shoplifting? No you fucking didn’t, narc.

permalink
report
reply
63 points
*

I absolutely did, and I’m taking mental notes on their technique to improve my own.

There’s no shame in stealing from a publically traded conglomerate, they used the money from exploiting you and those like you to lobby to steal more from you and destroy the commons they tear up with their supply chains but didn’t want to pay taxes to repair and maintain, and destroy public education they also don’t want to fund despite enjoying and taking for granted the pre-literate workforce they have access to that they directly profit from. Stealing from them is just revenge.

They’ve stolen more from us than we can ever hope to steal back, including the temperate climate of our only habitat in their insatiable, blind, reckless, gluttonous, antisocial, sociopathic need for ever moooaaaar.

permalink
report
parent
reply
6 points
*

Ah, thanks ! I was feeling a tad moderate today for some reason.

Radicalize the moderates ! Burn the mosque ! (It’s from a movie, don’t hit me)

permalink
report
parent
reply
27 points
*

No one shoplifts formula to feed their own baby, they steal it to literally scalp it to those who actually do need it, at a fat markup, after conveniently draining the store’s supply so they’re the only source.

They’re not Robin Hoods sticking it to the Big Bad Corporation. They’re profiteering scumbags.

permalink
report
parent
reply
52 points
*

I’ve seen stolen wares and goods being sold on street many times before. They arent scalped as that implies charging more than the retail price, they’re sold for significantly less than the retailer, often at a fraction.

And just because they sold baby formula, doesn’t mean they don’t need to sell it to buy food and gas.

I will side with the have nots doing what they can get away with to survive over the Alice Waltons choosing to live like modern Pharoahs on our backs and never being satisfied with their immoral dragon hoards every time. The owners have bred this desperation, and bribe our captured government to maintain it in perpetuity for their exclusive benefit. Look to the nordic countries, this isn’t how we have to live, scraping and subsisting, it’s how our owner class demands it be so they can run up their ego scores, competing with one another while seeing us as subhuman batteries for that sociopathic game.

permalink
report
parent
reply
10 points

They’re rolling back prices! Better than nothing for damn sure

permalink
report
parent
reply
18 points
*

Bold assumption that no one shoplifts baby formula to use it

There will be people who are desperate enough to do so (I’ve even known a few)

The amount of people I’ve known who have stolen food for themselves or their kids is more than those who haven’t

Edit: spelling

permalink
report
parent
reply
5 points

Yeah, so many people in here are saying nobody ever does this and everybody who is stealing is just re-selling the goods but I don’t see anybody actually substantiating that. But like, it can’t be right, can it? Surely some larceny is done for personal use. And even then, most cases of theft aren’t documented because when someone gets away with stealing some expensive necessity they don’t tell the cops.

It’s got this “nuh-uh, everybody knows dogs can’t look up” energy. Like if it’s so obvious, how? What are they talking about?

permalink
report
parent
reply
7 points
*

Seriously?

No one shoplifts formula to feed their own baby

No one ever does this? It has never happened? Now obviously that’s not true but let’s be kind and say that you’re exaggerating and you mean it’s just rare.

If this is true, can you explain how you know it?

Edit: the first piece of bullshit was so egregious it distracted me from the existential horror of unpacking the rest of the comment. This is a nightmare of miseducation.

permalink
report
parent
reply
3 points
*

No, this can’t just be an edit, this needs a whole new comment.

I just want to add that this comment makes the bizarre claim that a shoplifter drained the store’s supply so that they’re the only source. Now, even presuming this is literally the only store in town that sells baby formula, in which case there will be another town half an hour down the road, how did they get all of the baby formula out of the door? How do you shoplift the kind of volume you need for a scheme like this without getting caught?

And further, how in the everliving fuck do you sell it? You have to be visible enough to sell the formula, to people you’re ripping off, in a small town where the only grocery store just got all of its baby formula lifted. They’re going to fucking expose you.

This would be a scandal. It would be a news story. Please, give a link to a single time this has ever happened, because of all the things that never happened, this happened the least.

25 people thought this story was good enough to upvote. Where the shit are you getting this garbage? What the fuck is happening?

Edit: is there a “shit conservatives say” community? This is such rank bullshit I need somewhere to process it.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

This would be a scandal. It would be a news story. Please, give a link to a single time this has ever happened, because of all the things that never happened, this happened the least.

I’ll do you two better. Only took 15 seconds of Googling, after all:

https://abcnews.go.com/US/baby-formula-targeted-organized-retail-theft-rings/story?id=13293485 https://www.wate.com/news/knox-county-news/three-accused-of-stealing-12000-worth-of-baby-formula-from-across-knox-county/ https://www.newsflare.com/video/635785/thieves-steal-7k-of-baby-formula-from-supermarket-in-just-20-minutes

Time to find out if you’ll admit you’re wrong, or if the smug ignorance continues.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point
*

Holy naivete, my sweet summer child. This has nothing to do with conservatives. This is a well-known scheme that is problematic in many areas.

permalink
report
parent
reply
46 points

Oooh yeah sorry I have face blindness, even if I saw the person again I’d never recognize them soooooooo sorryyyyyyyyyy

permalink
report
reply
40 points

Or medication or hygiene products or toys or actually anything. The store is not paying me to care.

permalink
report
reply
20 points

Ya frankly if they’re just taking corporations and not mom and pop shops I ain’t seeing anything.

permalink
report
parent
reply
3 points

Even if they paid me to care, I’d barely care

permalink
report
parent
reply
33 points

1 can, sure.

2 cans, maybe.

But when I see some asshole load up a cart and start booking it towards the nearest fire door? Yeah, I’m stopping you.

permalink
report
reply
25 points

Someone once stole half a fucking oxen of meat and his excuse was “I need to feed my family”. My dude, is your family 50 people?

permalink
report
parent
reply
35 points

Remember that “feeding 50 people once” is the same as feeding 10 people 5 times. With a large family, that could be as little as a week of food.

permalink
report
parent
reply
16 points
*

Sure, but maybe my comment demanded some context. Beef is expensive compared to many other meats where I’m from and this person literally stole the most expensive cuts only, in amounts that came to huge sums. Their explanation made no sense, since there are far better things to steal if all you want to do is feed your family. He was caught with so much that it was unreal.

I wouldn’t have brought it up in this thread unless it was weird, because I do believe stealing food from the supermarket isn’t immoral if you truly need to do it to feed yourself. Not that I see it happen ever, y’know.

edit: made a clarification

permalink
report
parent
reply
21 points

We had a problem in my country a few years ago where large numbers of people would buy up a heap of baby formula so that they can resell it overseas at a massive profit. Enough that stores had to put caps on how many you’re allowed to buy, and local parents still frequently couldn’t get their hands on it.

They weren’t generally stealing, but if they were, you bet I’d report that. And if they were noticeably going back in to buy more than the limit.

permalink
report
parent
reply
32 points

In my experience, being a victim of crime makes people less empathetic and more likely to favor “tough on crime” bullshit policies. This is why California is seeing a rise in Conservatism and progressive DAs are getting voted out. Sadly the progressive DAs were never helped or supported by other arms of the state legislature that could have attempted to solve the root cause of the issues (hint it’s not that some people suck)

In America at least, the small business owners may or may not be a part of the problem, depending on whether they’re voting GOP. The big businesses are definitely the problem as they mindlessly favor shareholder loyalty instead of community loyalty.

Ideally you’d want voters to be empathetic to the plight of less fortunate, and vote for progressive change. That doesn’t help someone who is hungry now, so I suggest donating food items to the local bank or community for the short term help if you really want to help the poor, and voting progressive candidates into office for the long term help

In general all countries need to remodel towards market socialism, otherwise you’ll always have the national security dilemma for any kind of policy change

permalink
report
reply

Nothing more American than spending more on incarceration than it cost to house and feed that same person.

Well, maybe denying one’s self healthcare on the off chance an emotionally unstable drug user gets the help they need.

permalink
report
parent
reply