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Comment by ameminator | Hacker News Reader

I mean, if the people running the store can't profitably operate (due to theft or other factors), why should they operate?

Why should the owners of that supermarket go into ruin just to give you another shopping option? Why is it their responsibility to keep you fed at all?

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My grandfather owned and operated an early contemporary grocery store, growing from his fruit stand. Before self-service shopping and the checkout line, you would just give the grocer a list of what you would need and they would get it from the inventory. This also made theft impractical. Now, with the skyrocketing cost of retail rent, and other costs affiliated with retail store operations, we see a return full-service shopping with apps and food service operating out of ghost kitchens, we're finding out we don't need grocery stores.

It's a shame - however, I live in an area without this endemic shop-lifting. I enjoy my local community store and I'm sad that others in these high-crime areas cannot.

Why should firefighters put out fires? They make no money from it. It costs them money in equipment wear, water usage, etc.!

I'm sympathetic to your grandparent statement (closing stores can really screw their patrons), but the comparison to firefighters is apples to oranges. Firefighting is a civic utility-everyone contributes a little bit for the service. Grocery stores are not, in most locales.

If no one fights fires, they burn uncontrollably and we all die. If no grocery stores operate, we all starve and die. Feeding the people is the same level of protection as fighting fires.

Expenses of firefighting are paid from the state budget. When expenses of grocery stores (dispensaries?) will be paid from the state budget, the comparison would stand.

Also, shoplifting is like calling firefighters to water your lawn, because, see, it's free!

Running a store is very different from firefighting - arguably there is a much higher moral good being done by literally saving people from imminent death by burning. Firefighters are also paid in many places, even if volunteer services are available.

Finally, they do have charitable "food delivery" places - they are called soup kitchens, but they are intended for people who can't afford food at all, not necessarily for people who have the money to buy what they need.

Because they get paid to do it - they literally make money from fighting fires

How does this business of fire fighting make money? All they do is spend money on equipment, labor, etc. Where is their income coming from, and who is incentivized to keep paying them despite no profit and no return on investment ever?

It doesn't, but the community decided that it was valuable, so chose to fund it using taxes, collectively. If you make the case to your community for a communal grocery store, it too can be funded with taxes. Be warned, it comes with its own set of problems that are hard to predict at the outset.

Actually, I have private fire insurance that I do pay for, and the insurance makes plenty of money on it. That's ok with me.

People could pay for a service where firefighters would come and put out a potential fire at their house.

What if your neighbor decides not to pay their fire fighting bill? You going to be happy about living within feet of their uncontrolled blaze?

I believe those firefighting services will respond to every fire, they will just watch and prevent it from burning a neighboring house that does pay.

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