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.
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.
>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.
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.
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/
If you read an article about Dollar Tree and it makes you feel bad and you don’t want to shop there, that’s your prerogative.
For me, I’m not interested in being guilted into assuming ethical responsibility for the decisions of the Dollar Tree management. I presume they are adults of sound mind so the responsibility for their choices is theirs alone.
FWIW I can probably count on one hand the number of times in my life I’ve shopped at any dollar store so it’s a moot point.
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.
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.
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.
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.
So in the cast majority of cases, probably not.
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.
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.
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)
It’s not appropriate or accurate to think that because someone is hungry and can’t afford food that they would steal. That’s stereotyping poor people as criminals.
"{I, a loved one} is hungry; I will steal to feed {myself, them}"
is an amazing thing to me. I am so glad people exist who can't understand this thinking.
Not because of any moral idealism about "stealing is wrong", but the fact the person thinking this has obviously never been in a place where the options were "stealing" or "starvation".
Not to go Les Mis, but it is an easy choice for me if my wife was hungry, to go out and steal some bread.
It’s nice you have such certainty. If you were actually starving and wanted to get food for your wife, there are more efficient methods than stealing.
It’s funny that you assume that people don’t know starving or stealing. If it’s obvious to you then you need to rethink your reasoning as while you may find it obvious, you’re wrong as I certainly know both these things.
It’s not idealism to say “stealing is wrong.” That’s the law of the land.
Of course, this article isn’t about starving people stealing food. It’s about jerks stealing from the dollar store. Maybe they are all starving. Probably they aren’t.
If you want to say that it’s ok to steal if you’re starving, then say it.
I’m not sure where you live, but I’m fortunate enough that in my city, state, and country we help people who are hungry so they don’t need to steal. If anyone here steals food, I don’t think it’s due to starvation. Other areas may be different, but I’d like to hear people’s basis for thinking starvation is a significant factor for stealing.
I feel like you’re taking a hypothetical edge situation “starving people just steal and it’s ok for that” and applying it to a situation where criminals are stealing from the dollar store and increasing prices for people who shop there, who happen to be vulnerable populations including people who are hungry and perhaps even starving.