People who shoplift

[Knower of nothing]

I just hope they at least tried asking for food first.

 

[Nervous Rex]

What's a dx?

From context it appears to mean "diagnosis". So, in medical terms:
Rx = prescription
Dx = diagnosis
So says Google. So say we all.

 

[Fino]

There are too many effects to enumerate. Here are a few possibilities:

1) The company absorbs the loss. Theft continues until the company cannot absorb the loss and another option is selected.
2) The company goes out of business and everyone local must spend more travel time and travel money to go somewhere else. This creates a "food desert" that @Yeshuasdaughter mentioned.
3) The company reduces prices by lowering wages, essentially charging the employees for the shoplifter.
4) The company reduces expenses by reducing inventory, quality, maintenance, safety, etc. In the long term, any corner-cutting measures lead to a downward spiral of ever-reducing quality until the company goes bankrupt, and option 2 is the result.
5) The company increases security - this incurs additional expenses which lower the profit margin. Ideally, this lowers the profit margin less than the theft, but it is still an extra burden which can lead to other cost-saving measures, as iterated above.

Everything has an effect and nothing is free - the expense will be paid by someone, somewhere.

Ideally, no one would have to steal. Financial literacy, a living wage, and reasonable prices should be the norm. Of these, I think the most critical one right now is guaranteeing a living wage.

This is a slippery slope fallacy, in my opinion.

 

[Mary Terry]

I really don't think there is any reason for poor people to go hungry in the US unless they are mentally challenged, drug addicted or otherwise unwilling or unable to motivate themselves to apply for help. There are charities, government handouts, BET cards, food banks, free breakfast and lunch for school children, and numerous other HONEST ways to get food than stealing it. Even panhandling is honest begging.

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

Sometimes shoplifting is the side effect of certain meds. Abilify is notorious for this along with causing users to also suddenly have gambling addictions and extreme impulsive shopping habits and obsession with spending money.

 

[Zhantera]

Idk. I'll admit to having done it. Sometimes there just isn't any other option. When your kid is waiting for dinner and you have none, it suddenly becomes a thing you do. No, I didn't have friends, family, church or government to fall on. There's always some people who fall through the cracks of the system. It's easy for people to say you should "just do" this or that. I had a very specific situation, and I did what I had to do to keep me and my kid alive. Is there regret? of course. I didn't do it opportunistically. I wish I would have had the supports so many mention. But sometimes there just isn't any, especially for a nonspeaking adult.

 

[Forest Cat]

I read an interesting acticle in a Swedish newspaper now. The Swedes have a problem, last year goods worth 8,5 billion kronor was stolen from stores. That's a billion US dollars! Shoplifting statistics has gone through the roof in the past 5 years, never before has so much been stolen. And the stores now come with a warning, something must be done. 3 out of 4 stores have been forced to stop selling certain types of goods and they are forced to make everything more difficult for customers, for example they have to keep meat in locked boxes and customers have to ask to get it. This takes extra time and it makes everything more expensive.

And there's no point in reporting it to the police, the police in Sweden is on its knees, they have way too much to deal with now. Crime is out of control. Things like shoplifting, burglary and fraud are not investigated in most cases. They don't have the time or resources to deal with it, so the stores are left to handle shoplifters on their own.

Shoplifting can be devastating for a community and an entire country. Sweden is small, only 11 million people and the result of shoplifting is now impacting the entire country. I feel bad for the Swedes. I know Sweden well, spent a lot of time there and it used to be so nice. That time is over.