tldr: they can ignore casual theft because the taxpayers pay for it in the end. it's foolish to assume that these companies allow shoplifting to eat into their profit margin.
so, at the end of the day, these shoplifters are not stealing from the rich, they're stealing from the general public.

He ain’t the most calculable fella around here. It’s okay to steal overpriced junk

Lol, maybe if you frequent Walmart it would have some collateral effect on you.

That's not really true. When you shoplift it's counted as an expense, which lowers profit, but that just means the 20% they would have paid in taxes isn't taxed and they still lose the other 80%.

While shoplifting in general is bad, I really can't give a shit about somebody doing petty theft at Wal-Mart, or stealing a Nestle product. When you've got slave labor overseas making the products, I really couldn't care less if your profit margin suffers.

You're right, the employees should form a posse and go after them.




You're as dumb as he is.

Don't make me use this flashlight on you.

This post was edited by Skinned on Jun 28 2021 11:59am

They're stealing primarily from local consumers, who face higher prices as a result of increased insurance costs, not to mention fewer goods overall, as companies weigh whether or not to bring business and what business to bring.

As always, the poor suffer most from weak on crime politicians.

Not if they raise prices accordingly; in that case, the honest customers are shouldering the cost.


I would agree with that IF it was only the corporate profit margin that takes the hit. But that's just not the case.




Textbook example of the broken windows theory. Once a society allows crime and violence to get out of hand, it gets really difficult to rein it in and individual actors cannot do anything to improve the situation anymore.

Not easy to fix though. Before a crackdown on shoplifters has a chance of success, America would need to fix its issue with dire poverty and the lack of a social safety net.

This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Jun 28 2021 01:33pm

exactly

if you dont stop theft, you will get something a lot more serious from the same people in the future

Broken window theory is stupid. You can create much more drastic problems with over-enforcement same as under-enforcement. The fact that our prison population is so massive is a testament to that, but people don't register prisoners as a crime against humanity the same way they register a theft.

The corporate margin does take a hit, in the form of higher insurance costs, lower purchasing of more expensive goods, and other places.

Back in a day that would be either death on the spot or a missing hand for sure.