203
The anti-shoplifting campaign was always a ruse by the c-suite to hide their mismanagement and poor performance.
I always thought the “aaah, shoplifting!” panic was just ceos faking it to try to garner sympathy lol. Good to feel vindicated.
Traditionally it's been a way for big businesses to bully local municipalities into giving them free security via local cops, tax incentives, etc by claiming that they're losing so much money to shoplifters that they have no choice but to close shop unless something changes (which is always bullshit, they're printing money). Walmart is infamous for doing this to small towns after they annihilate any local competition through lower prices from their economy of scale.
Funny you should bring up Walmart, because Walmart is the second biggest reason why I hate the “just start your own business” cliche.
Walmart was weaponized to make that impossible.
Honestly I don't think a one-stop-shop can be unassailable. Having a depth/variety of products is important, not just for consumer's sensibilities but also for being able to cover all the use cases. A Walmart might be most of a grocery and pharmacy and toy store, and half of a garden and hardware and auto parts and home furnishings store, but it will never be all of all these things (and perhaps not even 100% of any of these things). The logistics just becomes prohibitive.
The businesses that are best to start with are the ones where online shopping is unsatisfactory.
I always figured the playbook was something like:
- Cut staffing (and save $$$)
- Shrinkage increases due to fewer staff
- Construct a narrative around rising crime, of which locking up products is a part
- Get more cops
Congratulations, you've successfully shifted costs of protecting your property on the public!
- Close anyway when local tax incentives expire
I think it's simply that they want to close stores, and just saying it's because store has lower profits than their target will mean they have to field a bunch of calls and letter campaigns from grumpy people trying to tell them their neighborhood is important, while saying it's crime will get those same people to blame anyone else.
Yeah no shit I'm not waiting 10 minutes for someone to unlock a cage because there are two people working and one of them is on break.
sounds like a Walgreens that is over budget on staff. just cut down to one employee, then they can't go on break ever. win win.
E F F I C I E N C Y
I went once to pick up condoms and they were behind those glass doors. I pressed the button and it announced loudly that assistance was needed in "Family Planning" and everyone nearby started looking over and despite not being a teenager the embarrassment is never any less. I was just waiting around until someone finally came and they had the wrong key or something and started yelling at someone to bring the key to family planning, only further drawing attention to my anti-volcel ass. It was pretty uncomfortable. Never went back there for that again.
Way more effective than volcel police.
The people's VOLCEL VANGUARD are on the scene! PLEASE RESERVE YOUR PRECIOUS BODILY FLUIDS FOR STRATEGIC ACTS OF MASS REVOLUTIONARY CUMMING!!!
OH, NO! TANKIES!
Waiting 10 minutes for a rite aid employee to grab a deodorant for me and I open it to smell it and don’t like the smell but she already walked away. Ok thanks for the free deodorant I guess
Yeah the deodorant getting locked up is so ridiculous, these are $3-4 items and you need to keep them behind plexiglass? Fuck you, I'm shop lifting out of principle now.
Hey but what if we made everybody’s lives worse so we could mildly inconvenience one person who might steal something that won’t impact our margins at all?
No get! Only pay!
I mean it really should be obvious. There is a rite aid near me that is going out of business, so they rarely restock shelves. The only shelves that are ever not looking completely barren are the shelves of things that are locked up. Not only are the locked up shelves not barren, they are completely full. That should tell you all you need to know right there. Unlock the fucking shelves, you’re literally going bankrupt.
the rite aid here doesn't turn on the interior lights in the store during daylight hours
How will the customers get overstimulated otherwise?
I think they're just trying to save on elecricity bills
The one here had their drink cooler actively broken, making weird noises and smells, for two full months before someone finally put up a sign that said "sorry, the cooler isn't working; the drinks are fine but warm".
My local supermarket put their most expensive meat into a locked cage. Apparently that hurt sales more than the occasional lost roastbeef did because the cage is gone now.
I refuse to buy anything that's locked behind a cage I have to ask someone to open, I will just go somewhere else.
Easy for you to say about meat in particular
Me too. It is too much of a hassle. It is easier just to eat something else.
And yet the deli model is still fully workable. You go up to the counter, you ask for something, they slice or scoop it for you inti a container.
I have a friend who works in the deli section of a supermarket and she's hardly ever idle.
News: water is wet
[citation needed]
They lock like 50% of the shit up, like why would I visit you if I can just go to a grocery store instead?
A titan of industry shows us his big brain
one time I was buying condoms and the cashier couldn't do the little magnetic thing on the box so she had to call someone else over. 
I sometimes just cut it off the peg if I don't have a magnet thingy
And the best advertisement for my local mom and pop oharmacy was the fact that every trip to walgreens for drugs took 45 minutes to an hour. At the mom and pop, it's 5, and they're friendly because they aren't understaffed
I think the big chain pharmacies hope that this helps their bottom line because you will be walking around shopping, but the olds at mine just sit in the chairs and wait.
The small pharma where I go has a gift shop attached. I shop there for fun
I would rather die than mildly inconvenience a cashier
in other news, scientists test theory of water being wet, stay tuned for more.
this post was submitted on 15 Jan 2025
203 points (100.0% liked)
news
24560 readers
600 users here now
Welcome to c/news! We aim to foster a book-club type environment for discussion and critical analysis of the news. Our policy objectives are:
-
To learn about and discuss meaningful news, analysis and perspectives from around the world, with a focus on news outside the Anglosphere and beyond what is normally seen in corporate media (e.g. anti-imperialist, anti-Zionist, Marxist, Indigenous, LGBTQ, people of colour).
-
To encourage community members to contribute commentary and for others to thoughtfully engage with this material.
-
To support healthy and good faith discussion as comrades, sharpening our analytical skills and helping one another better understand geopolitics.
We ask community members to appreciate the uncertainty inherent in critical analysis of current events, the need to constantly learn, and take part in the community with humility. None of us are the One True Leftist, not even you, the reader.
Newcomm and Newsmega Rules:
The Hexbear Code of Conduct and Terms of Service apply here.
-
Link titles: Please use informative link titles. Overly editorialized titles, particularly if they link to opinion pieces, may get your post removed.
-
Content warnings: Posts on the newscomm and top-level replies on the newsmega should use content warnings appropriately. Please be thoughtful about wording and triggers when describing awful things in post titles.
-
Fake news: No fake news posts ever, including April 1st. Deliberate fake news posting is a bannable offense. If you mistakenly post fake news the mod team may ask you to delete/modify the post or we may delete it ourselves.
-
Link sources: All posts must include a link to their source. Screenshots are fine IF you include the link in the post body. If you are citing a Twitter post as news, please include the Xcancel.com (or another Nitter instance) or at least strip out identifier information from the twitter link. There is also a Firefox extension that can redirect Twitter links to a Nitter instance, such as Libredirect or archive them as you would any other reactionary source.
-
Archive sites: We highly encourage use of non-paywalled archive sites (i.e. archive.is, web.archive.org, ghostarchive.org) so that links are widely accessible to the community and so that reactionary sources don’t derive data/ad revenue from Hexbear users. If you see a link without an archive link, please archive it yourself and add it to the thread, ask the OP to fix it, or report to mods. Including text of articles in threads is welcome.
-
Low effort material: Avoid memes/jokes/shitposts in newscomm posts and top-level replies to the newsmega. This kind of content is OK in post replies and in newsmega sub-threads. We encourage the community to balance their contribution of low effort material with effort posts, links to real news/analysis, and meaningful engagement with material posted in the community.
-
American politics: Discussion and effort posts on the (potential) material impacts of American electoral politics is welcome, but the never-ending circus of American Politics© Brought to You by Mountain Dew™ is not welcome. This refers to polling, pundit reactions, electoral horse races, rumors of who might run, etc.
-
Electoralism: Please try to avoid struggle sessions about the value of voting/taking part in the electoral system in the West. c/electoralism is right over there.
-
AI Slop: Don't post AI generated content. Posts about AI race/chip wars/data centers are fine.
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS