Am I the fool for not just stealing what I want? Sometimes it sure seems that way.
I suppose not, especially as I am the wrong demographic, wrong generation, and located far away from the enlightened social policies of our well credentialed Blue City politicians.
I’m willing to bet that, if I took my older white male butt into one of those stores and tried to steal a candy bar, I’d be in jail so fast my head would swim. It’s nothing more than racism. So, if they want racism, let’s give them racism.
Beat them to a pulp and throw them on the pile as a warning to others. If they pull a weapon during their apprehension, shoot them dead. Violence is the only thing “the usual suspects” understand, and they are the overwhelming majority of the perps doing this.
Oh, this article is from the UK? Right, then assail them with your anti-stab knives and assorted pieces of hardwood that just happened to be lying around.
The one veiled truth in the article is that a hundred years or so ago all goods were behind the counter and brought to the customer by staff. And shopkeepers in the US were most likely armed. Maybe a modern return to that method would eliminate theft: build your store with double thick walls and high windows to stop vehicle assaults on you business. The main doors are powered, with a high speed emergency locking system. Every customer has to show sufficient amounts of cash or ace a credit check before being allowed in the building, and pass through a scanner to prove they’re not carrying a gun or a weapon. Once inside, the customer is given personalized service. hi-def CCTV with sound everywhere. Yes, this is going to cost a lot more. Too bad. The other choice is to put your business in an area where “the usual suspects” are few and far between. But still check customers for money or credit before letting them in, to avoid them becoming “unusual suspects”.
Business self defence is a must, but unless the citizens can defend themselves criminals will always gravitate to the easiest targets as others are hardened.
Sikhs With Sticks…that’s what’s needed.
+++
You’ll just have to do what the Mafia does – hire a gang to keep the thieves out.
That’s whats coming at some point down the road. Eventually gangs will grow with the decline to Third World status, it’s happened everywhere throughout history.
It’s the natural outcome of human societies that socially divide and allow corruption to rule.
Times change and sometimes it’s difficult to admit the ‘Golden Age of Shoplifting’ is upon us.
The clerk overseeing self checkout at walmart said about 1 in 5 tried to not pay for items unless confronted with said items.
Every one of them had the money to correct their mistakes.
There is no justice for small businesses other than vigilante justice. Lawyers are useless. Judges are useless. Criminals are bold to the extreme. Business owners should do what is necessary for the dips to spread the word to stay away from that store. Take down your cameras. They are useless and will be used against you. Help these offenders to be beaten senseless and dumped out in the country. It’s like the protected foxes stealing your chickens. Shoot, shovel, shut up. In my part of the world, most ranchers and farmers have a rifle and a backhoe. It’s a polite society.
Let me summarize …
I simply will NOT buy anything Home Depot puts behind locked cages (about half their store now). I understand why they’re doing it … but the ONLY reason I shop retail is the convenience of getting my item NOW. But when I have to find an ‘Associate’ … wait for him to find the other ‘Associate’ who has the key … pick out my item, then walk me to an open cashier … SORRY … too much hassle. I’d rather stay home, and order it from Amazon and get it in two days.
I understand why they do that … but they are destroying their business. Ultimately, it’s the shoplifters who are destroying their business. But since the public opinion is that:
“The shoplifters were needy”
“It’s only stuff”
“They have insurance”
“Screw the big corporations anyway”
“There are too many black and brown skinned folks in jail”
“America has too many prisons”
“America incarcerates more people than any other nation … ever”
Nothing will change.
Even Amazon deliveries aren’t safe, as thieves look for parcels left on front porches, and have even been known to hold up delivery drivers.
Right? And at what point does the consumer start going back to the City and say “what are we paying you for?” I’m thinking pretty soon.
Some, maybe many, Amazon drivers steal what they “supposedly” deliver. They verify the delivery by taking a photo of the item at the door then take the product. Had it happen a few weeks ago.
You’re in Kali, right? I’m amazed that Home depot is still a thing. The shoplifting must be incredible where you are.
2018 in Phoenix, Home Depot had two (2) employees at the front of the store, one doing cash, one policing the self-checkout. Same thing at Barnes & Noble, one cashier at the front, one at the back in Chandler mall.
Probable outcome will be a showroom model. Replicas on display in the front, pick up at the delivery door out back. Harden the showroom so that the theft gang can chimp-out all they want and not break anything expensive.
This is how things used to be done when goods were very expensive. We’ve gotten used to cheap goods, where the cashier cost the company more than the stuff being sold. Oh well.
Yes … and my particular closest Home Depot is illegal day worker central. Literally … no exaggeration … hundreds of wanna be workers … sketchy workers … who I would NEVER bring into my nice neighborhood lest they be casing my neighbors homes for good shit in their garages … surround the parking lot like termites.
Are these Messkins, Guatemalans, and Hondurans the thieves who’ve been hitting the Home Depot when they get no work for the day? Very likely. Very likely.
Home depot is one of the few retailers who actually do something about shoplifting.
I mean they have dedicated security. Someone watching cameras and several people walking the store. More importantly, they don’t just let people go. They turn thieves over to police, actually show up for court dates with video evidence.
Not like the grocery store I work at where one useless security guy rotates through a dozen or more stores each month and corporate doesn’t want a risk of lawsuits or bad press, so all but the most idiotic criminals are released to do it again the next day.
A century ago, all goods were always behind counters. Think about the store in “Little House on the Prairie”. The idea that customers should have direct access to goods was invented by the Piggly Wiggly grocery store in 1916. It was revolutionary to allow customers to wander among the goods, allowing them to choose what they wanted off the shelves, essentially becoming their own clerks.
The “shop n go” options at Walmart, Kroger and Target, wherein you order over the internet, the employees pick the goods and load the boxes into your car when you arrive, is a return to the centuries-old “store clerk” shopping method, a hybrid between Amazon and Little House on the Prairie.
I’ve always found it amusing when people complain about doing their own self-checkout. It’s just a logical extension of the Piggly Wiggly innovation from 1916. Given the shoplifting spree, we may end up going back to the “store clerk” model, with a Web ordering interface, pick-up only, no more dine-in, as it were. This may, or may not, be more convenient.
The fact that self-checkout can be a thing is a tremendous statement about social trust. The plague of shoplifting is an unhappy, though not completely unexpected, response to that high level of social trust. Yes, it is a descent from self-checkout, but it probably doesn’t throw us any farther back into the abyss than what we had in the pre-Piggly Wiggly days.
As an addendum to many of the comments, I have long considered that the only way smaller and medium business will survive, is, to harden the buildings, create a human controlled inner and outer door system with suitable locking systems and the humans behind protective areas to control inflow and outflow of consumers. The mentioned additions of fake display goods and credit checks upon entering the business, are all good ideas along with the hi def CCTV cameras. But it would all cost big bucks, and the cost would be passed on to the consumer. I also fully agree that the miscreants would pivot to less hardened targets such as the consumers outside of the business areas. As to the miscreants themselves, it is a fact that the only reality they will understand, is, extreme predudice. Either aggressive violence, or long term incarceration at an outpost in some place like nowhere north Manitoba. Again, this will cost big bucks.
At the risk of being cruel, the original three strike system once used by the US would be my model, but after the third strike, these miscreants would be forcefully provided with a Canada type MAiD solution. Apologies to the Karens, but if we are to survive with a civil intact society, we need to make such changes. We have developed a true leech type thug kleptocracy over the years, and it’s now fully ingrained in the miscreants, if we don’t or won’t save ourselves from them, we’ll be back to the tribal warfare, dog eat dog societies real soon. I don’t think the pendulum is coming back anytime soon, it’s stuck way over on the far left side!
@GerryK. – “….forcefully provided with a Canada type MAiD solution”.
That’s a little harsh….
What the US needs a “Devils Island” where the “miscreants” can be banished from civil society to go live in one of their own societies. Why pay for incarceration when you can just drop them 100 yards from shore and set them free to do as they wish in a society of themselves.
The caveat of course is that if they ever return to “civil society” then it’s MAID.
Paul, Unfortunately we are fast reaching the MAiD option, harsh or not. Your Island idea is similar to my North Manitoba idea. There are areas there that are mosquito infested bogs with a hundred miles of nothing in any direction. Unfortunately set up would be costly, so perhaps your island idea would work….wait, didn’t they try that in the UK using Australia a couple of hundred years back?
Any other options or suggestions from anyone?…………………….Anyone…………………….ANYONE???
“wait, didn’t they try that in the UK using Australia a couple of hundred years back?”
Heh, indeed they did – I’ve spent allot of time there, they are their own worst Liberal nightmare. LOL
Great Britain originally dumped all their criminals into the thirteen colonies in North America. They had to stop doing that around 1783, for some reason. After 1783, the Brits started dumping all their criminals into Australia, but only because their original choice for a criminal dumping ground had been taken away.
Clearly the prospect of any punishment at all is having zero effect of deterrent. What’s next all you big brained socialologists?
This is not shoplifting, it’s looting.
Shoplooting falls between the cracks in mobearn society.
Consumers distributing, Lee valley models..
All that will do is shift the theft from inside the store to outside, in the parking lot, on the way to deliver and at the delivery location.
This will only serve to shift the responsibility of security to the purchasers and the shipping firms, who will hopefully have had enough and take up (arms) against the loss. I can’t see that either, as most people are too soft and present themselves as too much of a target.
There has to be a radical shift as consumers declare: “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more!”
The so called “protectors” and protections of society have failed us. We’ve allowed them to.
We’ve gotten ourselves into this mess, by becoming so progressive, we have progressed right past common sense, morals and values.
No one has the stomach for the wet work needed to cure this.
Am I the fool for not just stealing what I want? Sometimes it sure seems that way.
I suppose not, especially as I am the wrong demographic, wrong generation, and located far away from the enlightened social policies of our well credentialed Blue City politicians.
Nike supported BLM.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8d09964e86e62dea547f75dc12ae366ed4fadc992ce38b26a5ec4b2e0f239a58.jpg
I’m willing to bet that, if I took my older white male butt into one of those stores and tried to steal a candy bar, I’d be in jail so fast my head would swim. It’s nothing more than racism. So, if they want racism, let’s give them racism.
Beat them to a pulp and throw them on the pile as a warning to others. If they pull a weapon during their apprehension, shoot them dead. Violence is the only thing “the usual suspects” understand, and they are the overwhelming majority of the perps doing this.
Oh, this article is from the UK? Right, then assail them with your anti-stab knives and assorted pieces of hardwood that just happened to be lying around.
The one veiled truth in the article is that a hundred years or so ago all goods were behind the counter and brought to the customer by staff. And shopkeepers in the US were most likely armed. Maybe a modern return to that method would eliminate theft: build your store with double thick walls and high windows to stop vehicle assaults on you business. The main doors are powered, with a high speed emergency locking system. Every customer has to show sufficient amounts of cash or ace a credit check before being allowed in the building, and pass through a scanner to prove they’re not carrying a gun or a weapon. Once inside, the customer is given personalized service. hi-def CCTV with sound everywhere. Yes, this is going to cost a lot more. Too bad. The other choice is to put your business in an area where “the usual suspects” are few and far between. But still check customers for money or credit before letting them in, to avoid them becoming “unusual suspects”.
Business self defence is a must, but unless the citizens can defend themselves criminals will always gravitate to the easiest targets as others are hardened.
Sikhs With Sticks…that’s what’s needed.
+++
You’ll just have to do what the Mafia does – hire a gang to keep the thieves out.
That’s whats coming at some point down the road. Eventually gangs will grow with the decline to Third World status, it’s happened everywhere throughout history.
It’s the natural outcome of human societies that socially divide and allow corruption to rule.
Times change and sometimes it’s difficult to admit the ‘Golden Age of Shoplifting’ is upon us.
The clerk overseeing self checkout at walmart said about 1 in 5 tried to not pay for items unless confronted with said items.
Every one of them had the money to correct their mistakes.
There is no justice for small businesses other than vigilante justice. Lawyers are useless. Judges are useless. Criminals are bold to the extreme. Business owners should do what is necessary for the dips to spread the word to stay away from that store. Take down your cameras. They are useless and will be used against you. Help these offenders to be beaten senseless and dumped out in the country. It’s like the protected foxes stealing your chickens. Shoot, shovel, shut up. In my part of the world, most ranchers and farmers have a rifle and a backhoe. It’s a polite society.
Let me summarize …
I simply will NOT buy anything Home Depot puts behind locked cages (about half their store now). I understand why they’re doing it … but the ONLY reason I shop retail is the convenience of getting my item NOW. But when I have to find an ‘Associate’ … wait for him to find the other ‘Associate’ who has the key … pick out my item, then walk me to an open cashier … SORRY … too much hassle. I’d rather stay home, and order it from Amazon and get it in two days.
I understand why they do that … but they are destroying their business. Ultimately, it’s the shoplifters who are destroying their business. But since the public opinion is that:
“The shoplifters were needy”
“It’s only stuff”
“They have insurance”
“Screw the big corporations anyway”
“There are too many black and brown skinned folks in jail”
“America has too many prisons”
“America incarcerates more people than any other nation … ever”
Nothing will change.
Even Amazon deliveries aren’t safe, as thieves look for parcels left on front porches, and have even been known to hold up delivery drivers.
Right? And at what point does the consumer start going back to the City and say “what are we paying you for?” I’m thinking pretty soon.
Some, maybe many, Amazon drivers steal what they “supposedly” deliver. They verify the delivery by taking a photo of the item at the door then take the product. Had it happen a few weeks ago.
You’re in Kali, right? I’m amazed that Home depot is still a thing. The shoplifting must be incredible where you are.
2018 in Phoenix, Home Depot had two (2) employees at the front of the store, one doing cash, one policing the self-checkout. Same thing at Barnes & Noble, one cashier at the front, one at the back in Chandler mall.
Probable outcome will be a showroom model. Replicas on display in the front, pick up at the delivery door out back. Harden the showroom so that the theft gang can chimp-out all they want and not break anything expensive.
This is how things used to be done when goods were very expensive. We’ve gotten used to cheap goods, where the cashier cost the company more than the stuff being sold. Oh well.
Yes … and my particular closest Home Depot is illegal day worker central. Literally … no exaggeration … hundreds of wanna be workers … sketchy workers … who I would NEVER bring into my nice neighborhood lest they be casing my neighbors homes for good shit in their garages … surround the parking lot like termites.
Are these Messkins, Guatemalans, and Hondurans the thieves who’ve been hitting the Home Depot when they get no work for the day? Very likely. Very likely.
Home depot is one of the few retailers who actually do something about shoplifting.
I mean they have dedicated security. Someone watching cameras and several people walking the store. More importantly, they don’t just let people go. They turn thieves over to police, actually show up for court dates with video evidence.
Not like the grocery store I work at where one useless security guy rotates through a dozen or more stores each month and corporate doesn’t want a risk of lawsuits or bad press, so all but the most idiotic criminals are released to do it again the next day.
A century ago, all goods were always behind counters. Think about the store in “Little House on the Prairie”. The idea that customers should have direct access to goods was invented by the Piggly Wiggly grocery store in 1916. It was revolutionary to allow customers to wander among the goods, allowing them to choose what they wanted off the shelves, essentially becoming their own clerks.
The “shop n go” options at Walmart, Kroger and Target, wherein you order over the internet, the employees pick the goods and load the boxes into your car when you arrive, is a return to the centuries-old “store clerk” shopping method, a hybrid between Amazon and Little House on the Prairie.
I’ve always found it amusing when people complain about doing their own self-checkout. It’s just a logical extension of the Piggly Wiggly innovation from 1916. Given the shoplifting spree, we may end up going back to the “store clerk” model, with a Web ordering interface, pick-up only, no more dine-in, as it were. This may, or may not, be more convenient.
The fact that self-checkout can be a thing is a tremendous statement about social trust. The plague of shoplifting is an unhappy, though not completely unexpected, response to that high level of social trust. Yes, it is a descent from self-checkout, but it probably doesn’t throw us any farther back into the abyss than what we had in the pre-Piggly Wiggly days.
As an addendum to many of the comments, I have long considered that the only way smaller and medium business will survive, is, to harden the buildings, create a human controlled inner and outer door system with suitable locking systems and the humans behind protective areas to control inflow and outflow of consumers. The mentioned additions of fake display goods and credit checks upon entering the business, are all good ideas along with the hi def CCTV cameras. But it would all cost big bucks, and the cost would be passed on to the consumer. I also fully agree that the miscreants would pivot to less hardened targets such as the consumers outside of the business areas. As to the miscreants themselves, it is a fact that the only reality they will understand, is, extreme predudice. Either aggressive violence, or long term incarceration at an outpost in some place like nowhere north Manitoba. Again, this will cost big bucks.
At the risk of being cruel, the original three strike system once used by the US would be my model, but after the third strike, these miscreants would be forcefully provided with a Canada type MAiD solution. Apologies to the Karens, but if we are to survive with a civil intact society, we need to make such changes. We have developed a true leech type thug kleptocracy over the years, and it’s now fully ingrained in the miscreants, if we don’t or won’t save ourselves from them, we’ll be back to the tribal warfare, dog eat dog societies real soon. I don’t think the pendulum is coming back anytime soon, it’s stuck way over on the far left side!
@GerryK. – “….forcefully provided with a Canada type MAiD solution”.
That’s a little harsh….
What the US needs a “Devils Island” where the “miscreants” can be banished from civil society to go live in one of their own societies. Why pay for incarceration when you can just drop them 100 yards from shore and set them free to do as they wish in a society of themselves.
The caveat of course is that if they ever return to “civil society” then it’s MAID.
Paul, Unfortunately we are fast reaching the MAiD option, harsh or not. Your Island idea is similar to my North Manitoba idea. There are areas there that are mosquito infested bogs with a hundred miles of nothing in any direction. Unfortunately set up would be costly, so perhaps your island idea would work….wait, didn’t they try that in the UK using Australia a couple of hundred years back?
Any other options or suggestions from anyone?…………………….Anyone…………………….ANYONE???
“wait, didn’t they try that in the UK using Australia a couple of hundred years back?”
Heh, indeed they did – I’ve spent allot of time there, they are their own worst Liberal nightmare. LOL
Great Britain originally dumped all their criminals into the thirteen colonies in North America. They had to stop doing that around 1783, for some reason. After 1783, the Brits started dumping all their criminals into Australia, but only because their original choice for a criminal dumping ground had been taken away.
Clearly the prospect of any punishment at all is having zero effect of deterrent. What’s next all you big brained socialologists?
This is not shoplifting, it’s looting.
Shoplooting falls between the cracks in mobearn society.
Life Followed Art dept.
The Times They Are A’Changin’ – Robert Zimmerman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90WD_ats6eE
Consumers distributing, Lee valley models..
All that will do is shift the theft from inside the store to outside, in the parking lot, on the way to deliver and at the delivery location.
This will only serve to shift the responsibility of security to the purchasers and the shipping firms, who will hopefully have had enough and take up (arms) against the loss. I can’t see that either, as most people are too soft and present themselves as too much of a target.
There has to be a radical shift as consumers declare: “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more!”
The so called “protectors” and protections of society have failed us. We’ve allowed them to.
We’ve gotten ourselves into this mess, by becoming so progressive, we have progressed right past common sense, morals and values.
No one has the stomach for the wet work needed to cure this.