Shoplifting-We All Are Punished: No Non-cents Diary

I believe that shoplifting is a crime against not only a retailer but the community as well. I am shocked that many people take a defensive stance against my ideas of theft and looting when the ultimate consequence comes back to bite everyone in the proverbial buttocks.

Shoplifting is only a temporary fix for a few where the lively hoods of fellow community members suffer. “Don’t do the crime if you can’t do time”. Theft adds up to the point that neighborhood grocery stores die leaving family, friends, and neighbors in a dry food desert. It is like we are punished while the criminal gets away only to move on to the next shopping center to rape and pillage.

Established retailers are going bankrupt after getting hit hard by the viral epidemic that seemed to have started in 2019. One contributing factor to increased store closing is the rampant uptick in shoplifting by early 2023. The New Normal is not normal at all. And it won’t be unless we do something to get a grip on reality to make healthy changes.

As I try to figure out my role in positive change I share my thoughts in my No Non-cents Diary.

Dear Diary,

I want to write my thoughts about people stealing having a ripple effect on you, me, and our neighborhoods when tolerated.

It would be hyperbolic to say that everyone thinks “robbing the rich to give to the poor” is acceptable. In the story of Robbin Hood, I admit that readers romantically identify with the protagonist. In January 2023 we are not to the point yet in America where we need a hero in tights to provide. Or do we?

When doing research I was surprised to find this twist on Robbin Hood written by Ian Bunting and published on January 13, 2023, but here is it. Click HERE to read the entire article.

BTW: Who knows what plagiarism means?

It is stealing someone else’s copyright work.

 I make clickable links not only so you can learn more about a subject,

but so the original author gets the credit they deserve.

 

All over the globe employees are striking for what they feel to be better wages and working conditions for the jobs they perform under the business title DBA of an employer. In a sense, hard-working people feel like they give while a wealthy corporation takes what they deserve to be compensated for.

I could quote from the Nurses’ Strike in New York or the Rail Road Workers who desperately need regular time off. I won’t tonight, dear, diary.

Those events really do deserve our attention because, at some time or another,- more often than we realize – we will use their services. I for one respect their rights to make demands. But alas, dear diary, we will have to save those meandering for another night. I want my ramblings about the fall of America as we know it to seem coherent when the reality of a sh!t show is not. (I apologize for my potty mouth expression describing the cesspool that we are growing in.)

 

Protestors dressed as ‘Robin Hood’ gather at Lanarkshire Aldi store to highlight contractor Arrow XL’s ‘poor’ workers’ pay…

Sharon Graham told Lanarkshire Live : “Arrow XL is guilty of acting as Robin Hood in reverse; it is taking money from its poorly paid workers to give to rich directors.

“Arrow XL needs to stop mistreating its workers and make a fair pay offer. Until Arrow XL treats its workers fairly, Unite will continue to expose its practices at every opportunity.”

 

I don’t live in Lanarkshire UK.

I don’t know exactly who is right or wrong about the actual facts the strike demands. I will withhold judgment, although I do have a bias. I added a small quote above to encourage you to read the article.

I feel that the Robin Hood strike is a fine example of how to low-wage workers can make a strong point with an employer rather than pilfering from the store stock because they feel entitled.

 

Well, my dear diary, I could run around rabbit holes chasing entitled squirrels. But, then I thought that maybe someone else has something to share about that friend WINK WINK who is so entitled…you know…

As I was copying and pasting URLs to make clickable links to explore I found an amazing article titled: What Is a Sense of Entitlement?

In the quote below from that article this one paragraph connected to a statement No Non-cents Nanna makes. “You can not change anyone else’s behavior until you change your own.” – Or something like that I learned in a parenting class and behavior management of children coursework.

By the way, I hated that statement until I grasped the true meaning which is that I own my own thoughts.

  • I own my own reactions.
  • Who, what, when where, and sometimes why someone else chooses to steal is owned by that person.
  • I can choose to be a victim as a retail manager, owner, or employee in charge of a department. Or I can choose to be resilient and find a solution to the problem that someone else did and hopefully will take responsibility for.
  • I won’t hold my breath – I cannot change someone else’s choices. 
  • I can make a plan based on their dysfunctional changes to rearrange my life so that I feel safer than I did before.
  • I can set boundaries and follow through with consequences like choosing to walk away or choosing to stay.

…people with this mindset believe that the world owes them without ever giving anything in return.

  • Focus on what’s in your control rather than what isn’t. 

You can only control your own thoughts, feelings, actions, and responses.

Stop focusing on what other people are doing or how they are responding to situations. Instead, focus on changing the things that you have some influence over in your life.

 

What Is a Sense of Entitlement?

Arlin Cuncic Updated on August 29, 2021 Medically reviewed by David Susman, PhD

…people with this mindset believe that the world owes them without ever giving anything in return.”

Yikes! Taking what you don’t intend to compensate the owner for because, in your squirely head, you think a business/ another person or entity may have more than you do.

That is stealing what does not belong to you and you have opened a black hole for those around you, complicit or not, get innocently sucked into your void.

No matter what we think is the justification for walking out of a store with merchandise, be it to feed hungry children, to pay a drug dealer, the rush of adrenaline, to get attention, embezzle, an entitled thief is an immature person with the coping skills of a whiney baby who is in need of being taught a season in life.

It is some degree of crime based on the dollar amount that adds up – really snowballs for a merchant who passes the loss on to every single customer who walks in the store after a petty theft, after another theft, and after yet another bolder theft.

 

When I started to read the publication on emotions by Arlin Cuncic Updated on August 29, 2021, I felt convicted. NO, not convicted of a crime – convicted of feeling being frustrated with organized Smash and Grab crimes that are closing down businesses.

I felt guilty for not being understanding of the human beings who intentionally deprives an owner of his or her property. Not only that, the thief has instilled fear in those who simply want to feel safe on the streets and in their homes. Thugs rob children, the elderly, the disabled, athletes, moms, dads, teachers, doctors, lawyers, law enforcers, low-paid workers, and business owners of the God-given right to feel safe in and around their homes and workplace.

Please don’t be a Karen

…and throw a fit over your inconvenient shopping trip when a low-paid worker gets paid to look at your receipt. Now, really, do you want that job?
Why do you think retailers cannot trust their customers? If you were the store owner what would you do – give away everything?
I found this example below by searching for Insurance and Shoplifting. I am sure there are more examples out there that offer free tips on their websites to promote their business of insuring commercial properties.
What goes up comes down. Now that is a fact. And “we” asked for it by not cracking down hard from the get of or perhaps securing our property better so as not to temp a would-be poacher.
What about chicken thieves or someone who helps themselves to bushels of your corn or the grapes on your backyard vine?
Is that any different from picking a pocket?
What? Who me? Couldn’t be?
  • Every time we buy stolen goods we “ask” a thief to steal more. (Think about it where and who you may be buying stolen goods from. Are you so sure that you have not gotten a great low-low price from an item that ‘fell off a truck”?)
  • Every time “we” turn our heads to our 4-year-old who stole a pocket full of nuts and bolts or gum from the hardware store and don’t make him fess up and take the goods back to the store – “we” asked for it. Parents may miss a normal life event to teach their children about right and wrong – owning responsibility for their own behavior. (Is that where Baby Boomers allegedly screwed up in parenting?)
  • How are your coping skills?

 

Yes, I am well aware that with “food shortages” people get desperate for food. I want to know how many in any community have an inkling of why preppers seem so annoying about telling folks to stock up. “Put food by for a rainy day,” Grandma used to say.

That is another Doom & Gloom reality happening right now all over the world in 2023. Famine has happened before and it will again and again.

Do you have a plan so you don’t have to steal radishes out of your crazy tin foil hat-wearing prepper neighbor’s garden?

 

What about ice cream? It is fattening anyway. (I am being facetious.)

 

Handcuffs on my ice cream sandwiches?

What u talkin’ ’bout, Nanna?

Can you believe how many stores are putting laundry detergent, make-up, ice cream, razors, and baby formula under lock and key? (See links below.) People are so angry at the stores that have protected their wares.
Haven’t I told you that there will be consequences for every action? A store owner is in business to make a living by making a profit. They have every right to protect their property. Don’t you agree?
Oh don’t give me any “Ya but, you don’t understand. I’m poor…they got money.” Get a job to earn money. Or get therapy to learn to act socially acceptable so people can stand to work with you when you get a real job that takes taxes and SSA out of your paycheck.

Let’s talk about how I feel about the bells and whistles and handcuffs on goods in a grocery store.

A retail store is in business to make a profit no matter how big or small after they pay the rent on the building; the electricity for the lights, the heat or air conditioning; the water and toilet paper in the restrooms that employees and customers use or steal; the employee’s salaries and insurance portions…just to name a few expenses most thieves don’t bother to consider.
I had co-owned a business at one time. Shoplifting from bored junior high kids and poor old ladies made it so I could not pay the stores’ overhead. A business is private property and can enforce its own rules as long as that rule is not harming anybody.
Nobody is entitled to take from that store product without paying for it.

 

According to a CNN Business article by , CNN –

CNN_ Throughout the pandemic, major retailers have warned about surging theft and a rise in brazen shoplifting attempts…

The National Retail Federation estimated that shrink cost retailers $94.5 billion in 2021, up from $61.7 billion in 2019 before the pandemic.

Shoplifting often does not go reported to the police…

… “organized retail crime” rings smashing windows and grabbing aisles full of merchandise off shelves, urging lawmakers to crack down. 

 

And to think some claim the Self Check Out is to blame…

Maybe self-checkout is the Great Temptation or We Got Another Think Coming. Does the Wally World Devil really send you a telepathic message to ‘eat of the proverbial fruit in the Garden of Eden” by controlling your behavior?

Remember, “The Devil made me do it,” probably won’t stand up in court as self-defense. Why? Because you are responsible for your own choices.

 

Shoplifting – A Review | Office of Justice Programs (2023)

…total loss from shoplifting ranges from 1-5 percent of a store’s annual stock turnover.

Employee theft is a larger problem than shoplifting…

…At least 5 percent of customers shoplift…

…moment to stop shoplifters is as they leave … 5 to 10 percent of shoplifters are caught…

But wait! There’s more!

And you wonder why prices are going high as the sky…There ought to be a stiffer law…

Feb 15, 2022 · CVS spokesman Michael DeAngelis tells Axios that the company has “experienced a 300% increase in retail theft from our stores since the pandemic began.” 

Axios says … low priority response from police:

The retail industry is pressing Congress to pass the INFORM Act, which would require online marketplaces (like Amazon, eBay and Facebook) to verify sellers and provide contact information to buyers.

What did I tell you about “we” buying stolen goods? Eh?

I was not making it up.

And where does it get us? A store that decides to protect its property gets angry reviews warning others to take your “business elsewhere” Such and such a store isn’t fair, they claim. A store cannot control the shoplifter’s behavior. A Store can only control its own behavior – they lock merchandise to the shelves because some people chose to not be law-abiding citizens in a free country.

 

Q: Don’t you wonder what the writer of a bad review is really WARNING fellow ‘shoppers’? (Look up the word Projection.)

A: We get our deodorant and baby formula chained to a plexiglass-covered shelf that you have to get a busy gatekeeper to open for you.

 

The National Retail Federation says “gangs typically steal a mix of valuable high-end products and cheap but easier to fence everyday necessities.” 

Click HERE to read a list of the Hotest items that are now under lock and key or should be:

 

Just a month ago, Christmas Holiday time, how many people were griping about this or that ____ store wouldn’t exchange a gift without a receipt? “I’m not shopping there anymore- such ___ policies. Haven’t they heard of “the customer is always right?”

I know the answer. And “we asked for it.”

Retail Federation survey finds:

Stolen merchandise is sometimes returned for store credit, usually in the form of gift cards. Those cards can then be sold for cash..

 

 

Shoplifting Has Become A $100 Billion Problem For Retailers

Retailers, on average, saw a 26.5% increase in organized retail crime

 

Diary, my dear, we all got another critical think coming. I’m going to sleep on this instead of overreacting and pointing fingers. Robbing others is only the tip of the iceberg that we Americans will suffer as the civilization we have known crumbles and decays before our very eyes on social media. Most are oblivious to reality because we are too busy giving away our own private information, personality traits, and patterns of behavior in some stupid foreign-owned viral social media challenge, I fear.

“We” with all of our collective greed have allowed a dysfunctional country on another continent to rob us of our lives, liberty, and happiness.

We willingly bought and paid for shiny soul-robbing technology manufactured in a country dominated by a narcissistic foreign entity. We American adults are so busy with STUFF that we failed to take the responsibility to guard our most priceless masterpieces – the eyes, the ears, the hearts, the souls, and the free spirits of our children.

We need an organized plan to peacefully save our local retailers from having to continue to raise their prices and lay off employees because they cannot afford to compete with the slave labor from the other side of the world.

 

….to be continued…

 

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Malika

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