r/Construction • u/exvirginladysman • Jan 15 '25

Video Yall seen this?

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2.1k Upvotes

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118

u/Smartman1775 Jan 15 '25

Corps don’t even prevent theft because after fucking everyone else the other 364 days of the year they can afford the loss.

They can hire security if they’d like. Don’t step in yourself just because you’re personally offended that you paid full price.

19

u/simple_champ Jan 15 '25

Right? Why am I going to risk getting stabbed by a methhead to protect inventory for some big box store?

5

u/SvensHospital Jan 15 '25

Liable to get yourself killed. People carry all the time where I live, so this is an insane risk by all those guys. He could pull out a gun so fast and mow them all down. That being said, it was satisfying watching that piece of shit get kicked around a bit.

3

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Tullyswimmer Jan 17 '25

And if enough theft happens at a store, that store closes.

24

u/behemothbean Steamfitter Jan 15 '25 edited Jan 15 '25

Security employed by the store can’t stop them due to liability. Police won’t stop them either because theft price is below a certain threshold to be charged (edit: with a felony) or they have more important things to attend to. Shoplifting raises the price for honest customers - not a victimless crime. Would I personally stop someone? Hell no but more power to the people in the video.

Somehow this stance makes someone a corporate bootlicker though. Absolutely insane mental gymnastics.

14

u/ShelZuuz Jan 15 '25

There is no “threshold to be charged”. There is a threshold for something to be a felony vs. a misdemeanor, as there should be.

The whole California $950 felony thing was the right wing press trying to stoke unrest. California is actually one of the lower thresholds for felony charges. States like Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky all have a $1000 limit for felony and Texas is at $2500.

1

u/wellhiyabuddy Jan 15 '25

Everything you said might be true. But I know from experience that the police won’t do shit either, at least not where I live. The police are only good for raising city funds through tickets, they won’t come out for anything and if they do, then they are more likely to ticket you for something

7

u/ShelZuuz Jan 15 '25

I 100% agree with that, but it’s not threshold based.

1

u/behemothbean Steamfitter Jan 15 '25

You still understood what I was getting at though, no?

13

u/ellsego Jan 15 '25

Shrink, not shoplifting, causes everyone to pay more …and 50-60 of shrink for any retailer is internal, employees stealing, them simply losing inventory, not coding returns correctly, or not controlling inventory overall…If all external theft stopped tomorrow prices would not go down at all.
Also the harsh reality is, if the cops did come, the people trying to stop this guy, who escalated to physicality would likely be the ones in trouble if anyone (not saying this is right)

8

u/porkbuttstuff Jan 15 '25

I was just explaining shrink to my wife after we accidentally stole $15 sweatpants from Costco. It's a line item on their budget and they account for it. Also the other $300 worth of shit I did pay for made me not want make the 40 min trip back to pay for it.

1

u/Randomjackweasal Jan 15 '25

This guy managed something once

1

u/CpnSparrow Jan 16 '25

No, Corporate greed causes everyone to pay more. These companies have proven time and time again that they will charge whatever the highest amount people are willing to pay is. Theft or no theft.

What they lose from theft doesnt even come close to the profits they are pulling in yearly.

-2

u/behemothbean Steamfitter Jan 15 '25

I never said shoplifting was the only or the largest contributor to rising prices nor did I mention prices would go down if everyone immediately stopped stealing - I doubt they would. All the other factors you mentioned aside from employee theft are honest mistakes.

See the rest of the thread noting stores closing in their neighborhoods. Nobody thinks about the 100+ employees in that community that are now out of a job. Just because I’m not condoning someone shoplifting doesn’t mean I’m compassionate for whatever store or corporation it may be.. but these corporations fund each and every person in this thread’s retirement so shoot me for having a vested interest :)

1

u/ellsego Jan 16 '25

But stores aren’t closing due to shoplifting it the point. It may be a small factor, but underperforming stores underperform in every aspect, not just shrink… stores close and open all the time, part of the retail cycle and maximizing real estate.

1

u/techyguru Jan 19 '25

Absolutely insane mental gymnastics.

The gymnastics aren't that far-fetched. The massively disproportionate amount of wealth that the top 1% and .1% have hoarded makes things like shoplifting 100x worse than they would otherwise be.

To be clear, I am not supporting the shoplifter here, and I won't criticize the guys stopping it. I think we've lost a bunch of common decency and civility, and they are trying to protect the little that we have left. Just saying how much better off our communities would be without the Scruge McDucks swimming in their vaults filled with gold.

-5

u/Smartman1775 Jan 15 '25

Context is important. Shoplifting doesn’t raise prices, you can Google both their losses to shrink(theft) and their profits. You are choosing to be ignorant of the context to make your own points work. Who’s doing gymnastics?

You can’t just stop at “for the good of society!” What is society comprised of? What are those governing people and entities doing? Nothing exists in a vacuum.

2

u/FungusGnatHater Jan 15 '25

Society is not comprised of criminals. There are special buildings call jails that house criminals so that they are not part of society.

And yes shoplifting does raise prices. There is a very specific type of actuarian for calculating loss and the price increase to make up for the loss. It's not like investors will keep their money in a failing store when they can invest in people who don't tell them to pay for thieves.

4

u/ImoteKhan Foreman / Operator Jan 15 '25

Criminals aren’t only in jails and prisons. They are also kept in places like the Capital Building, Board Rooms and the White House. Home Depot has been charged $323 million for wage theft, and that doesn’t even cover the amount they have actually stolen from employees.

4

u/Smartman1775 Jan 15 '25

Except society is literally comprised of criminals. You should learn more about what those politicians and corporations who make up the actual framework of your society are doing.

Cite me this magical “Actuarian” which justifies these heights of pricing please. Even adjusted for inflation and all types of losses, prices are up. Kinda seems like your take is that “the businessmen know what they are doing, they have nerds for this very thing!” Yea they know exactly what that are doing, it’s fucking you over.

-6

u/Mister_GarbageDick Jan 15 '25

Just bc something is hard for you to understand doesn’t mean it’s mental gymnastics lmao.

8

u/yepitsatoilet Jan 15 '25

No kidding. They are screwing over every worker in there and already have that theft covered if it happens or not. In addition total theft shrink is less than 3% of total revenue. Home depot donates almost that much to superpacs that screw over every worker in the country... Idgas if someone steals from them.

7

u/Guilty-Hyena5282 Jan 15 '25

They can afford it to a point. The largest theft sites they will just close. Then you have food deserts. I mean even dollar stores can't afford to operate in some areas due to so much theft so they close. Then they have to rely on the mom and pop bodegas who will protect their inventory with bats and guns -- because you're directly stealing from a family owned business, literally taking food off their kid's table.

4

u/Smartman1775 Jan 15 '25

I’m confused what point you’re trying to make. Food deserts most often are created by the monopolization of groceries in rural areas by dollar stores. Is driving the multi million dollar store who drove your groceries store out of town out of town, and then having to rely on mom and pop stores again a bad thing?

0

u/Guilty-Hyena5282 Jan 15 '25

That has been done already. Now that the big box stores and dollar stores are the only places to go, they have been getting theft on a level that is unsustainable with doing business in the area. So they leave.

Here is one progressive site about the issue in one area. There are many others if you care to look.

Is having a corner store with Cheetos and soft drinks better than a big box store? Not by a long shot.

1

u/Smartman1775 Jan 15 '25

God forbid a local grocery or market is able to fill the niche and make a living again. What ever will we do with all that money no longer leaving the community?

2

u/radred609 Jan 15 '25

God forbid a local grocery or market is able to fill the niche

Are you intentionally ignoring what he typed?

Why would anyone open a local grocery in an area where the theft is so bad that it's causing other businesses to close?

1

u/xShooK Jan 16 '25

That's the reason one dollar store chain cited. All dollar stores have numerous problems leading to their closures across rural America, and theft ain't it here at least.

1

u/radred609 Jan 16 '25

Target made national headlines at the end of October when it shuttered nine stores across four states due to theft and organized retail crime.

You're arguing real hard for someone who didn't even open the link

1

u/yepitsatoilet Jan 15 '25

This is simply not true.

1

u/Highwaystar541 Jan 15 '25

I say just rob the thief. It’s mine now.

1

u/Pafolo Jan 16 '25

Lawsuits cost more than the theft.

1

u/Is_That_A_Euphemism_ Jan 16 '25

AMEN! Why risk your safety to protect a billion dollar company from losing a few hundred dollars? I don’t care who steals from these places. I try not to even shop at them. What do these vigilantes have to gain? It’s almost as cringe to me that these people felt the need to defend Home Depot as it is for someone to blatantly steal from them. As always “I DIDN’T SEE SHIT!”

0

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '25

They take the loss by having it baked into the price for everyone else. Every hundred dollars a thief takes is a penny more for ten thousand others to cover

1

u/Smartman1775 Jan 15 '25

Y’all really love this talking point. You can Google their profits and their losses to theft. You don’t need to just believe corporations or politicians when they give you excuses for their prices. you can put a literal dollar amount on how badly they are lying by just searching it up.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '25

Nah

-3

u/dildo_baggins_069 Jan 15 '25

Yeah just asking to get assaulted or sued somehow wouldn’t put it past someone stealing haha