Shoplifting

[diegoblunt]

fair enough, im sorry for attacking you

It just seems awful unfair that you are charged with this responsibility. If shoplifting is enough of a problem for them to dock your pay/fire you, then they should have a security guard. It's not the customers responsibility to stop/report thieves, and these busy-body members of society shouldn't choose the moral high ground and report minor crimes that they witness.

Shoplifting is only slightly more serious than drug use, so of course i do not condone somebody not reporting a rape 8(

I just know that it wouldnt feel good if someone walked past your house and called the police because they saw that you were using drugs inside. There's not a great difference between this scenario and reporting a shoplifter.

 

[eloise]

besides, when you witness someone and they know it, you get the 'knowing smile', which makes you feel ultra-cool ;D

 

[Aishas Star]

its okay..
I just hate it when people think retail chicks are blond headed dumb arses. Sure about 85% of then are, but im not. I take pride in what i do and im good at it.

"Would you like a skirt to go with that?"
hehe

 

[eze451]

And this whole 'dibber dobber' phrase that's being bandied around... does that apply for all situations? Like, if you saw someone being raped and could identify the assailant would you not go to the police because that would make you a 'snitch'? [I'm really loving these primary school words btw. Haven't been able to use them in a long time. 8)]

if the shoe fits..... primary school phrases are appropriate here, because its a primary school mentality..... if it doesnt affect u, keep your nose out of it.... its none of your business..... i work at a primary school, and the school rule on dobbing, is that if u dob on someone for doing something wrong when it doesnt affect u, you are told to keep your nose out of it..... i mean america stuck their nose in where it didnt belong and now we have the iraq war..... totally different scenario i realise, but its an example of why we should all mind our own business...

lets not forget that most shoplifting is from corporations, not individual people..... yeh people own these corporations, but im pretty sure they arent hurting for money.... no real harm is being done here..... how much can u possibly shoplift before being caught anyway? rape is different because if u dont stop the attack, or identify the person, lives will be altered for the worse forever..... i doubt in 5 years the managers will be thinking of the mars bar that was taken by the local thief and how their life will never be the same

 

[Aishas Star]

Does anyone agree with me that if there was no shop lifting that then the price of goods would go down? cause then there would be no loss in the companies. Like i know it would never happen but its a thought at least.

 

[onetwothreefour]

^^^ no, i don't. companies are in the business to make money (obviously), so there's no way that they would reduce prices; the demand is still there, and thus people will continue to buy things at the price they stand at (unless it seems exorbitant for some other reason). there's no way that most companies would make a general policy of reducing prices if things were stolen less. it's bad business sense.

 

[ozbreaker]

^^ Some companies might use the higher margin to undercut competitors and that might help push prices lower.

 

[onetwothreefour]

this is true, but i was attempting to talk in a general sense, which is, of course, somewhat difficult. in specific cases that could be what occurs yes, but that's similar to the occasional situation when an increased annual profit might lead to a company attempting to undercut its competitors for some time *just* 'cause they can afford it.

for sure, it might happen sometimes, but i don't think there's much of a meaningful correlation. i guess what i'm trying to say is that yes, a decrease in shoplifting might *occasionally* result in lowered prices, but its not the direct factor in *causing* them as such. i'm not explaining this very well, am i?

 

[Naughtiest_Maximus]

Would i "dob" in a person who i witnessed shoplifting something that was obviously not an essential item. My head says Fuck yeah but put in that situation i honestly don't know how id' react as iv'e never been in that position. Feelings of guilt though wouldn't be the slightest consideration, i don't think i could give two fucks about landing someone in the shit over what equates to an act of theft, more that as others have said confrontation is something i try and stay away from.

It really pisses me off that there is a perception that it's o.k to steal from corporations simply based on thier size and ability to generate profit. I walk out of dept store with a x-box under my arm that i have worked to pay for and quickly followed by someone legging it with one under thier arm. Am i supposed to feel happy for the fact that this person has undermined every ethic i have about working hard to be able to afford the things you want. It's o.k the store can afford it. Well they might be, but my outlook on what sort of culture we are going about generating where theft is tolerable if your only stealing from a large corporation can't. While i have room to move on the neccesity and circumstances of what and why someone might be moved to steal something, i aren't in the slightest where it's a case of i wanted it so i took it, not i needed it to live but had no other means of obtaining it.

On another note:

Does anyone agree with me that if there was no shop lifting that then the price of goods would go down? cause then there would be no loss in the companies. Like i know it would never happen but its a thought at least.

^^^ no, i don't. companies are in the business to make money (obviously), so there's no way that they would reduce prices; the demand is still there, and thus people will continue to buy things at the price they stand at (unless it seems exorbitant for some other reason). there's no way that most companies would make a general policy of reducing prices if things were stolen less. it's bad business sense.

While i agree with 1234 on the price and profit margins of goods, if there was no shoplifting i wonder at the impact it would have on customer service in some instances and wether there would more room for corporations to move forward with regards to wage levels.

 

[lostpunk5545]

It really pisses me off that there is a perception that it's o.k to steal from corporations simply based on thier size and ability to generate profit. I walk out of dept store with a x-box under my arm that i have worked to pay for and quickly followed by someone legging it with one under thier arm. Am i supposed to feel happy for the fact that this person has undermined every ethic i have about working hard to be able to afford the things you want.

It's not their size and ability to generate a profit that makes it ok to steal from corporations. It is their bad ethics in creating an entire of class of people who will have to work for the rest of their lives in an effort to own the roof over their heads. It is their ethics that result in this rape the world philosophy in which profit is more important than people, animals, and the environment. It is their ethics that result in lifetime employees being fired to maximise profit for the shareholders.

That is what makes it ok to steal from corporations.

As for the x-box you have to realise that while you may have worked hard for yours, the person who stole theirs is also putting in an effort - in that if they get caught they will get fucked up.

 

[Naughtiest_Maximus]

Originally posted by lostpunk5545 It's not their size and ability to generate a profit that makes it ok to steal from corporations. It is their bad ethics in creating an entire of class of people who will have to work for the rest of their lives in an effort to own the roof over their heads. It is their ethics that result in this rape the world philosophy in which profit is more important than people, animals, and the environment. It is their ethics that result in lifetime employees being fired to maximise profit for the shareholders.

Can you please explain to me how a retail giant that only exists on the back of consumers is creating a class of people who will have to work the rest of thier lives to own a roof over there heads. If you feel that large corporations are to blame for a philosphy that degrades the importance of people, animals and the enviroment wouldn't be more effective to target the consumer and thier spending habits. How does stealing from them change any of these things. It doesn't, it just give you a sense of justification that theft is o.k.

Originally posted by lostpunk5545
As for the x-box you have to realise that while you may have worked hard for yours, the person who stole theirs is also putting in an effort - in that if they get caught they will get fucked up.

Yeah great, i can really appreciate all that effort that goes into not being caught in the amount of minutes it takes to steal an x-box i put tens of hours effort into earning the money for.

 

[anna!]

I just don't think it's okay to steal. Someone always loses out. If it's a big corporation losing out, IMO that doesn't make it any more excusable than if it's the little old lady down the street. Tax fraud, car jacking, shoplifting - in my book, none of it is okay. I would have no hesitation dobbing on someone who was shoplifting, and if someone did the same to me, it would serve me right. I am not above the law, or above anyone else who works for their money, and I haven't got any more right to just take anything I want than they do.

The completely off-tangent other thing I was thinking about was the affect this sort of behaviour has on shoplifters' (burglars, carders..) value of money. I really do think it's important to understand that things cost X dollars, you have to work for Y number of hours to earn enough money to buy it, etc. If someone is allowed to steal whatever they need, why would they ever need to learn the consequences of "living within your means" or "a salary"? Just stand by and watch them free load off of life? What a load of crap.

 

[Raz]

I never said stealing was right... I just don't think it's our god given duty to *dob* on others when it's someone stealing from a store. To be perfectly honest I don't like confrontation at all, and the last time I got confrontation at work I had some psychopath threaten to smash my head into a case window.

I wonder how you can all sleep at night??

BTW we aren't talking about someone stealing a handbag or a wallet off someone, we're talking about people stealing from large department stores. These places all have security and authorised staff to handle theft problems, they should really be the ones watching the customers.. not the customers watching the thieves.

pekkie, forgive me if I misunderstood what you're saying here, let me know if I did and I'll edit accordingly....

But it made me think of something....if you're the kind of person who wouldn't report someone shoplifting, that's your choice. It's certainly not your job to report them, and if you can live with yourself then I can disagree with your attitude as much as I like, but essentially it's your life.

What I am not at all getting in this thread is this attitude which is coming across where people who would report the shoplifter are being called dobbers and generally being harassed for their choice. They're assisting the law for fuck's sake! If your moral code doesn't tell you to help stop someone being ripped off, more power to you...but where the fuck do people get off implying and downright stating that there's something wrong with the people who would actually make every effort to help the store, and to obey the law?

Or to put it another way....it's my choice to use recreational drugs. But I'm well aware it's illegal and if someone did dob me in for it to the cops I would be well pissed off at them, but once I'd calmed down I'd pretty quickly realise they hadn't actually done anything wrong...it's something I'd just have to grin and bear because in the end I'm the one who has broken the law and I'm the one who takes the risk in doing that...it's not their responsibility to turn a blind eye to me doing it (as much as I would appreciate it if they did)...

 

[eze451]

do u all watch the commercials on tv shows u have on tape then? advertisers are paying big dollars to get their ads on tv, and you taping shows and fast forwarding through the ads is technically illegal.... surely if u believe in the law, no matter how silly some of them are, you follow it to the letter?

 

[Miss Peks]

Raz: You have a very valid point there. One part of me wants to agree with you, but I couldn't do it.

Just to set the record straight if someone dobbed on me for shoplifting or even drugs then I would deal with it because I would know that I've done the wrong thing. However this isn't likely to happen because I don't shoplift, and I have too much to lose to do that anyway.

Secondly I personally couldn't live with myself for being responsible for helping someone get a criminal record for such a relatively minor thing. YES I know that they've done the wrong thing and YES they probably deserve what they get some of the time, but it's just something I couldn't do, not for seeing someone steal something minor anyway. I really don't believe the general public should be responsible for alerting the staff towards shoplifters. If you have a large business then you can't afford not to have the adequate security required for the store. It's just plain business sense. If I did see someone going into all of the registers and stealing money however then you can bet your life that I would dob that person in. Stealing large amounts of money and getting into the cash registers is totally different again to stealing something small.

BTW I have been harassed at work by shoplifters. It's not my job to dob them in, and we have since been told to just make a security call. One guy actually threatened me when I caught him eating something, and that time I wasn't even going to dob him in, just trying to make him pay that's all.

 

[Cactii]

Being a shop owner id have to say rat him in, theres nothing worse than looking around and noticing things missing that you know u havent sold, regardless of what the profit margin is (mind you mark up is usually directly related to overhead costs, if you've ever wondered why prices in chapel street are so high check the shops rent bill).

And for people to just see it and let it happen is disgusting, i hope you are the ones suffering most when prices go even higher, it wont affect thieves much as they never intend to purchase.

Have some decency, shop owners are just normal people trying to make a living, im sure youd hate it if u got robbed and your neighbours said nothing even though they saw the culprit.

 

[Miss Peks]

^^I wasn't talking about the little shops that run along Chapel St. I was talking about the big retail chains that operate all throughout the country. If it was some little shop then I probably would tell someone despite the fact that I'd feel guilty about it. Seeing though I've had family run small businesses I know how hard it is to make any money off them, and I DO geninely feel sorry for the shopowners!!

You cannot compare house robberies to shoplifting in large department stores. The difference being that in the house robbery most people cannot afford to hire a security guard or two to stand around their property 24 hours, seven days a week.8) In the case of a shoplifter in a department store then they SHOULD be hiring security staff and loss prevention to monitor the store whilst it's open.

 

[Deformed_Neuron]

^^^ no, i don't. companies are in the business to make money (obviously), so there's no way that they would reduce prices; the demand is still there, and thus people will continue to buy things at the price they stand at (unless it seems exorbitant for some other reason). there's no way that most companies would make a general policy of reducing prices if things were stolen less. it's bad business sense.

Yeah, sorry... I'll have to butt in right there. That's not entirely true what you say. If you were a stock-owner, you would understand that the CEO, of known corporation(s) have been known to *promise* their *potential* "Investors"... more of an "investment" if they somehow lowered theft-rate. Actually, a few "investors" are usually welcome to put forth a "strategical-word" on how to solve this problem.

Sorry to be anal. I didn't mean to come across to be... I just thought I'd clear that up for ye.

 

[Bent]

Originally posted by eze451 secondly, we arent talking about a friends store..... no shit if someone took something from a store my mate owned i would get in their face about it.... but we are talking about an absolute stranger.... 2 totally different things.... do u treat strangers exactly the same way u treat your friends? i highly doubt it [/B]

No worries, as I said earlier, if I ever happen to walk past your house or car whilst its getting robbed, I'm be sure to keep on walking, as you're a stranger to me.

Originally posted by lostpunk5545
It's not their size and ability to generate a profit that makes it ok to steal from corporations. It is their bad ethics in creating an entire of class of people who will have to work for the rest of their lives in an effort to own the roof over their heads. It is their ethics that result in this rape the world philosophy in which profit is more important than people, animals, and the environment. It is their ethics that result in lifetime employees being fired to maximise profit for the shareholders.

That's one of the stupidest fucking things I've ever read, and I've read some pretty stupid comments. What would you prefer? That people didn't have to work to put a roof over their head?

Why does the number of employees automatically make them evil? I know plenty of small business operators that fuck their staff over a hell of a lot more than the big corporations can.

 

[eze451]

No worries, as I said earlier, if I ever happen to walk past your house or car whilst its getting robbed, I'm be sure to keep on walking, as you're a stranger to me.

fine by me, i dont want or need the help of strangers..... im into treating people how i would be treated, and just like i wouldnt want to be dobbed in by a stranger for shoplifting, i in turn wouldnt dob a stranger in for the same thing