If you see someone shoplifting... No you didn't.
this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2026
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Shoplifting is a drop in the bucket compared to wage theft. Every one of these articles that doesn't mention wage theft is a new reason to not trust the publication.
For me it's just so obvious that if you bring up theft you should talk about all theft and the context of theft especially if the whole articles about economic impact of theft. Wage theft doesn't sell advertisements I guess.
Yeah this is a perfectly legitimate tactic in the no-holds-barred class war that rages on. Theft is a significant sum, so I did some quick googling.
Estimated retail industry wages annually (US): 1.3T
Estimated shoplifting loss by retailers annually (US): 46B
That’s 3.5% of wages paid. If you assume wages are about 50% of what they should be, I’d say your “drop in the bucket” characterization is pretty much correct.
can you explain more in detail about wage theft?
Howdy, Wage theft is the idea that employers keep a lot of money they should rightfully giving to employees. This can be seen in small things that are often presented as common place, and big things that many employees don't have the time or resources to seek compensation for. One example is rounding policies on clocks. I used to work at a large retail chain that would round our times down to the nearest 15 minute mark. So if you worked until 4:14 and clocked out, you would only get paid as though you had worked until 4:00. Something one of my siblings experienced at a different workplace was a manager telling her she needed to stay until the next person showed up since said sibling did not have keys to secure the building and the manager needed to leave early. She agreed, expecting to be paid for her overtime. She never was, despite lodging a formal complaint with payroll and HR. Hope this helps! Cheers.
I’ve seen hourly employees converted to salaried as if that’s some kind of promotion for them, but when you do the math they are actually paid less and suddenly they are asked to work all kinds of extended hours with no tracking. What would you call this?
If you see someone stealing groceries or basic hygiene products, you have not seen anything.
I honestly don't care what they are stealing, it isn't my problem. The Walton Family steal my money in taxes to feed their employees. If someone takes a TV or video game back on occasion, I'm not saying a word. They're worth a combined 520 billion by the way.
So I don’t mean to shoplift, but since most big box stores barely have any employees working at them anymore and I have to do my own checkout, well, I’m sure that I sometimes forget to scan some things.
I accidentally scan all my items as bananas, because their system is so confusing
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They act like “shoplifting is up” is some mystery of human nature and not literally the free market doing exactly what it’s designed to do. Squeeze wages, jack prices, gut every safety net you can find, then act shocked pikachu face when people start taking matters into their own hands. This ain’t a morality crisis it’s a pricing signal. Crime stats are just capitalism’s blooper reel at this point.
No one has ever shoplifted food... ever.
I shoplift groceries constantly. At least once a week. One or two hundred dollars worth of stuff at a time. Sometimes more. I've mentioned it to my therapist but i don't think he grasped how much i was moving.
I just fill a cart and walk out. I don't think it's unreasonable stuff. Regular, wholesome food. No steaks or prime rib, etc. I don't hit the same places that much so if they're building a case against me it'd be hard to follow without colluding with other stores. But i have little choice. I have little regret but i know it's risky. The people who depend on me need to eat.
But God Damn is it easy.
I'm absolutely positive I saw you pay at the self-checkout. The receipt printer must not have worked, and the employee managing the self checkout was too busy handling the other 5 checkout lanes to help you.
I saw 'em last week, too. They went through a regular lane that time, I remember talking to them about the world cup. They forgot their receipt, though, and by the time I got out to the parking lot with it they were already gone.
change up your appearance, places like target will record you, let you build up enough in stolen goods it becomes a felony then bust you, AI is giving them a way to audit multiple locations and build up dossiers
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weird, seems like there's an easy way to avoid most of this - just sell things are fair prices
That's just it, these companies are so detached from reality that they think they have fair prices. That's why they're all surprised_pikachu_face.png when shoplifting happens.
I've never seen it. Nope. I see nothing.
If I don't have money to buy food there is no fucking way I'm going to starve to death. If I have to steal to feed myself then so be it. I'll do my best and take from the big corps but if I'm in the middle of no-where I'll kick your door down just to get some food. Survival and rational thinking take two different paths.
Imagine how much we would progress if everyone shoplifted for a week as protest.
Fuck CBS.
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