insert-epic-blogger-name-here:
The company chooses to penalize the workers.
Instead of turning your hatred towards people just trying to survive the eternal crisis that is capitalism, turn that hatred where it needs to go–towards the company–and get organized.
Our business is entirely member/staff owned and – hold onto your hats folks – we don’t get in trouble when people shoplift. I’ve locked eyes with shoplifters and gave them The Look because I don’t want them to get caught. Not only that but I’ve just given expired product away to my regulars if I know they like the item, which is, on paper, literally no different from shoplifting because we make no money on the item. They’re both loss. It’s all arbitrary, none of this shit is real whatsoever and anon – you are substituting a cowardly fear response for the necessary action.
Friendly reminder that the best response to shoplifting is saying nothing
The best response to shoplifting is collective action sufficient to ensure no one ever feels a need to shoplift in order to meet the basic needs of a modern life.
Until then, keeping your mouth shut will have to do.
& in most large stores stock is calculated about once a year and shoplifting losses are a standard calculated loss so shoplifting has zero consequences for workers. That whole ‘shoplifting gets people fired’ shit is prime bullshit that is true in only a handful of cases and it’s just getting repeated over and over again as if it is universal truth to turn people into snitches. Fuck that shit.
A lot of shoplifting tumblrs (which tumblr periodically cracks down on with varied success) are about stealing non-necessities, usually expensive make up and clothes. Whether or not shoplifting costs people their jobs is something I’m not equipped to speak on, but there is a world of difference between ‘I need to steal this food so I won’t die/can feed my family’ and ‘if I steal this designer handbag my followers are going to think I’m fucking cool!’ and that nuance is being completely ignored here. Not everyone who shoplifts is poor and not everything people take is actually a thing they need.
Source: lifting tumblrs, I have worked in retail, and every year people steal handcrafted jewelry/organic mead, jam and soap/carvings from my local Art In The Park from small vendors at frankly ridiculous rates.
I’d encourage people to steal from large chains wherever possible and to consider that theft is consumption, so buying a phone or stealing a phone will have a roughly equal impact on the mining of minerals and shit like that. There’s no ethical connsumption under capitalism, but if you do care about what you consume, then consider what you steal.
But actually, I think
stealing non-necessities
is fine. You don’t have to restrict yourself to survival shoplifting at all.
The whole point is that stores are not remotely entitled to these goods that were produced by the workers. Everthing has been stolen from the proletariat. Every damn day of our life we work maybe an hour for our own paycheck and then 7+ hours for their profits. Everything they have, their fancy houses and cars, their private jets, their millions, it’s ALL stolen from us.
We are being robbed by the rich every day of our lives. So, yeah, we can take some shit back. Those sneakers or that bag aren’t going to leave a scratch on the profits that stores and producers make. And even if they did, why should we care that the rich have a little less profit from the exploitation of our labor?
Take those luxury products that you want. Improve your quality of life. Just be careful and don’t get caught. Follow those lifting Tumblrs for good advice on how to shoplift safely or better yet: exchange local information with other shoplifters on where and how to steal shit without getting caught.
(Oh, and don’t start a public lifting blog unless you’re good at hiding your identity. The cops have internet too. Show your cool new stuff to your friends offline or get some damn good identity protection set up.)
QueerAnarchism 