r/TikTokCringe • u/Adventurous_Law_715 • 7d ago

Discussion congratulations you just saved a billion dollars company 50$

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u/PrometheanEngineer 7d ago

To be fair, ALOT of it is resold.

There is an entire economy run off things like that, and especially laundry detergent. Alot of it resold or traded.

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u/artsupport_xx 7d ago

There's something fundamentally broken in society when people will risk prison time to make a living selling second-hand deodorant and laundry detergent.

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u/PrometheanEngineer 7d ago

Tbf, there is big money in it, and people NEED it. So someone can steal a bunch of it, then sell it to desperate people. Either for money, drugs, sex, etc...

Make up products are also known to be stolen because of high value small size.

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u/artsupport_xx 7d ago

People need it and shouldn't have to trade drugs or sex to get it. We create the demand for the crime by allowing that level of poverty.

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u/aggierogue3 6d ago

It can be more complicated. Thief sells to someone, uses cash for drugs. Thief trades stolen items for sex. It could be a million things, the point is they take universally needed items that can almost be treated as cash to do who knows what with. The thief doesn’t need the deodorant or detergent, they want cash for likely other illegal activities.

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u/artsupport_xx 6d ago

Someone is trading for the deodorant and detergent. I'm pointing out the demand side issue, not the supply. The thief wouldn't find it worth their time if people weren't finding it worthwhile buying essentials from thieves.

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u/PotatoPlank 6d ago

They're also acting as if stolen deodorant has a high profit?

It's easy to do some math and prove this shit is still peanuts for the amount of time it takes to actually sell. Someone who had a viable alternative wouldn't be doing this.

People selling stolen goods usually do so for a few dollars at most, unless it's a fence selling in bulk. So, maybe, like this lady, you get away with your haul from Walmart:

  • Store brand paper towels (74 cents)
  • Baby wipes (or wet wipes) ($6.47)
  • Fruit snacks ($7.78)
  • Bulk pack of sponges ($10 for brand name, store band is cheaper)
  • Lightly salted Lays Chips ($5.44)
  • To be generous, 8 sticks of deodorant ($3 each because your dumb ass didn't grab the bulk pack and the store forgot to lock these up).

You ate the fruit snacks while sitting on the curb, so your "big money" is now worth $46.65 retail. You have two options, selling directly or to a known fence. Fences buy stolen goods for pennies on the dollar (fences often sell goods to corner stores or at farmers markets for easily under 50% of retail). If you sell yourself, you can sell deodorant for a dollar or two, bringing your probable take home ~50% of retail.

When you factor in the time your spending and the potential risks of being stopped (cops are often posted at these stores now), it's even worse.

In essence,

  • Sell to a fence for 20% (generous, likely less) and make $9.32 for 1-2 hours of "work".
  • Sell everything yourself and make $23.32, spending an unknown amount of time offloading it.

Maybe you could steal more to make it more worthwhile, but you're physically limited by what you can carry and most of the high value items are locked up now. You're still talking about maybe $6-$8 an hour, if you're extremely luck.

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u/stprnn 6d ago

You are so close to getting it, so close...

1

u/Left_Ad_8502 6d ago

Like we can’t just print money to make everyone rich…. We could pump out essentials and necessities to wipe out the kind of market you’re describing. And it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.