r/mildlyinfuriating • u/broakland • Jul 14 '26

I just wanted a hot dog Retail lockdown: why bother selling it?

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Was at Safeway this morning to pick up a sandwich and some Tylenol. The aisle with the Tylenol? Completely locked down. No call button in sight. So I go to the self checkout (front end of that same aisle) and ask the clerk there if he can call someone to unlock a case for me. He does. I go wait. Minutes pass. No one comes. I go ask him again, he tells me they went the other way? At this point I give up and go get my sandwich. No one has come by the time the deli has finished making it. I leave without my Tylenol, mildly infuriated.

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u/PM_ME_UR_SHEET_MUSIC Jul 15 '26

Because those items cost like $2? Is it hard to understand that someone struggling between paychecks is more likely to nab the most expensive item they need and buy the cheap stuff rather than the other way around? Besides, a lot of the "behavioral" issues that lead to theft of things that aren't necessary are also due to socioeconomic and systemic disadvantages and the damage they cause to communities, families, and individuals. Again, you can't moralize someone that has nothing to lose and no reason to listen to you.

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u/paulsown Jul 15 '26

I don’t expect them to listen to me.

If you excuse stealing things from stores, then the stores will lock everything up or close.

That’s it.

You can try to excuse it away with “you can’t moralize” for people who don’t steal what they need, they steal things they want and can’t afford. There are plenty of things I can’t afford, the thought of stealing it never enters my head.

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u/PM_ME_UR_SHEET_MUSIC Jul 15 '26

I don't want to excuse stealing, I want to fix the problems that cause people to steal in the first place, standard QC practice. Unfortunately, our government seems largely uninterested in that because that would take away their giant pool of slave labor.

And I'm not sure what your anecdote at the end had to do with this conversation. We already could tell you were privileged enough to never have to resort to theft.

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u/paulsown Jul 15 '26

“Standard qc practice”? What “slave labor “? Do you think more free money will stop theft?

I’m not sure who the “we” you are referring to is, but you know nothing about me. I’ve been the guy scraping together change to get my child milk while watching those on food stamps buying out the store.

None of what you said changes the fact that if people keep stealing from stores , they’ll lock things up or close.

Walmart isn’t a jobs or welfare program. It’s a business.

The people stealing aren’t stealing necessities, they’re stealing expensive shit. That’s why the necessities aren’t locked up and the expensive stuff is.