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A subreddit dedicated to busting shoplifters

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Re: A subreddit dedicated to busting shoplifters

#131

Post by feet »

josephcsible wrote: post #112
slg wrote: post #26

>“That’s a huge adrenaline rush,” he says. “I think that’s a major factor in why people are in this field.” This should be a huge red flag that should preclude someone from working in the industry. As Dan says later in the article: >“They’re more concerned with punishing and catching, and they see asset protection as a game,” adds Dan, who requested that Input give him an alias. “I don’t think it’s healthy to have th…

You shouldn't have a job because you enjoy doing exactly what the job needs you to do, and so may start overdoing it?

Overdoing it means you're doing your job badly, so yea that's exactly it

Re: A subreddit dedicated to busting shoplifters

#132

Post by 0des »

ilaksh wrote: post #69
plasticchris wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back when I ran a checkout register my manager was super clear that I should give anyone whatever they wanted so long as I reported it after the fact, and that my safety was more important than any items in the store. My uncle even got fired for running down a shoplifter, the policy around here was very clear - let the cops handle it.

Do the cops do anything though?

you mean does State Farm do anything?

Re: A subreddit dedicated to busting shoplifters

#133

Post by xboxnolifes »

walrus01 wrote: post #14
josephcsible wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who expects that? Don't most retailers explicitly tell their employees not to try to stop shoplifters?

Yes, indeed they do put that in writing in their employee documentation, for their legal protection, and then the actual floor managers tell them to do the opposite verbally.

Nobody I know who has worked retail has ever told stories (and they all have tons of stories to tell) about their managers expecting them to stop shoplifters. They do, however, talk about how common shoplifting is and how their managers just tell them to either do nothing or to contact whatever the local security is for their store.

Re: A subreddit dedicated to busting shoplifters

#134

Post by seanmcdirmid »

feet wrote: post #128
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> at their lowest point in our society and not let them have comforts such as alcohol that the rich enjoy on a daily basis. A lot of them are in the position they are in now due to drugs and booze. Let's not conflate those homeless for economic reasons with the ones that just burned all their bridges via substance abuse. > absolutely fucking horrible compared to what most experience in the US and other OECD nations I…

>A lot of them are in the position they are in now due to drugs and booze Quite simply this is false. Mental health issues generally lead to addiction, in nearly all cases its a dual diagnosis situation with mental health issues and substance abuse which is usually due to the mental health issues. These people are just trying to cope with their daily existence and all the rich people are constantly shitting on them,…

There are many paths to addiction for sure. But a medical condition isn't the only path, or even the common one; just making a lot of bad choices can get you there also.

However once they get there, they have little desire to not be there. How can you get someone off drugs if they aren't interested in getting off drugs? And not only that, decriminalization has made it very easy to get drugs and has made your city the go to place in the region if you want to do drugs? Even assuming all of the addicts deserve to be cured, how do you do that without cooperation? We can spend tons of money on them for sure, but it seems just be a pork and jobs program for a few organizations rather than doing anything that is effective.

Re: A subreddit dedicated to busting shoplifters

#135

Post by slg »

pseudo0 wrote: post #123
slg wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is when their personal goals conflict with both the business's and society's goals. Think of it like a manager who announces "I love bossing people around, that is why I'm in the industry." Sure, that is part of the job, a person in that role shouldn't have an issue with it, but someone who says that is the reason they are doing the job is directly telling you they are unfit for the job.

The business's goal is to minimize theft of their products. Society's goal is to prevent theft. It seems like those goals are in alignment with someone in loss prevention who enjoys the thrill of successfully catching shoplifters. I don't see this as any different from people who work red team in infosec and get a thrill from getting root on a box, or those who are blue team and the highlight of their week is catchin…

>The business's goal is to minimize theft of their products. Society's goal is to prevent theft. It seems like those goals are in alignment with someone in loss prevention who enjoys the thrill of successfully catching shoplifters.

"Minimizing theft" is not the same thing as "catching shoplifters". An ideal security job from the perspective of the business/society is boring. An ideal security job from the perspective of an adrenaline seeker is exciting. This conflicting incentives can lead to that security person creating excitement in situations where none should exist.

Re: A subreddit dedicated to busting shoplifters

#138

Post by feet »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #134
feet wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>A lot of them are in the position they are in now due to drugs and booze Quite simply this is false. Mental health issues generally lead to addiction, in nearly all cases its a dual diagnosis situation with mental health issues and substance abuse which is usually due to the mental health issues. These people are just trying to cope with their daily existence and all the rich people are constantly shitting on them,…

There are many paths to addiction for sure. But a medical condition isn't the only path, or even the common one; just making a lot of bad choices can get you there also. However once they get there, they have little desire to not be there. How can you get someone off drugs if they aren't interested in getting off drugs? And not only that, decriminalization has made it very easy to get drugs and has made your city the…

Decriminalization and full legalization is what we need to combat the drug problem. Essentially all of the harm comes from prohibition not the drugs themselves, I'm saying this as a neuropharmacologist. That's one of the super shitty policies that we love in the US

Re: A subreddit dedicated to busting shoplifters

#139

Post by josephcsible »

feet wrote: post #131
josephcsible wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You shouldn't have a job because you enjoy doing exactly what the job needs you to do, and so may start overdoing it?

Overdoing it means you're doing your job badly, so yea that's exactly it

I agree that overdoing it is bad. I disagree that people shouldn't have jobs they enjoy just because you think that might make them overdo it.

Re: A subreddit dedicated to busting shoplifters

#140

Post by atommclain »

ohCh6zos wrote: post #92
yadaeno wrote: post #32

> “A LOT of people are like, ‘How, MORALLY, can you do this job?" I only know of one or two people in my entire life that think that preventing theft immoral. "A LOT" is there to mislead readers into thinking there is a moral dilemma around loss prevention. There is no moral dilemma. Not stealing is the most basic rule of society.

Theft not only takes resources away from the person stolen from, but increases costs across society as security has to be implemented. It is a negative externality. I don’t understand the other side as presented.

Here is a video essay that argues from the other side with little to no equivocation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGB7QnOZj3g
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