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Why it’s hard to buy deodorant in Manhattan

economist.com

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Re: Why it’s hard to buy deodorant in Manhattan

#181

Post by notch656a »

public_defender wrote: post #138
bsder wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It always amazes me that people somehow attribute solid executive criminal function to a bunch of people who can't actually keep a roof over their heads. The shoplifting "epidemic" has been due to organized gangs for quite a while as the increasing legality of marijuana is impacting their revenue streams.

Both can be true. Being the street-level operator for a crime gang isn't exactly a union job. The people doing the actual shoplifting are variously unhoused, mentally ill, substance dependent, and desperate. It kind of depresses me how people think it's Kurt Russell with an eye patch stealing Ensure from Walgreens.

It makes the emotional aspect of the public defender more palatable in certain cases if he imagines his clients might depend on shoplifting out of absolute necessity a bit more than may actually be the case.

Re: Why it’s hard to buy deodorant in Manhattan

#182

Post by gopher_space »

sokoloff wrote: post #79
jakelazaroff wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s one perspective. Another is that the truly greedy thing is to construct a society such that some people can’t afford basic necessities, and that inflicts far more suffering than people stealing what they need to live.

The struggle to survive is the starting condition in nature. That society doesn’t completely eradicate it (but only makes great strides in that direction) is not an indictment of society.

Society has the choice of eradicating it and simply chooses not to do so.

Re: Why it’s hard to buy deodorant in Manhattan

#183

Post by [deleted] »

ALittleLight wrote: post #165
nostromo wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blaming Amazon is misplaced. Blame the people stealing and the system that refuses to prosecute them.

But also blame Amazon. If you ran a store that repeatedly sold stolen goods do you think local police and prosecutors would ignore you? Trafficking in stolen property is a felony. That's true whether you definitely know it's stolen property or if you definitely should have known (recklessly trafficking). You, if you repeatedly did it out of your small business and ignored complaints, would face prison. Why does the l…

[deleted]

Re: Why it’s hard to buy deodorant in Manhattan

#184

Post by meanmrmustard92 »

Some speculated that prosecutors had gone soft on looting after the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020. But it is hard to see any such trend in the data: generally states with more shoplifting prosecute more shoplifters

The claim is about the time-series comparison, and the rebuttal is about the cross section comparison. Is the journalist in question stupid, gaslighting, or both?

Re: Why it’s hard to buy deodorant in Manhattan

#185

Post by c_hackett »

marmetio wrote: post #143
c_hackett wrote: post #133

As someone not from the US can anyone shed some light why deodorant and other personal care goods are so expensive in the US? The prices are so ludicrous compared to the UK that on my trip I had to take a photo as friends would have thought I was exaggerating when telling them! Take for example Dove Men+Care antiperspirant. In the US what is a rather compact can 3.8oz/107g was on the shelf at $9.55 (plus sales tax).…

You paid the "convenience tax". Big expensive city, prices to offset shoplifting, and you didn't know where to go for cheaper product. Otherwise, prices are about the same. I've seen the same expensive deodorant in Europe too.

I did not pay. It was more what was observed at multiple stores, chains and locations.

Re: Why it’s hard to buy deodorant in Manhattan

#186

Post by ryan_lane »

adventured wrote: post #155
teg4n_ wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

lmao so the parent post just made up their story? on the internet no less!?

I'd assume there was a miscommunication with the person that was working at the CVS store. She may have been talking about another store that her parents have the operating rights to or such.

No post body was provided.

Re: Why it’s hard to buy deodorant in Manhattan

#187

Post by ReptileMan »

jakelazaroff wrote: post #69
MichaelCollins wrote: post #33

> "The stores are insured bro, why do you care if people steal from them? It's not your problem maaan." This is why I care. Criminals degrade society and we all suffer for their greed.

That’s one perspective. Another is that the truly greedy thing is to construct a society such that some people can’t afford basic necessities, and that inflicts far more suffering than people stealing what they need to live.

Do you have any sources that determine what part of the organized shoplifters are Jean Valjeans ?

Re: Why it’s hard to buy deodorant in Manhattan

#188

Post by notch656a »

blululu wrote: post #170
nostromo wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blaming Amazon is misplaced. Blame the people stealing and the system that refuses to prosecute them.

Nope. In most states (CA for example) it is a felony to sell stolen goods when the amount exceeds a pretty modest threshold. If, as alleged in the parent comment, they are committing a crime on a large scale then the blame is very well placed. *of course this does not exonerate the original thieves, but as a matter of practicality it is going to be easier to hit a single large offender than a myriad of small ones.

mens rea

Re: Why it’s hard to buy deodorant in Manhattan

#189

Post by scythe »

jakelazaroff wrote: post #37
skymast wrote: post #23

Manhattan is getting the law enforcement it demanded.

Not really. Walk around the city and you see more cops than ever. The issue is that police don’t actually prevent crime. Putting more cops on the street is like trying to use water to extinguish a grease fire.

>The issue is that police don't actually prevent crime.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004723520...

https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmicfrs/media/police...

https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/666614

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0049089X1...

https://www.nber.org/system/files/chapters/c11849/c11849.pdf

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0032258X156127...

Re: Why it’s hard to buy deodorant in Manhattan

#190

Post by sokoloff »

rtpg wrote: post #130
LAC-Tech wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're constructing a strawman fantasy word where by people only do anti-social things because they need to live, thereby painting them as heoric, Robin Hood type figures. Here on planet earth however, some people are just anti-social and understand nothing except force. No amount of education or counselling or whatever else will change that.

Yes, people steal shit from stores and do a bunch of work shipping stuff through FBA because they are anti-social \s You think fencing happens because of anti-social behavior? Fencing _is_ work! The simplest explanation for why people steal and resell stuff is money. You do a thing, and at the end you have money in your pocket that you didn't do before. Not complicated!

Take the act of stealing and project it onto the {anti, neutral, pro}-social dimension. It’s clearly not pro-social; I think it’s easy to argue that it’s not neutral either.
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