Earlier quoted context omitted.
Prices are based on what the market will bare. In 2004 I spent part of my honeymoon in London. At a pub, I paid £10.95 for a burger. At the time it was ~$2 to £1, so it was effectively a $20 burger. My friends thought I was full of it when I said I paid $20 for a burger.
Paid $20 for a burrito and a coke in a dive taqueria in the SF mission. Just a few years ago that would have been under $10. Curious if they give a discount to the local Latino population who's average income is fairly low.
Why it’s hard to buy deodorant in Manhattan
431–440 of 763 posts
Re: Why it’s hard to buy deodorant in Manhattan
#432Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am fairly sure that trafficking in stolen goods is only a crime if the person knew, or if a reasonable person should have known, that the goods were stolen.
And many people at Amazon surely do know that they sell stolen goods but decide to do nothing about it
I don't know if it's a crime if it's just "somewhere we must be buying stolen goods, but we don't know where." I'm not a lawyer but I think knowing that the specific item you bought/sold was stolen would look differently in court than just having some vague knowledge there must be stolen stuff somewhere in the supply chain.
Re: Why it’s hard to buy deodorant in Manhattan
#433Earlier quoted context omitted.
What punishment do you suggest then? The unacceptable answer is none.
The fact that the only solution you see is "punishment" is exactly the problem. No reasonable punishment will stop these crimes. Period. And unreasonable punishments, like locking a human in a cage without rehabilitation for years of their life, only make the problem worse and cost us a ridiculous amount of money (and humanity). So maybe take a step back, or five, and think about the causes of petty crimes and why th…
Read The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment by CS Lewis [1].
The other position is that humans need to be cured of their problems. At which point the "humanitarians" who arbitrarily decide these things, basically will endlessly torture people into conformance. They medicalize justice. With the permission of their own conscience, they will cure people of things they may not even regard as a state of disease. Of course these "diseases" are a subjective matter. What some people regard as unpleasant ways to live, others don't.
[1]: http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/ResJud/1954/30.pdf
Re: Why it’s hard to buy deodorant in Manhattan
#434Drop a bag of slime on them as they exit? Make the floor slippery as they try to run out? There are smart people working at target; they need to be less shy about protecting their store, which is an American treasure
Re: Why it’s hard to buy deodorant in Manhattan
#435Earlier quoted context omitted.
The first result on Amazon searching “men’s deodorant” is 4 for $15.66 [0] so less than $4 per stick. These are about $10 in a bodega or cvs in Manhattan. [0] Dove Men+Care Antiperspirant Deodorant With 72-hour sweat and odor protection Extra Fresh Antiperspirant for men formulated with vitamin E and Triple Action Moisturizer | 2.7 Ounce (Pack of 4) https://a.co/d/dR2J1B0
But then you have to buy 4... So not exactly an apples to apples comparison if you only want one.
Re: Why it’s hard to buy deodorant in Manhattan
#436Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why not? They’re a danger to society otherwise.
If a person steals some makeup from a drug store, what danger do you face? What exactly is the danger you feel you are in?
Look at things like food deserts for an example of why allowing high theft is bad. Crime is so normal in these areas that its not even viable to bring in food in exchange for money.
Re: Why it’s hard to buy deodorant in Manhattan
#437Earlier quoted context omitted.
To further underline your point, if the chain is (thief)→(amazon)→(end user) then the fence isn't "anyone with an Amazon" account: the fence is amazon .
Isn't the chain: (thief) -> (fence) -> (Amazon) -> (customer)? If a fence sells his wares in a bazaar, the bazaar is the fence? No, the fence is the fence the bazaar is the marketplace.
At least it's Amazon losing money then rather than Amazon benefiting from crime against competitors.
Re: Why it’s hard to buy deodorant in Manhattan
#438There's a simple solution to this: just leave, and take your taxable income with you. If a jurisdiction can't do a basic function of government, why the fuck would you want to perpetuate the administrative disease any further? Paying taxes to these jurisdictions is like enabling an abusive relationship
Re: Why it’s hard to buy deodorant in Manhattan
#439Earlier quoted context omitted.
There used to be a pretty active market in selling clearance stuff on Amazon and eBay.
Amazon knows that the deodorant it’s selling is not discontinued or clearance. It knows Old Spice isn’t giving some mom and pop a better wholesale deal than the world’s largest retailer either. There’s no legit reason for there to be “other sellers” for that product, or really most any product it itself sells.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/15/tech/cpsc-sues-amazon/index.h...
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/07/amazon-mails-postcards-to-se...
https://slate.com/technology/2021/12/amazon-listings-wrong-r...
Re: Why it’s hard to buy deodorant in Manhattan
#440Earlier quoted context omitted.
So you need military, not police?
One prevalent narrative in NYC is that there’s an epidemic of people being pushed onto the tracks. We need more police in the subway to prevent this from happening. I was in Singapore recently. Most people there take the subway. Yet no one gets pushed onto the tracks. Why is that? It has nothing to do with cops — you rarely see them on the subway there. Instead, they have a wall between the platform and the tracks. S…