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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

#621

Post by sbarre »

solar-mariner wrote: post #459
internetter wrote: post #398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a nonsensical argument. Deodorant is a consumable good. In scenarios like this, 40$ for 4 == 10$ for 1, because you consume it at a steady rate, and what you don't buy now you will pay for later

Deodorant has a shelf life. If you stock too many, some go bad before you get to use them.

Do you know what that is? I typically buy 4-5 sticks at a time when my local pharmacy has a sale on the one I like, so I buy deodorant like once a year.

Never noticed any problems with them.

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

#622

Post by paulgb »

concordDance wrote: post #577
jakelazaroff wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, that’s a big part of the problem. By far the most common lawbreakers I see in my day-to-day are cops committing traffic infractions. You can tell you’re by a police station solely by how impassable the sidewalk becomes for pedestrians. There was an incident recently in which someone removed an obstruction from a license plate. The police ignored the illegally obscured plate but arrested the person clearing it fo…

You should never base opinions off single instances you see a news story of. Both because of the misleading nature of such stories in terms of the information they include or miss out and because single cherry picked instances are not representative.

I agree with the general principle of that, but in this case I do think it represents a broader trend. Walking around NYC, if I see an intentionally obfuscated plate, nine times out of ten it has a police placard in the dashboard.

It’s such a familiar problem to locals that the TV show Billions had an arc where Chuck illicitly obtained a placard and was trying to trade favors for it, but couldn’t because everyone he needed favors from already had one.

I have a scar on my hip because I had to bike on a slippery surface to avoid an NYPD car obstructing a bike lane and had my rear tire slip out in the rain. So this isn’t just aesthetic for me.

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

#623

Post by branon »

midasuni wrote: post #563
nine_k wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Buying a deodorant? Please show your biometric government ID.

In the U.K. you have to pay a premium not to use your corporate ID card. Tesco for example will charge a 20% markup on lunch for privacy.

Interesting, got more info? Which corporations provide the ID card? Are retailers legally obligated to ask for it? Do retailers get fined by the gov't for every non-ID'd transaction?

This _could_ be taken to mean that Tesco employees get a 20% discount if they flash their Tesco ID card, which sounds completely normal to my American self.

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

#624

Post by xwdv »

z9znz wrote: post #378
schrectacular wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think GP was looking for "pediatrician" or "oncologist".

You either have phenomenal comedic deadpan skill, or you didn't notice the most interesting parts of the parent's comment.

Or possibly, not everyone thinks the same as you.

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

#625

Post by sbarre »

paul7986 wrote: post #528
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think it's very fair to have differing attitudes/moral thresholds for an impoverished mother shoplifting a week's worth of baby formula versus "a couple in Alabama [which] pled guilty to shifting $300,000-worth of stolen baby formula on eBay". I’ve also noticed a weird tendency to downplay theft lately, either through projecting a theoretical moral justification on to the shoplifter or by insinuating that retail…

Allowing those to shoplift / turn a blind eye to it is a breakdown of society! What are the good reasons that led to and allows this?

Letting people starve or be homeless is also a breakdown of society.

One is harm to capitalism, property and profit, one is harm to neighbours and fellow humans,.

Which one is worse, knowing you can't solve it all?

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

#626

Post by danielheath »

prottog wrote: post #619
mschuster91 wrote: post #592

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I’ve also noticed a weird tendency to downplay theft lately, either through projecting a theoretical moral justification on to the shoplifter or by insinuating that retail stores are evil corporations and therefore deserve no sympathy. Well... it's not that weird. The big chain stores like Walmart ruthlessly exploit their workers to the point of them being forced to apply for food stamps [1], while the owner class…

> forcing people to steal to survive I really don't think these people are choosing between stealing and starving.

According to the [USDA](https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/fo...), nearly 10% of americans have missed meals in the past year because they did not have enough food.

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

#627

Post by public_defender »

crackercrews wrote: post #530
public_defender wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It clearly is true. I can actually watch it happen. You can too, if you go to arraignments in NYC. The line ADAs have no discretion to dismiss petit larceny (shoplifting) at arraignment. They need supervisor approval. There are other cases like driving under suspension (VTL 511 -- mentioned in GP) where they do have this discretion. There is a reason for the difference, which is that petit larceny is a priority. Also…

Aren't most shoplifters not even caught? Police don't investigate because the city won't prosecute. And shops won't report because police won't investigate. Maybe what you say is true about arraignments. But that assumes that someone has been reported, investigated, and caught.

> Aren't most shoplifters not even caught?

Maybe? I would tend to believe that but it seems impossible to know. I think companies tend to argue something like shrinkage == theft and theft > arrests, but that's pretty suspect since there are many other ways that inventory goes missing.

As to your other point, I think it's a myth that people lose faith in governmental administration and fail to report crime in this context. Maybe that happens with things like sexual violence, but not here where property owners have every economic reason to report theft without considering police availability or effectiveness.

I agree that police don't investigate crime like this (in cities), but in the corporate context they don't need to. This field is dominated by private investigation and security. People are detained with dubious legality by the "loss prevention" employee until police show up, then the store hands over 4k video of the person stuffing baby formula in their pants and walking out of the store.

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

#628

Post by afiori »

mschuster91 wrote: post #594
monero-xmr wrote: post #539

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s morally wrong to steal, and has been since the beginning of civilization. “Though shalt not steal” - Ten Commandments “If a man has stolen goods from a temple, or house, he shall be put to death; and he that has received the stolen property from him shall be put to death.” - Code of Hammurabi Private property is the foundation of civilization and pretending theft doesn’t matter undermines the basis of our world.…

And yet, even the Bible has provisions for poor people [1]: > “If you go into your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes, as many as you wish, but you shall not put any in your bag. 25 If you go into your neighbor’s standing grain, you may pluck the ears with your hand, but you shall not put a sickle to your neighbor’s standing grain. [1] https://www.bibleserver.com/ESV/Deuteronomy23%3A25

I feel like this particular verse would not support reselling 300k worth of stolen baby formula on ebay.

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

#629

Post by _xnmw »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #297
axutio wrote: post #161

Most of the comments here are ignoring the difference between regular old shoplifting and the trend driving the increase discussed in the article, which they're referring to as "organized retail crime". I think it's very fair to have differing attitudes/moral thresholds for an impoverished mother shoplifting a week's worth of baby formula versus "a couple in Alabama [which] pled guilty to shifting $300,000-worth of s…

> I think it's very fair to have differing attitudes/moral thresholds for an impoverished mother shoplifting a week's worth of baby formula versus "a couple in Alabama [which] pled guilty to shifting $300,000-worth of stolen baby formula on eBay". I’ve also noticed a weird tendency to downplay theft lately, either through projecting a theoretical moral justification on to the shoplifter or by insinuating that retail…

> I’ve also noticed a weird tendency to downplay theft lately.

Happened before in history. See the Russian Revolution and the creation of the Soviet Union. Widespread moral justification for theft of private property on class-based "social justice" arguments. It's even happening right here in this HN thread, people justifying stealing.

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

#630

Post by _xnmw »

fosk wrote: post #587
partiallypro wrote: post #179

This is such a big nationwide problem that Target actually mentioned it during their earnings report (this is stated in the article.) Some states/cities have made it near impossible to prosecute these people, so the risk/reward is very favorable to stealing and reselling. Some stores have even closed down in certain areas because of it. When we talk about "food deserts" in some cities, it could one day be we have mas…

This is mostly a function of policies that explicitly allow and tolerate this sort of behavior as a sort of “pay back” and “release valve” for the poor, addicts or generally speaking under represented social classes. As the wage gap and opportunity gap widens in the US, allowing shoplifting is actually an intentional release valve that is being tolerated and even outright legally permitted (California Prop 47), becau…

What you are saying is literally insane.
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