Shoplifting isn't necessarily wrong
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With the intention of not incriminating myself, I won’t regale you with any personal experiences of shoplifting, but I have seen many a person swipe a couple of groceries or stuff clothes into deep pockets. We’ve been taught all throughout our lives that stealing is wrong. I mean, the Eighth Commandment states, “Thou shalt not steal,” and in New York, shoplifting is classified as a misdemeanor which can carry a hefty fine. So shoplifting is wrong, right?
You could probably tell how I feel about shoplifting by the headline of this article. Shoplifting is a crime in name only, like how hopping a turnstile and jaywalking are crimes. They’re technically crimes, but that shouldn’t stop anyone from doing it. There are many reasons that people shoplift: maybe you’re a kleptomaniac who can’t control your urges, maybe you get a thrill from it or maybe it’s just the most convenient thing to do.
Firstly, we must identify what shoplifting is and how widespread it is. I define shoplifting as discreetly taking a product that you plan to use from a store without paying for it. According to Capital One Shopping, over 9% of the US population, or over 29 million Americans, are shoplifters – so you’ll be in large company.
When you research shoplifting statistics and articles, you’ll find that most businesses conflate the petty and mostly non-confrontational crime of shoplifting with more serious and brazen crimes like violent smash-and-grabs and organized threats. They all get combined into the catch-all term of “organized retail crime.” Retailers have a vested interest in drumming up moral panic about shoplifting to pressure lawmakers into enforcing harsher punishments and increased surveillance as well as justifying unpopular policies like locking up deodorant and toothpaste as a way to “deter shoplifters.” The National Retail Federation estimated that only 0.07% of total sales are lost due to the broad crime of “organized retail theft” – hardly a drop in the bucket.
Shoplifting correlates heavily with age. The Office of Justice Programs found that about 67% of shoplifters are under the age of 30 with about 32% of those being teenagers or younger. I’m sure you’ve seen many of your peers shoplift, and I want you to ask yourselves, how many times have these incidents become violent?
An obvious justification for shoplifting is financial hardship that prevents a person from being unable to afford groceries. We often think about shoplifting as a personal trouble, a failing in an individual’s morality that allows them to shoplift. We don’t evaluate the social institutions that make basic needs inaccessible for many people. One of the most shoplifted goods is baby formula, and it paints a grim picture that such an essential product is so expensive and so scarce that people have to resort to stealing it.
So, if you do have the money to buy the goods you need, should you still shoplift? Well, with how unfriendly superstores have become for the consumer, that answer becomes a bit more complicated. Inflation has caused normally affordable items to become overpriced, causing a strain on the consumer. Pair that with understaffed stores that result in workers having too many responsibilities to effectively help customers. And oh, the self-checkout lines – don’t get me started on the self-checkout lines! I mean, they’re practically begging you to shoplift. The only security is an inattentive teenage cashier checking their phone to see when their shift finally ends.
But not all shoplifting is created equal. The right and wrong of shoplifting doesn’t come from what you’re stealing or how much you’re stealing but who you’re stealing from. You shouldn’t be shoplifting from your local markets and small businesses that are just trying to make a living. But the mega-franchises and superstores are fair game. These companies don’t care about you, only your pockets, so why should you care about their profit margins?
