Shops closing in my neighborhood

[NotHardUp1]

Assuming the $950 is cumulative (all items stolen from one place coming to a total of less than $950), then at least it will give criminals-to-be in school incentive to learn basic math skills! (So they can make sure they stay under $950 as they are doing their crime spree.)

"Carry the one" takes on a whole new meaning.

 

[NotHardUp1]

One of my neighbors was assaulted walking home from the nearby chemist. We're going to lose all our closest shops eventually. I hate having to use a car for every errand.

Sad.

The shop closings are a symptom of multiple changes, although I don't agree that online buying is one of them. People like to get out and go. The explosion of Starbucks wasn't because coffee or even caffeine is in some kind of renaissance, but because people, especially young people, want to get out and GO somewhere.

But, as many have posted here, the crime, including squatting and vagrancy, are lethal to attracting customers.

And to the fickleness of Gov. Newsome, and others in the metropolises, they have played with fire, and it is growing and will burn back in their direction. There has been all this blather about urban food deserts and similar rhetoric, all the while ignoring that they exist for lack of "water." When crime is eating all the profits of a store, it has no reason to stay. That includes shoplifting, mob theft raids, looting, vandalism, public defecation, drug addiction and street paraphenalia, street crime, and neighborhood deterioration that drives out the residents who have more disposable income.

My last visits to both Portland and Seattle, even though I had some good moments (like dining with you), were marred by the unreasonable prevalence of panhandlers. If they ARE society's burden, and that is a big IF, then it doesn't follow that panhandling should be invited on public spaces when those spaces depend upon the customers who are not there to act as the Salvation Army to fund vagrants. Poverty nor sloth are virtues.

 

[Dargelos]

So many problems can be alleviated with a UBI. If a universal basic income could be made to work, not easy to do but possible, what a boon that would be for local shopping. Give the rich a little more money and it vanishes into investments far away. Give the poor a little more money and they spend it in their local shops, supporting their local economy and saving their towns centres from turning into ghettoes. When UBI means that nobody has to starve, there is no longer any justification for anyone to beg. Petty crime rises when people have nothing left to lose, watch it fall when you give them something to live for.

 

[Latimer]

The Democratic mayor of Dallas, Eric Johnson, has announced he is changing his party registration to Republican:

"When my career in elected office ends in 2027 on the inauguration of my successor as mayor, I will leave office as a Republican. I realize this will come as a surprise to many,” Johnson wrote in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. “The future of America’s great urban centers depends on the willingness of the nation’s mayors to champion law and order and practice fiscal conservatism. Our cities desperately need the genuine commitment to these principles..."

‘American Cities Need Republicans’: Democratic Mayor of Dallas Switches Parties | National Review

‘Two of the 10 largest cities in America now have Republican Mayors & they are both in Texas,’ Governor Greg Abbott wrote on social media.

www.nationalreview.com

As the National Review article pointed out, Dallas saw a decrease in crime due to strong support of the police at the time when other cities saw an increase due to vilification of the police and decreasing law enforcement budget.

The response of Chicago's mayor, Brandon Johnson, to the closure of local groceries due to crime and taxes is not to clean up the city and make it a friendlier, easier place in which to do business, but to decide to create city-operated grocery stores. No doubt he sees this as a win for the overwhelmingly leftist public service unions who will see their dues-paying membership increase and a further boost in union funds for the Democratic Party.

 

[gsdx]

Some stores have seen shoplifting rise as a consequence of installing automatic self serve tills. These tills make shoplifting physicaly easier but also make crime more likely by dehumanising the store environment. Robotills, I hate them.

The first time I used a self-serve till was in a Shoppers Drug Mart. I followed the instructions, scanned all of my items, pressed the icon to pay by my debit card, packed my items, and went home only to discover that someone else's snacks for their evening movie viewing pleasure. It pissed me off that they were eating my potato chips (and whatever else was on the receipt).

That was a few years ago and I've not used one since.

 

[NotHardUp1]

When UBI means that nobody has to starve, there is no longer any justification for anyone to beg. Petty crime rises when people have nothing left to lose, watch it fall when you give them something to live for.

I am sorry to differ so strongly, but that is claiming a panacea that is not going to be real. There will NEVER be an abandonment of panhandling. They will always find a rationalization for it.

And the presumption that crime will melt away is a forlorn hope. It will not. A UBI will not afford for the slothful an income that buys beyond basic needs: food, housing, and some transportation and personal effects like modest clothes. That will absolutely not satisfy the larcenous today. They steal premium items, and not so much for resale to put food on the table or for their kids. They steal TVs, expensive shoes, electronics, games, and on and on, TO HAVE. They want the non-essentials because they feel they are entitled to them without working to earn them.

As for starvation, that's simply not a product of wagelessness in America. There are plenty of food banks, soup kitchens, food pantries, and generous souls who are ready and willing to see that no one goes hungry. But, the children of abusive parents, of addicts, or those who are too proud to accept help, go lacking, albeit rarely starving. And sadly, like some pernicious virus, those who DO go hungry are the victims of circumstance and families that seem to make every wrong decision possible, preventing their own help or salvation.

UBI won't usher in some Halcyon days, but will result in monumental abuse, theft, extortion, and inflation, just as the unregulated COVID funds did.

 

[Dargelos]

No need to apologise, a forum needs a range of opinions.
What you did not disagree with is the way in which small income rises in poor areas immediately feed into the local economy, whether the rise is deserved or undeserved the outcome is the same. It keeps local shops open. Does it not?

 

[metta]

A job guarantee would be helpful, especially with AI advancing so quickly. A UBI would be necessary if there are not enough jobs available for people. But I think shortening the work week may come before that happens.

 

[metta]

Lowe's has an answer for Target and Walmart's theft problems​

"While Lowe's uses technology to prevent theft, Ellison made clear that having people on its store floors helping customers leads to less theft. Lowe's had a roughly 1% shrink rate in its most recent quarter, which is below industry averages. "

https://www.thestreet.com/retailers/lowes-has-an-answer-for-target-and-walmarts-theft-problems

 

[Dargelos]

Lowe performs better by employing enough staff and paying them adequately. Whatever will they think of next?

 

[Kahaih]

Lowe's has an answer for Target and Walmart's theft problems​

"While Lowe's uses technology to prevent theft, Ellison made clear that having people on its store floors helping customers leads to less theft. Lowe's had a roughly 1% shrink rate in its most recent quarter, which is below industry averages. "

https://www.thestreet.com/retailers/lowes-has-an-answer-for-target-and-walmarts-theft-problems

I only skimmed the article, but didn't see anything about how they came up with comparing Lowe's [hardware] inventory to the [general merchandise] inventories of the other stores.

And, wouldn't Lowe's customers be primarily homeowners, and contractors?

 

[Dargelos]

Powertools are highly attractive to shoplifters, they sell quickly for a good price. Its a more profitable racket than stealing jars of coffee from Walmart.

 

[metta]

I only skimmed the article, but didn't see anything about how they came up with comparing Lowe's [hardware] inventory to the [general merchandise] inventories of the other stores.

And, wouldn't Lowe's customers be primarily homeowners, and contractors?

They look at the shrinkage in their financial statements and compare the companies. Home Depot has had huge runs of thefts in their stores. Same industry. Lowe's has not had the same problem.

 

[Kahaih]

Here is an interesting article on the subject of 'shrink' and shoplifting:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/01/18/business/retail-shoplifting-shrink-walgreens/index.html