Giving money to Amazon, Wal-Mart, Microsoft, Google .etc

It’s like, you can’t have an argument for price gouging, when you’re enabling them by spending. If people were smart, they’d stop giving them money 10 - 15 years ago and they’d be right now, trying to reconstruct so they can be more economically friendly than how they are now.

  • Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz
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    2 days ago

    Stealing from walmart also isn’t sustainable if many people are doing it. For example there were a ton of walmarts and other stores in the Chicago area that recently closed due to high theft at those locations. Now whole communities there are left without convenient shopping options, which can be a big problem for people with limited transportation options.

      • Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz
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        16 hours ago

        You can look up videos of some of the stores that were closed, they were basically being straight up looted.

        I remember seeing the videos, and thinking to myself how I didn’t understand how they could afford to stay in business like that. So when they announced they were closing those stores for theft, I didn’t really think the given reason was ever in doubt.

        • Didros@beehaw.org
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          2 days ago

          "“The decision to close a store is never easy,” company officials said in a statement. “The simplest explanation is that collectively our Chicago stores have not been profitable since we opened the first one nearly 17 years ago.”

          The stores lose tens of millions of dollars a year, according to the company, a figure that nearly doubled in the last five years despite numerous strategies to boost performance, including building smaller stores, offering local products and building a Walmart Academy training center."

          https://news.wttw.com/2023/04/12/walmart-closing-4-chicago-stores-company-says-losses-have-doubled-last-5-years

          Doesn’t sound like theft was ever the problem here according to them?

    • mke_geek@lemm.ee
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      2 days ago

      Stealing isn’t right.

      The Walmart near me closed due to high theft. There were actually people stealing from the construction site when the store was being built, so it really was a ticking clock as to how long the store itself would even last.

      Some people are just awful.

      • comfy@lemmy.ml
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        8 hours ago

        Stealing isn’t right.

        I conditionally disagree. In fact, there are many real situations where stealing is the right option. There are valid reasons why folk lore glorifies figures like Robin Hood. And when it comes to international conglomerates like Walmart, which hoard astronomical wealth while others who can’t afford bread starve nearby, theft of the hoard is justice in its most appropriate form (if one values human survival more than legal property rights).

    • comfy@lemmy.ml
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      2 days ago

      Good point. If there aren’t other local stores remaining to fill the gaps, then that would be a critical problem.

      • SinAdjetivos@beehaw.org
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        12 hours ago

        Walmart, Kroger, etc.'s entire business model is to undercut other local stores to drive them out and become local monopolies. If they exist in a location there likely aren’t many, if any, local stores remaining…