The Economy

If you think the NRF kerfuffle is about actual retailing and not, say, a much larger and pernicious ongoing narrative about cities and the people that run them, then I can't help you.

 

Maybe stores should ask themselves what they are doing to prevent theft.
I see stories all the time where they have people on camera just walking out with stuff. I'm not talking about some kid sticking a candy bar in his pocket or someone missing the bar code when they scan an onion but guys just walking out of Lowe's with a cart load of power tools.
Don't be upset at the fox when you leave your hen house door open.

 

Sidewalk markets in poor areas? That’s a first. I’ve walked and driven through “poor areas” and never seen any dudes set up on a corner hawking jeans. You know where I see that? In midtown Manhattan, guys selling stuff that “fell off a truck.” This has nothing to do with poor people, at all. It has to do with organized theft rings who sell this stuff everywhere — Craigslist, eBay, Poshmark, whatever. And it has to do with the retailers overstating the impact of these theft rings so they could squeeze customers for a few more $$$. It’s along the same vein as the “increases” in reported crimes. Cities are dirty by their nature. Just because some jamoke tags a highway sign doesn’t mean society is near its breaking point.

 

Worth noting today a Japanese company bought US Steel.

 

And if one of those foxes should, on being disturbed, pitch a bitch that results in some other hen getting hurt, guess who gets to foot the bill?

 

Hence, your "lower" crime rate when we all (should) know it isn't. Easy to call yourself crime free when you don't prosecute.

 

Michael, we're bigger than Nippon Steel.

 

Regarding the bolded part: Wow! Just...wow. That is an incredible statistic.

 

As I tell my wife regularly, either do something about it or quit bitching about it.