DISCLAIMER: While The Muse understands and empathizes with shoplifting and shoplifters, we do not condone the actions or behaviour taken by these individuals.
The struggle for the people in Newfoundland to make ends meet with the rising cost of living is real. Getting stuck with a couple hundred dollar receipt after shopping for your weekly groceries would push even the most prudish sticklers to the point of shoplifting.
In a similar fashion to a recent Dalhousie Gazette article, I anonymously surveyed the general university public over the internet to find out if MUN students are shoplifting, and what’s pushing them to that point.
For many, shoplifting is just the result of the growing disgust that people have for big corporations and their price gauging, often for everyday or essential items like food and hygiene products.
Particularly of note, people who are expected to present feminine and buy gendered products like makeup are fed up with the expectations created and perpetuated by faceless mega corporations which were often put in place by White men: like Dominique Mandonnaud, founder of Sephora, or known Jeffrey Epstein affiliate Les Wexner, the founder of Victoria’s Secret. This disdain found itself presented in the survey results. The following are some noteworthy quotes relating to this:
- “Can’t justify spending such large amounts of money on products that are important to how women feel about themselves BECAUSE of the social norms put in place for women. And food is ridiculously expensive”
- “I am NOT paying 20$ for a tiny eyeshadow palette”
- “its too expensive or fucking crazy unnecessarily high prices, the place I’m stealing from is a big store that makes [a] fuck ton of money and don’t care if I die.”
- “stuff is ridiculously expensive and I don’t care to support big corporations. The massive uneven distribution of wealth feels like they’re stealing from us in some way, and since so much money is put into marketing these products (by creating and capitalizing on insecurities), instead of people’s health and welfare, I feel like it’s justified and that I’m taking back in some way.”
- “[I steal] things that should be free: recyclable bags, tampons, idk basic rights?”
It’s hard to see the responses coming from this survey and not empathize with those who steal things just to get by; but for some people, the choice doesn’t come as easy. According to the data collected, 42.4% of people stated that they sometimes steal, while 30.6% of people reported they steal regularly, and 27.1% of people stated that they definitely don’t steal.
The perspective of MUN students is important for this article. In the last three years, according to MUN’s tuition framework, tuition for students on average has gone up over 8% and following the tuition freeze, will continue to go up further over time. For students that are less financially stable, there is ultimately not a lot of alternatives to shoplifting for groceries.
- “Galen Weston will be fine. I need to be able to feed myself and also pay my bills.”
- “Gotta steal in this economy everything’s too expensive!!!! I also can’t find a god damn job so I don’t really have a choice!!!!”
- “Genuinely just so mad at how much stuff costs, I remember scanning two things at shoppers and the total being 35 bucks, pissed me off so bad I said that it’s time to start stealing stuff, so now I do sometimes”
- “Because I don’t want to give big corporations that support genocide more of my money”
Per the results of the survey, most people shoplift from big corporations, with a special common distinction that many participants indicated. Many participants made the distinction very clear that while they steal from big companies, they would never steal from local/small businesses. When talking about big grocery corporations, this applies to Sobeys, Walmart, Loblaws, etc. Walmart especially was noted as the store that was easiest to steal from. A former staff member of one of these big companies said,
- “I don’t personally steal, but I worked at [a grocery store] for a while, and when I would see someone put something in their pockets I would never say anything. Especially makeup products or food, it’s so expensive for nothing, so I would turn a blind eye every single time.”
In summary of my findings, I’m left with this conclusion: it’s impossible to stigmatize or look down upon those who shoplift. In the current economy and with the rise of tuition, we cannot look at this and blame the increase in shoplifting on an increase in delinquency.
The boogeyman here is the corporations who profit off our disagreements over the ethics of shoplifting. Corporations quietly raise prices and push social norms that result in price gouging; some people are left with no other options than to steal from these corporations.
The following are some interesting comments and data results from the survey:
ARE YOU PRO OR ANTI STEALING? :
DO YOU STEAL:
WHAT KIND OF STUFF DO YOU USUALLY STEAL (IF YOU DO):
- “Small things less than 20 dollars worth”
- “I have literally never stolen in my life. One time I went to Walmart and printed off pictures and walked around for a bit and forgot about it and left without paying. I got to about the lights on Stravanger drive and started crying and panicking and went back and paid for them LOL”
- “Stupid and useless objects, like the jokers in a deck of cards, pens, lighters, etc”
- “Mostly food, beauty products, sometimes toys like littlest pet shops”
- “Makeup brands that are pro Israel”
- “Fancy cheeses from Sobeys”
WHY DO YOU FIND YOURSELF STEALING (IF YOU DO):
- “Usually wanting to save a little money by not paying for silly cheap things. Also sometimes because I’m drunk.”
- “big conglomerates can stick my five fingers up their ass”
- “I honestly have anxiety around spending money. I come from a house that has low income and so I adopt the behaviour of saving in case something really bad happens and I need to spend money to help myself or my family. So I steal things sometimes just to not be so anxious about spending on something I want or need.”
- “Why pay for something when I could get it for free! Also I hate how these corporations are getting away with price gouging and such so I don’t feel bad at all about filling my pockets from time to time.”
- “Every time I go to almost every store because if I don’t I feel like the stores are playing me”
- “The love of the game of course, that or because i don’t wanna pay $15 for a charger”
WHERE/WHO DO YOU USUALLY STEAL FROM? ( IF APPLICABLE):
- “Walmart”
- “Not stores, people’s private stuff, and never anything expensive”
- “Value Village, Walmart, Dollarama (Larger stores, never local places or small businesses).”
- “like if value village got like a necklace for 10 bucks imma take it”
- “music artists that I don’t want to financially support”
- “Hotels, restaurants, my host family in France.”
WHAT FORMS OF ONLINE STEALING DO YOU DO (PIRATING MOVIES, PDF’s OF BOOKS, ETC) AND WHAT DO YOU USUALLY WATCH:
- “Movies, textbooks, video games. I like to watch 90s/2000s era anime a lot”
- “Stolen so much shit online that if I was held accountable it’d crash the global economy lol. I pirate so many shows, but when it comes to books I only do it with school books that are priced way too much.”
- “Usually movies, textbooks, and games. The movies are usually ones hard to access in Canada or require another subscription I don’t already have. I usually emulate Nintendo games because they have insane resale value.”
- “all of it fuck you netflix and disney”
- “pirating tv shows, epubs of books, watching shows/movies on questionably legal websites like soap2day, putlocker, and movies123”
- “If i’m not going to the movie theatre i’m pirating that shit. Most of the stuff I consume online I steal except for music and stuff that feels morally wrong to steal, like from the little guys that are tryna get by just like me. Nowadays if you buy something online you still don’t own it so if I cant buy it and own it I’m gonna steal that shit and own it.”
- “big on the books one. Why am I paying tuition and then hundreds of dollars for textbooks? Why do I even pay to go here period?”