Coming soon to a store near you?

 

I see that moonbats in California, the land of fruits and nuts, are trying to make it even easier to shoplift.

If California isn’t already the nation’s shoplifting leader, it soon will be if State Senator Dave Cortese’s SB 553 becomes law, according to some retailers. The bill just passed the state Senate and now moves over to the Assembly.

Ostensibly aimed at curbing workplace violence — a nice way of saying “criminals who come in to steal stuff and create the conditions for violence” — California Retailers Association chief Rachel Michelin described the bill in harsh terms. “It says no employee can approach someone who is shoplifting. So even if someone is trained on how to deter someone from doing that, now they’re not allowed to approach someone. So, what does that mean?”

“We are opening up the door to allow people to walk into stores, steal and walk out,” she said.

. . .

What SB 553 looks like to me is more virtue signaling, enshrined into law, that California now turns a blind eye to shoplifting. That’s certainly the way criminals will read it.

There's more at the link.

That sort of attitude, plus the breakdown in civilized standards and law and order, is prompting an increasing number of retailers to pull out of California's cities.  Why should they do business there when they know, in advance, that they're going to be victimized and lose money?

It's not just California, either.  In more and more big cities, retailers are fleeing high-crime areas or changing their store designs to make it more difficult for shoplifters and organized gangs of looters to do their thing.  A redesigned Walgreens store in Chicago illustrates the trend.

A Walgreens store in Chicago reportedly has been redesigned to allow customers to browse only two aisles of products – after they pass through anti-theft detectors.

The changes at the store on 2 E. Roosevelt Road in the South Loop area put most of the merchandise in aisles behind staffed counters, which customers can shop digitally through kiosks, according to Block Club Chicago.

"We are testing a new experience at this store with new concepts, technologies, and practices to enhance the experiences of our customers and team members," a Walgreens spokesperson told Fox Business in a statement. "It continues to offer retail products and pharmacy services, just with a new look and feel that focuses on shopping digitally for convenience.

"Inside the store, customers will find an area where they can pick-up orders, digital kiosks for placing an order, as well as an area to shop for essential items," the spokesperson added.

Block Club Chicago reports that a sign instructs shoppers to "place your order and relax" while staff at the store pull requested items off shelves kept away from the public.

"Let us do the shopping," the sign reportedly reads.

Again, more at the link.

Problem is, if we can't browse the aisles for ourselves, we lose the opportunity to compare brands, products and prices.  If that's the case, we'll do better to shop online, where we can call up every product in a category, order the ones we want, and have them delivered right to our door.  That also saves us from the risk of running into criminal gangs looting stores, or other criminals and street people targeting passersby in any of a number of ways.

Effectively, this development may mean the end of supermarkets as we know them - at least in high-crime areas, and those where urban society is breaking down.  Say goodbye to the jobs of everyone working there, plus all those catering to the store's needs and those of its employees - other shops, goods and services, public transport, the lot.

Congratulations, moonbats.  You've become so politically correct that you've morphed into an economic disaster.

Peter