this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2026
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A Boring Dystopia
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The stores pay their employees a living wage and stop price gouging food.
Offering a product cheaper doesn't really make the product better. With piracy the argument is that people don't steal content because they can't afford it but because it easier to download it for free without DRM than to buy it and watch on official channels. It happened to me many times that I was unable to buy and open a book because of the DRM but managed to download pirated epub in minutes. I would gladly pay for them if I could. The "better product" here is content that is easier to access.
With food people steal because they can't afford it, not because it's more convenient to carry food in your pants than in your shopping cart. Lowering prices and raising wages would be great but it's not the same as piracy and it's not "offering a better product".
UK has both, and yet shoplifting is still rising.
It sounds like you have a very particular experience and relationship to the subject, HerbGrower? At a glance, the data seems to suggest something different. E.g., according to Uk food foundation prices for groceries in the UK have been rising (albeit more slowly recently), and many people in the UK experience food insecurity.
They voted for this in 2016.
"Food pricing" is usually an average. Meat has gone up a lot but veg remains very cheap. While I am not fully vegan I also don't see why anyone needs to eat meat.
If I was under the poverty line again I could go back to feeding myself for under £25/month and it would still be a fairly healthy diet. Housing costs so much more, even renting just a bedroom is like £500+ per month now.
I know this isn't the Pain Olympics, but when I was looking for a place to live, I toured a single bedroom with access to a half-bath (just a toilet and sink, no shower) in somebody's house that was going for $1200 US, or just shy of £900. The saddest thing is, that's one of the most affordable options around me.
This is a reality in the US. Add in, our meat and dairy is subsidized by the government, but fruit and vegetables don't get the same treatment. Subsidized vegetables here are mainly ones that can be processed for uses that don't include direct consumption, like subsidized corn used to make animal feed, corn syrup, or ethanol. The best case scenario for cheap vegetables usually comes from farm stands, which we have to seek out (and usually drive out of our way to get to), and which only operate during the growing season.
Put this together with housing prices and the destruction of food assistance programs, and it's no wonder why so many people in the US are turning to shoplifting to get their needs met.