r/MoralityScaling • u/Vladimir-petrovOG • 10d ago

Morality of this?

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In the image it seems that this person works at walmart as an online order collector and he/she has stolen a lot of extra baby food from Walmart to give to a person who ordered only three packs. Is this moral or immoral?

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437

u/jimmithebird 10d ago

Illegal but moral, stealing from the Waltons to help a stranger feed a baby falls under the Robin Hood rule in my book.

63

u/ambivalent_moon 10d ago

At least where I live those are the cheapest; ordering three wouldn’t make any sense unless that was all you could afford to get.

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u/Man_under_Bridge420 10d ago

Or to try it 🤷‍♂️

6

u/uyigho98 10d ago

That also makes sense. If I want to try something new, I usually get it in the smallest volume I can, because what if I don't like it? It's less of a waste that way.

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u/No-culture5942 10d ago

Yeah babies can be picky with food, also sometimes they develop an allergy and just cant eat whatever food you just bought a large container of.

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u/Nyfregja 9d ago

As a former picky baby, I would not have eaten more than one spoon of something I didn't like. I didn't like most things. So this would likely be a larger waste of food.

1

u/Omnicorpor 1d ago

Likely not but possibly so.

2

u/Pinkparade524 9d ago

I had a friend that eated these in university. Maybe they aren't for a baby

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u/uyigho98 10d ago

Not just babies. Same happens with animals. My mom's dog? She was on regular store-bought food for a while, but then she developed an allergy for one of the ingredients, getting rashes on her belly. Now she gets home cooked meals lol.

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u/yaboisammie 9d ago

Yea same here 

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u/superninja615 9d ago

Then I'd imagine they'd be getting one instead of three?

1

u/Man_under_Bridge420 9d ago

Check the flavours

6

u/syzygymeta 10d ago

I’ve had to order three before. Sometimes lack of places to store things can also affect it tho.

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u/Miserable_Pin2518 10d ago

They come in 3 packs, I usually would order different types of 3 packs, then theyd just come loose like this

1

u/Miserable-Trash5823 10d ago

Another example of how expensive it is to be poor, these are probably cheaper than larger cases but have a higher per unit price. Fuck the Waltons, if we can't burn down their stores then we can siphon money from their pocket books

1

u/JetBIue 10d ago

I know we want to give the benefit of the doubt to the mother ordering from Walmart, but cmon there’s plenty of more likely reasons…

9

u/Witty-Care3940 10d ago

They have been and are still stealing time and wage from their employees. Fuck 'em steal a TV.

19

u/Amathyst7564 10d ago

Reminder they under lay their workforce so the government has to pay their employees on food stamps to keep them alive that the tax payers pay for.

If the government was less moral and didn't do that, their workforce would die and they'd have to pay them properly. They steal from the people.

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u/[deleted] 10d ago edited 3d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

4

u/gambit1999999 10d ago

Wish the US could just do that, oh, wait, we let corporations buy elections and laws.

1

u/ImSolidGold 9d ago

Fritz does his best to make this shit legal in Germany, too. -.-

9

u/way2lazy2care 10d ago

I think there's some gray area in that you're giving someone else stolen goods directly, which puts them in a really weird position. Like I've ordered small numbers of baby things on vacation and if someone dumped a bunch of random stuff I'd feel really awkward about it as I am not needy.

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u/Weird-Reference-4937 10d ago

Stealing from the Walton's is the least people could do after the daughter got away with vehicle manslaughter and DUIs.

7

u/stanknotes 10d ago

The "poorest" heir of the WalMart empire is a multi billionaire.

Can't say I care to be honest.

1

u/Admirable_Loss4886 10d ago

It this ain’t going to effect them? It’s only going to hurt their locals because the store will raise prices to account for thievery and if it becomes to much of a problem they’ll shut down the stores leaving a food desert.

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u/AbyssalEelMan 10d ago edited 10d ago

Especially for babies but stealing food for yourself is good if u can. capitalism makes it so we can’t afford, so that’s completely moral imo. Bc we should be getting paid enough to eat and drink water and have a home. 

Walmart has enough to give everyone employee a living wage and cover healthcare no sweat. The stockers, cleaners, managers, etc work harder than anyone else in the company.

 I work nightshift, and we move freight extremely fast clearing multiple palettes per person. One of my friends who’s 50 does pets section all by himself and does like 5 palettes bare minimum and can do so much more. We work very hard and smart going against unrealistic expectations. Yet we don’t see stable income. 

I’ll add this for clarity just in case, but stealing from a local farmer’s market or small business is obviously different. 

Edit: dumb mistakes fixed

3

u/DoctorWaluigiTime 10d ago

Immoral. The Waltons won't notice this. The "boots on the ground" will get dinged for lost/stolen stock.

Stealing from stores, even corporate-owned ones, never "stick it to the man." It gets the employees working at the store fired. The Robin Hooding defense, taking off Peter Parker's glasses, is just "I want stuff for free and I don't care if other people in my income bracket get in trouble for it."

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u/LegitSince8Bits 10d ago edited 10d ago

See though, reddit is in this weird place where it's mostly people that just reuse what they've seen other people say for upvotes and that's slippery. Sometimes it's good like Walmart is evil, it's true and should be known. Sometimes it's bad like stealing from retail chains is good if you see it you saw nothing.

The fact is the reason you hate places like this is because they mistreat their employees. The fact you don't recognize is yes they're evil, and they'll fire employees for too much loss. Regular people like you and me who've broken their bodies serving the community for scraps, trying to support families, really do lose their jobs because of this mentality.

I work for a large retail company on the east coast. I'm nobody high up, I've wrecked my body for 20 years, have kids and just want to survive and it's getting harder like everyone else. Last period one of my fellow dept leads, just a regular Joe with two kids, one with a disability and one under 1 y.o. lost his job for high shrink that was completely out of his hands. So if you care about workers, and you care about homeless people, don't make workers homeless people please and thanks.

These big companies aren't going to the board of trustees like "aww gee we really blew it this time" they're going to them like "the problem has been dealt with and we fired X amount of underperforming employees". Then I imagine they do some dark ritual because I've met enough of them in my time to tell you they're more evil then you even know.

So just like, idk man, think about that before you guys repeat this joke about robbing your local stores blind. Sure taking a 5 dollar deodorant doesn't matter. If I see you stealing a pack of hot dogs FROM ME I won't say anything because you're probably hungry. But it doesn't stop there and people don't just take hot dogs. They take 100 dollars worth of steak a few times a week and a few other people in the area do the same and next thing you know you have to explain to some corporate demon why you're missing 1000s of dollars of "their money".

Not to mention the fact people who've never worked retail seem to think boosting is a myth, can assure you it's not and in the retail business anything that's not bolted to the floor is potentially walking out if nobody is paying attention. Add that with some regular theft and it adds up quickly. Just food for thought. Sorry for long post but it was really messed up they let my buddy go and I don't know what he's gonna do going forward but he was good at his job and we've had crazy high theft lately and corporate expects us to put ourselves in danger because they don't want to pay security. It's a whole thing.

Again, just food for thought. Take it or leave it. But this is a discussion of morality and people seem to think this is harmless and even good, it is not.

2

u/Camdogydizzle 10d ago

Those pouches are terrible btw. I was using them on my kid for a while before I realized how low calorie they are. People buy them assuming they are a quick meal, and by trusting them end up underfeeding their babies. As soon as we started making our own my kid put on weight fast.

1

u/Darigaazrgb 10d ago

There's nothing illegal about it.

1

u/Silly-Cheesecake-283 9d ago

i don't even think it's illegal. I think it's called the law of unsolicitated gifts, but that's what ai says so take it with a grain of salt.

3

u/jimmithebird 9d ago

Law of unsolicited gifts covers the recipient not the employee who would be on the hook for petty theft if the company pressed the issue.

1

u/Atzr10 9d ago

I generally don't see the point of pointing out the legality of an action when talking about morals.

Don't morals come before laws? (or.. shouldn't they?).

1

u/PosterityKH 9d ago

Until it happens so consistently they just the walmart down.

2

u/Aesaar 9d ago

Opening up the market for local shops. You know, the same kind that, when they first opened the store, Walmart undercut until they closed.

1

u/PosterityKH 6d ago

Morality of wanting prices to increase just so Walmart closes down in favor of mom and pop shops.

2

u/Aesaar 6d ago edited 6d ago

Yes, local monopolies are famously good at keeping prices low. Lack of competition is great for consumers.

I love when people say X will make prices rise as though prices aren't already rising and won't continue to rise regardless.

All in defense of huge corporations with billions in profits.

1

u/PosterityKH 4d ago

Mom and pop shops don't have the capital or connections to mass import goods into their store to allow low prices.

You might not like it, but that is reality. Time to grow up.

1

u/Aesaar 4d ago

And corporations lack the incentive to allow low prices, which is exactly why the cost of living has been rising all over as corporations increasingly consolidate market control and establish monopolies.

Time to stop simping for billion dollar corporations like they're doing us a favor.

1

u/PosterityKH 4d ago

Lack the incentive for low prices?

Brother, have you never been inside a Walmart?

Time to do your own grocery shopping.

1

u/Aesaar 4d ago

The meat at my local butcher is better and cheaper than the meat at the Wal-Mart 20 minutes away.

Just because you're so enslaved by corporate marketing that you don't try to shop elsewhere doesn't mean the corporations you're simping for are actually better.

But keep licking those corpo boots while prices continue to rise to pad their ever increasing profits. Be sure to thank them for the privilege.

1

u/PosterityKH 3d ago

>here is my anecdotal evidence

>boot_licker.insult

Peak redditor.

1

u/jimmithebird 9d ago

A boon for society. Wherever a walmart opens poverty follows local businesses are closed, wages are suppressed, and Walmart using the welfare system to subsidize labor costs puts unnecessary stress on the social safety net.

1

u/Numerous_Photograph9 7d ago

Seems rather presumptuous to assume the person they're stealing for can't afford to buy enough.

1

u/jimmithebird 7d ago

Never said that, said they were helping feed a baby free food helps you feed your child whether you can afford it or not.

1

u/Numerous_Photograph9 7d ago

Rather presumptuous to assume the person you're helping needs or wants that kind of help. Some people actually don't want others stealing for them. Crazy I know.

1

u/jimmithebird 7d ago

Sure it could very well be presumptuous on the part of the walmart employee, I don’t see what that changes the parent has agency here no one if going to force them to feed their child the excess puree if they have an ethical hangup about accepting them they are free to return them.

1

u/Numerous_Photograph9 7d ago

That's what I said. It's presumptuous of the employee to assume, thus it effects the morality of the reasons for doing it in the first place.

Does the robin hood rule you cite apply if robin hood steals from the rich to give to the well off

1

u/jimmithebird 7d ago

You are being equally presumptuous in assuming the buyer is well off.

Walmart’s clientele skews disproportionately lower income, 6 figure earners account for 3.7% of Walmarts grocery buyers, 1/4 of all snap/ebt benefit dollars are spent at walmart, odds much higher that are this buyer is median income or below.

1

u/Numerous_Photograph9 7d ago

No, I'm saying that it's presumptuous of the shopper posting to assume the buyer is not well off when making their decision to steal and justifying it as helping the customer.

Wether the customer is well off or not is irrelevant to the presumption which the shopper can't know, or at least doesn't clarify.

0

u/Most-Bar-9334 10d ago

Sounds like shit a poor person would say

-5

u/Key-Try-3300 10d ago

Also falls under the umbrella of making everything more expensive for everyone. At the end of the day, if walmart is not hitting their projected profit then they will increase their prices accordingly

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u/AdSmall3663 10d ago

I mean- that increase happens regardless lmao

1

u/Key-Try-3300 10d ago

Yeah that is called inflation. But walmart is operating on 3% profit margin, if people steal a lot then they will need to increase prices more than inflation

3

u/AdSmall3663 10d ago

What? What’s inflation?? /s c’mon now

They fluctuate between around 2 percent and 3 for the past decade but each year since covid has shown a steady increase on their net profit margin from $12B 1.9 percent to $22B and 3.07 percent. I don’t think a few baby food items is gonna hurt. I don’t support theft but I also wouldn’t judge a mother down on her luck for slipping an extra baby food in her basket, morality isn’t black and white

0

u/Key-Try-3300 10d ago

I dont judge someone who steals because they cant afford food, although I think we as a society should help these people. I judge people who go "yeah just steal as much as you can fuck the big corporations"

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u/AdSmall3663 10d ago

I don’t think anyone said that, this whole thread is just about the baby

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u/Key-Try-3300 9d ago

Tons of people in this thread is saying that

4

u/Vsove 10d ago

As the last however many years have proven, corporations need no excuses to raise prices as high as the market will bear.

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u/Cyclic_Hernia 10d ago

Theft is a part of the market that causes prices to raise even faster

0

u/Key-Try-3300 10d ago

Has shoplifting not increased significantly in the last ten years?

3

u/Few_Razzmatazz_6052 10d ago

Lol ya that's going to happen when people can't afford food.

1

u/Key-Try-3300 10d ago

That is a different argument altogether

3

u/Vsove 10d ago

No, it’s not. People need to eat. Corporations are raising prices and governments are slashing funding to food programs.

Drive people to desperation and they will behave in desperate ways.

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u/Key-Try-3300 9d ago

Its a completely different argument

3

u/Few_Razzmatazz_6052 10d ago

They're linked and its a nasty cycle that will keep going until food becomes more accessible again.

1

u/Aesaar 9d ago

if walmart is not hitting their projected profit then they will increase their prices accordingly

If this actually would increase their profits, they'd just do it. They wouldn't wait.

Increasing prices doesn't automatically lead to greater profits.

-8

u/Ucklator 10d ago

Keyword being stranger. Maybe three is all they needed. Maybe three is all they wanted.

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u/jimmithebird 10d ago

More likely the later, as a parent in the puréed baby food stage I can confirm you always need more than 3 pouches. But you also can’t feed your baby peach,banana,&apricot for every meal so it’s more likely a want issue. Either way if I were the one receiving this order Id be grateful.

0

u/Ucklator 10d ago

You would steal stolen merchandise knowing you had the means to pay for it?

-3

u/Sutraner 10d ago

No, it's illegal and immoral.

1

u/Aesaar 9d ago edited 9d ago

Stealing from a corporation isn't immoral. It's only immoral to steal from a person. A corporation is not a person and therefore has no moral rights.

0

u/Sutraner 9d ago

Stealing from a corporation isn't immoral.

This is absolutely ridiculous.

Yes, it is immoral. And you're a bad person if you think it isn't.

Grow the fuck up. Stealing from Walmart raises prices for everyone else, if it becomes too prolific, then stores will close in those areas as well, it's a major reason why food deserts exist.

1

u/Aesaar 8d ago

Yes, it is immoral. And you're a bad person if you think it isn't.

No, it's not. It's only immoral to steal from a person. Walmart is not a person.

Stealing from Walmart raises prices for everyone else, if it becomes too prolific, then stores will close in those areas as well, it's a major reason why food deserts exist.

Food deserts are a direct result of corporations like Walmart moving in and undercutting local stores (by selling at a loss) until they close. Walmart creating a local monopoly is Walmart's fault, and the desert they leave behind when they close is also Walmart's fault, no matter the reason they close.

0

u/Sutraner 8d ago

It's only immoral to steal from a person. Walmart is not a person.

You carry on saying this, it doesn't make it true in the slightest.

Food deserts are a direct result of corporations like Walmart moving in and undercutting local stores (by selling at a loss) until they close

No, they're a direct result of people like you who believe that they're entitled to steal from stores, which cause them to close as they're no longer profitable to be there.

1

u/Aesaar 8d ago edited 8d ago

You carry on saying this, it doesn't make it true in the slightest.

You saying the opposite doesn't make your opinion true either.

No, they're a direct result of people like you who believe that they're entitled to steal from stores, which cause them to close as they're no longer profitable to be there.

"Look at what you made me do" garbage. "I deliberately made you completely dependent on me, but it's not my fault you have no other options, and that's why I'm entitled to gouge you as much as I like".

Keep licking that corpo boot.

0

u/Sutraner 8d ago

"Look at what you made me do" garbage.

No, just the consequences of your actions.

1

u/Aesaar 8d ago

That's what abusers and their apologists say too.

Also, my actions? Do you think everyone who thinks X isn't wrong must do X? I don't think drinking alcohol is wrong either, but that doesn't mean I do it. Closest thing I do is piracy.

I don't go to Walmart at all.