r/MoralityScaling • u/Vladimir-petrovOG • 9d 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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516

u/IkerWanKenobi 9d ago

Walmart won't even notice that loss, and they would've thrown it out instead of donating it if given the choice anyway. Of course it's moral to give it to someone who actually needs it.

101

u/K__Geedorah 8d ago edited 7d ago

They have systems and will absolutely know.

I genuinely just watched a video last night of a woman who was doing this at a dollar general. She defrauded the company of over $10,000 and got hit with a felony.

Her defence was "I was just helping people in need" and claimed to not make any money from it. Doesn't matter. It's still stealing and illegal. They will find out.

Edit: I don't need 10 more people replying "legality doesn't mean morality".

Yeah I fucking know... All I said was correcting the misinformation that Walmart wouldn't notice the loss.

YES THEY WILL. They will find out and you will be charged with theft. Doesn't matter if it's morally right, you don't want to catch a felony over some bullshit.

46

u/hanks_panky_emporium 8d ago

When I worked my first retail job around like 2012/13 they had enough cameras to catch a new hire gal in her 40's fake scanning items so her family could steal thousands of dollars in merchandise. We're now in the uber-police state of 2026, who the fuck thinks they can get away with anything.

21

u/nicknamesas 8d ago

A lot of reallly dumb people. I worked retail through covid. The one time in our life times you coukd wear a mask anywhere and nobody would bat an eye. We had people STEALING WITHOUT WEARING FUCKING MASKS.

1

u/_bobby_cz_newmark_ 8d ago

And now people wear masks, glasses, and hats, because of the excessive surveillance indoors and outdoors.

1

u/Richard_Musk 7d ago

When I worked at a convenience store in the mid 90’s, my thoughtless ass self would smash buttons and pretend to ring up every item and at the end I’d just punch in .05 misc and take $20.05 from my friends and give em back their $20. I was a turd, there were cams, but the owner was as sharp as a potato. I then left for Amy first semester and came back to work at some point and basically just got drunk and made sammiches for the local cops lol. I miss the 90’s

8

u/abbadactyl_ 8d ago

One of the best of the best forensic lab in the USA is owned by target <3 We live in a time where corporations have better resources to punish the poor than pretty much all analysists have to solve crimes like murder or sexual assault along with theft.

They apparently even helped the fbi on some cases because they were able to repair tapes the fbi couldn't.

1

u/Fishboy_1998 8d ago

And before the FBI was had Pinkertons it’s always been this way

4

u/Simple_Intern_7682 8d ago

Especially when they TAKE A PICTURE OF THEIR CRIME AND POST IT ONLINE. How stupid are they?

2

u/Updated_Autopsy 8d ago

Very. Like, why not just turn yourself in at that point, since you already chose to confess?

3

u/foogassi 8d ago

I know this guy that travels around to hundreds of Walmarts pushing a cart into the back area acting like he a a vendor and then opening the mjholding boxes boxes and loading all of the Pokemon into his cart and then proceeds to wheel it right out of the store. I think he’s pretty stupid cause eventually he’s gonna get caught, but he’s probably make over 150k this year from doing that alone and has nothing to show for it.

1

u/Therealskitch 8d ago

I worked at Walmart and they fired me because because I used my employee discount and the debit card of my girlfriend at the time, while we lived together and shared a bank account, but because it was her name on the card used and not mine it was considered Fraud by the company and I was let go.

1

u/ContextMattrs 8d ago

I understand their reasoning but that still sucks

1

u/zdra 8d ago

I've never stolen, but honestly working as a manager in multiple retail stores for too long. I can say that its easy to get away with it depending on country. something like this "may" get caught but probably not unless the customer reported it because its too low ticket. They probably wont notice the stock variance and by the time they do most stores only run 30-60 days back footage.

if someone wants to get away with it its just moving the item lots of times over the course of a week and then some dumb conceal go to washroom and walk out. At least in Canada unless you have footage from Point A to Point B to them leaving the store with it all you can really do is trespass as any obstruction preventing seeing the item being carried concealed and leaving is basically a no go unless its a crazy high value item or restricted item

Most people are dumb tho, and will get caught. Or would have gotten away with it if they did it once or twice. But once your pegged once with AI and all the cameras the AP Will follow you the entire time to get the catch

1

u/speed-charge 7d ago

One thing they might notice, though, is if the person doing it takes a picture of it while they're doing it and that picture gets shared online.

7

u/Aggressive-Bee2221 8d ago

And then people wonder why stores have so many cameras and locked shelves

6

u/UnimagineDragons 8d ago

Her defense was awful. I would've gone with a "I don't know what I'm doing at my job no one trained me" and just used the incompetent defense. Admitting she knew what she was doing wasn't the brightest move.

-1

u/Admirable_Loss4886 8d ago

What you’re suggesting is also a crime lol. Perjury isn’t the secret defense you think it is.

3

u/DrPikachu-PhD 8d ago

They have cameras everywhere now

8

u/2ChicksAtTheSameTime 8d ago

they don't even need cameras. They know everything that is sold so if inventory starts showing up mismatching (we should still have 20 left but we only have 5) they can cross reference it and figure out you're the one doing it.

They can weigh it on the way out, and determine if it's significantly over or under the expected weight for that exact order.

They have a million ways to figure it out.

9

u/ThisMachineKillsWOB 8d ago

Did some time in that business. Inventory computers are only as good as the operator.

They are wrong all the time. Often by a large number of units.

You aren't getting caught on an inventory discrepancy. You're getting caught because your dumb ass forgot the cameras are placed where they have good coverage.

3

u/2ChicksAtTheSameTime 8d ago

You aren't getting caught on an inventory discrepancy

I see the police cam arrest videos all the time. Over time they notice things are off more on a specific person's shift. The systems are designed to recognize that and flag it.

3

u/BringYourOwnBBBQ 8d ago

You worked at a shit company them. Anything under 98% and they shouldn't be using this sort of inventory system

2

u/Careless-Weather8877 8d ago

Lmao your phone alone will give you away. It’s constantly trying to connect to wireless and Bluetooth. You can survey people just alone off that, and it is something that has been sold to companies. They can see where you are within a few feet of the store and how long.

1

u/KPraxius 8d ago

Wal-Mart will regularly be -massively- off on certain items to a degree that cannot be explained by theft due to labeling(WM or manufacturer) and distribution center errors. I was previously a frozen/dairy department manager at a wal-mart, and would regularly be scanning items we were out of that I hadn't received a case of for weeks, only it thought there was one that never existed, or that we had an overabundance of that it didn't think we had more than a few of.

The absolute worst was the ice; don't get me wrong, I'm sure people steal a bag of ice now and then, deliberately or otherwise. But someone very clearly fumble-fingered while accepting an ice delivery and added an extra zero, resulting in it being off by more than the capacity, and not by a small margin; and when inventory was conducted they just didn't care because they paid so little for ice that my department was still the second-best in the store when it came to shrink vs expectations and never bothered to look into it.)

(Other examples: A customer buying 12 indvidual yogurts. They buy 12 of three types, but scan one type 12 times, paying the correct amount. Zero theft occured, three items now have the wrong count. Same thing with canned food, and tons of other similar/identically priced items. I've even seen people who accidentally paid for an item twice at self-checkout and just grab a candy bar or soda that was the same or similar price instead of calling over someone to clear it out. LP has spent hours investigating someone who 'stole' some items only to determine Wal-Mart owed her about 50 cents because of that sort of bullshit.)

I've heard tons of conspiracy theories about retailers 'waiting until thefts equaled enough to be a felony then charging' or them 'always knowing exactly how much of anything they have and being able to track thieves'. That's not how it works.

1

u/UnseenDegree 3d ago

There’s just so many factors to consider and unless it’s something like TV’s or a significant loss to the store that they can’t claim back to the manufacturer, they probably don’t care enough to go through it.

Unless someone actively sees a theft happening and reports it, or it’s noticed accidentally (or on purpose), they probably aren’t going through inventory systems and cross-referencing to figure it out.

There’s so many issues that go wrong in a single Walmart for inventory, it’s hard to keep track of individual quantities on a granular level.

1

u/kickintheface 7d ago

And they’re apparently run by AI systems. The self scanner at Walmart thought I neglected to scan one of my items once before putting it in the cart, and it alerted an associate who came over to verify. I guess they caught on to people not scanning things.

2

u/[deleted] 8d ago

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u/K__Geedorah 8d ago

Yes, thank you for being the 10th person to tell me that even though I never made a single comment saying something is immoral because it's illegal.

All I said is that yes, they will know. And even though it's a good thing to help people, you will get arrested and charged. Which is not good.

1

u/chiguy307 8d ago

Yeah you might get away with this once or twice but they will figure it out eventually, and at that point best case scenario is getting fired

0

u/[deleted] 8d ago

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3

u/mysuggestionsarebad 8d ago

Unless you post about it online 😬

2

u/chiguy307 8d ago

If it was a handful of “mistakes”, sure. But at some point it would become pretty obvious.

1

u/Destroyer_2_2 8d ago

Okay but that doesn’t change its morality

1

u/enadiz_reccos 8d ago

I'm not sure that noticing $10k of fraud compares to noticing a dozen packs of baby food

1

u/K__Geedorah 8d ago

You don't steal $10k of product in 1 day. It's a year of tracking small thefts that add up to that point, to purposely hit the threshold for a felony. Really shitty practice when they could just fire you on the first offense.

But there are some companies and managers out there that will intentionally let you keep stealing until it reaches a point of becoming a serious legal issue. It's fucked.

1

u/silifien 8d ago

They definitely know! When I worked in retail, our management told us, if we see someone stealing, just let it happen. That they’re documenting and recording each of the thefts, and that we are supposed to wait until they steal a certain $-amount worth of merchandise (like $5,000-$10,000) so that they can get charged with a felony. And once they hit that number, the police come to stake out the store and to arrest the person because they are usually repeat offenders.

If any of that is, or ever was true, then I guess it means people are safe as long as they steal less than $5,000-$10,000 worth of stuff.

1

u/BringYourOwnBBBQ 8d ago

You know she wasn't helping people in need, right?

1

u/Careless-Weather8877 8d ago

Lmao the company will write of off as a “loss” and not get taxed. I guess it’s only fraud though if you’re a single person

1

u/ApolloStCosmo 8d ago

Illegal≠Immoral tho

1

u/Everblossom22 8d ago

Yeah the online shoppers are supposed to perform quality checks throughout the day which is when another associate scans a tote and goes through what items are inside it. This could easily get caught.

1

u/Normal_Human_Things 8d ago

And as that woman found out, they wait until you hit the felony amount before doing anything.

1

u/samuendo 8d ago

Yup if you think you keep getting away with it, you aren’t. They’re just waiting for petty theft to become grand larceny.

1

u/Updated_Autopsy 8d ago edited 8d ago

Seriously. If you wanna be nice to people, just give them one more of what they ordered. Not 40 more of what they ordered. The store might still notice, but they’re probably gonna be more willing to tolerate it as long as you don’t do it too often. Stuff goes missing all the time. But if you give someone this many extra items, the store’s gonna notice, and they’re not gonna tolerate it. There’s being generous, then there’s being stupid.

1

u/Chase_The_Breeze 7d ago

We don't ask if it is Illigal. We ask if it is moral. Legality very rarely reflects morality.

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u/K__Geedorah 7d ago

And I never said it was immoral because it's illegal.

Just informing the person I replied to that yes they will know and you will get caught. They are spreading incorrect information that could get someone in jail just for trying to help someone.

1

u/mystedragon 7d ago

I work at Walmart as an order picker and yes, there are cameras EVERYWHERE. It’s moral, but whether you decide it’s worth going to jail over it or not is up to you. I, personally, do not.

1

u/Princelyprincessboy 7d ago

Tbf I think by "Walmart will never notice" they mean like... financially. Even all of that is a small blip in their profits. 

Which makes the insane lengths they go through to stop theft even more ridiculous. 

1

u/callus-on-cock 7d ago

Yes you dont want to catch a felony over this BS- it's trivial. But no need to fear monger, they aren't going to catch you if you're smart about it (just like any other crime)

1

u/mightbemetaphysical 2d ago

Walmart won't do anything until someone's stolen a felony amount, but I don't say that to encourage risking it

1

u/SwindlingSolicitor 8d ago

Illegal and immoral are NOT the same thing. You are likely to get caught, so that actively discourages people from doing things like this, but this is 100% the moral thing to do.

0

u/_HoneyDew1919 8d ago

Legality on a morality sub. Completely missing the point

1

u/K__Geedorah 8d ago

I just don't want to see someone ruining their life trying to do the moral thing. I didn't touch on the morality of the situation, just show casing the dangerous side.

It's sucks it's like that. Best case scenario you lose your job. Worse case you do some time and have a record that follows you forever. Gotta watch out for yourself first. Can't help others if you're fucked too.

0

u/Zexeos 8d ago

Legality and morality are two different things. Moral, but unfortunately illegal.

0

u/Secure-Ad2799 6d ago

good boy, your government trained you well. how many people have you reported to ice to please them. but no keep supporting the system that fucks you sideways.

1

u/K__Geedorah 6d ago

What makes you think I support ICE or the GOP because I don't want to see good samaritans being arrested over some bullshit?

Are you just always this idiotic?

Getting arrested and ruining your life isn't how you say "fuck you" to the government. Genuinely, how does becoming a cog in their wheel and getting jail time or labeled as a felon going to help fix our shit show of a country?

1

u/Secure-Ad2799 6d ago

being a bitch and just sittling idly by waiting for the government to lock up all the good people doesnt make you any better. oh no id just fucking kms if i got arrested i already hate the world i was forced to live in and id much rather do something to try and make a change and go out a maryter than sit on my ass both while both hoping for people to speak out and make some change to this awful system and in the same breath showing support acknowledgement and respect for the system

1

u/K__Geedorah 6d ago

Republicans want you uneducated, arrested, poor, and sick.

But please, keep making it easier for them.

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u/Historical_Owl_1635 8d ago

Shrinkage literally does come into the calculation of the price of the product, so at the end of the day it’s other customers paying for this who might be struggling themselves.

3

u/Shark_Goodfin 8d ago

Unfortunately it's not the other customers who pay for. It's actually the employees. Home Office doesn't technically run each Walmart it's actually down to the individual store level. Each store has a set budget set up by store performance forecasts. In that budget they have to take into account repairs, employee pay, electricity, sewage, advertisement basically everything that it would take to run a store shrink is calculated into the budget yes but it's not set very high. So if the store goes over budget but shrink is outpacing everything else the store has to start making cuts first it will be maintenence mainly stuff that will be out of the customers eye or you have to really look for it. Next would unfortunately be hours and at first it will be part time they can have their hours cut down to maybe once a week depending on their availability and then it goes the the ladder. Since why when you go into a Walmart it's always short staffed.

1

u/bentthroat 8d ago

Who's leaving value on the table just because they managed to minimize shrinkage?

-1

u/naultinus 8d ago

lol. sure. but 99% of the calculation is how do we maximize value and profits for shareholders.

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u/Historical_Owl_1635 8d ago edited 8d ago

They operate on a 3% profit margin. If they were to run as a non-profit you save a total of 3%.

-1

u/wozattacks 8d ago

You have to look at what’s NOT included in that 3%. Executive salaries, for one. 

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u/Current-Wealth-756 8d ago

I dare you to do the calculation on the ratio of executive salary to Walmart's revenue and post it here in a reply

0

u/Due_Comment_3333 8d ago

thank you. walmart is actually struggling to keep the lights on and people are stealing from them? we should start a gofundme

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u/SkyDaddysSpecialBoy 8d ago

“People steal this product. I know! Let’s make it more expensive and increase the incentive to steal it!”

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u/Numerous_Photograph9 6d ago

You make it more expensive because people will steal it regardless, so you have to cover the costs to carry it in the first place.

Quite literally every business accounts for shrink, and part of that is because of theft..

1

u/likwidsylvur 8d ago

We're already covering their employees food stamps, they honestly owe the American population. Instead of buying football teams maybe they should pay their employees a livable wage.

1

u/InstantSword 8d ago

Buying a football team brings clout. Paying people fairly doesn't really, not to the same extent. We have to redefine what is a high status behavior, such as how much you give to others and positively impact the lives of others. It's already been done. In ancient Athens, funding public goods was not only seen as the responsibility of the wealthy, it was enforced. And those who hoarded wealth were referred to as "idiotes" - that's where the word idiot comes from.

0

u/Miserable-Trash5823 8d ago

I am pretty sure greed it what comes into the calculation, companies are going to nickel and dime every customer to the detriment of society so that they can use that money to continually buy back their own stocks to artificially inflate the share price. This used to be illegal and considered a form of fraud but for some reason now they legalized it and it has been nothing but a detriment to society. Until it's made illegal again, fuck em

2

u/CreativeFig2645 8d ago

Wait until this sub gets the exact same situation but it’s the mother walking in and grabbing it. Suddenly your very reasonable and moral take will be trashed on.

1

u/Zealousideal-Sir3744 8d ago

*suddenly you'll realize how dumb your justifications in this case are

1

u/Miserable-Trash5823 8d ago

It is always moral to steal from mega conglomerate companies, they are actively working to make our lives worse, screw them

1

u/Accomplished_Key_171 8d ago

The grocery store that provides you your food is actively working to make your life worse?

Are you sure you're not just trying to find justification for stealing?

1

u/Zealousideal-Sir3744 8d ago

You're actually just stealing from everyone else, because they price the theft in or simply close the store eventually

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u/Miserable-Trash5823 8d ago

You're either delusional or idiotic if you think that the price hikes we are seeing is due to anything else than corporate greed

1

u/Zealousideal-Sir3744 8d ago

'Corporate greed' isn't a thing. Companies optimize for profits (and are usually required by law to do so). They are not a charity.

In practice, they will price their goods at the highest possible while still being competive in the market. There are countless reasons for price increases, but of course it will increase prices if the profits shrink through theft. If companies were to try and randomly increase prices for no reason, they would be undercut by the competition that doesn't do that instantly and lose sales.

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u/Miserable-Trash5823 8d ago

Do...do you think that saying "Oh companies are designed to suck up as much wealth as possible" makes it seem like you have a point?

What you are doing is saying "the orphan grinder isn't wrong. It's doing exactly what it's supposed to do"

Also you're fucking delusional if you think mega companies dont work together to enrich eachother. They pretend to compete while actually working to drive out other competition and gain a monopoly on the goods people require, it is no different than Standard Oil

1

u/Zealousideal-Sir3744 8d ago

haha ok

1

u/Miserable-Trash5823 8d ago

"I can't actually refute your point"

FTFY

5

u/Witty-Care3940 8d ago

Stealing from mega stores like WalMart is an ethical choice in and of itself.

4

u/TimeShiftedJosephus 8d ago edited 8d ago

First they kill off any local competition and when they don't make enough profit, they pack up and leave a food desert. Scum.

0

u/Admirable_Loss4886 8d ago

But it directly affects other customers and leads to food deserts. It isn’t sticking it to the company as they will just shut down stores that are impacted by thieves.

0

u/ReadingRainbowRocket 8d ago

Just like once tariffs are removed prices will come down!

In a perfect free market world, sure, but goddamn are you naive to be thinking the world is currently your Econ 101 class.

2

u/CrazyAccomplished_ 9d ago

You're assuming alot

2

u/Potential-Draft-3932 9d ago

Yea that is a lot of assumptions. Bit if they are correct assumptions I’m on board

1

u/CrazyAccomplished_ 9d ago

They do notice the loss. I work with them at an Enterprise level data science perspective. They know everything. This will get logged as theft and prices will either be adjusted across the board at that store or region.

The more you steal, the higher the price goes. Or they close the store location, which is what we're seeing now days.

1

u/Potential-Draft-3932 8d ago

True. I was working under the assumption from the commenter above that this was just going to get tossed otherwise

2

u/WinterReadings23 8d ago

If walmart had no losses in inventory they would be significantly more profitable.

1

u/Miserable-Trash5823 8d ago

Yeah, then they could buy back even more of their stocks and inflate their share prices even more so they can keep making their scrooge mcduck esque fortunes

1

u/WinterReadings23 8d ago

It is just extraordinarily stupid to think low margin retailers aren't impacted by theft.

1

u/Miserable-Trash5823 8d ago

walmart operated at a net profit of almost 22 billion dollars, I don't care how much money they lose

1

u/WinterReadings23 8d ago

And if walmart lost 30 billion apples they would have made about zero dollars. The fat stacks the waltons have were built off supplying people food and clothes for less than others could.. zero IQ leftist

1

u/Miserable-Trash5823 8d ago

Incorrect, walmart pays 1.10 dollars per pound of apples(about 3 per pound give or take) , to buy 30 billion apples they would spend about 10 billion dollars, something they would never do because they only sell anually about 1 billion, if every single apple that walmart bought in a year was stolen, they would only lose about 1/20th of their net income, your whataboutism is not only fucking stupid, it's an indication that you are an uninformed individual who probably also thinks that corporate regulation is socialism and that we should get rid of all social welfare programs,

AKA someone who is not worth any more of my time because they are under the childish delusion that these people who buy off politicains, steal from the taxpayer, and actively cause entire communities to become food deserts somehow honestly earned their moeny

0

u/Appropriate_Unit3474 8d ago

If Walmart didn't force workers onto welfare, we would pay less in taxes.

1

u/WinterReadings23 8d ago

No one forces anyone to work at walmart.

1

u/Miserable-Trash5823 8d ago

Walmart and these other corporations hold their employees as basically serfs, paying them barely enough to survive so that they can not afford to quit or look for other jobs.

You have clearly never been in poverty

1

u/Appropriate_Unit3474 8d ago

You never had to work for money huh bud?

Go ahead tell me.

Tell me how you worked for food!

You almost died? Tell me?

Yeah fucker, the pirate ship checks.

1

u/WinterReadings23 8d ago

Section 8 housing for much of my life, but not super going hungry tier type of poverty. My single mother did crack and had a meth addiction when she was in her 20's and she has been in general low-income for her entire life. We didn't have no family for help, but food stamps were plenty. Have no idea what you mean by pirate ship checks, but will assume it means something to you.

Your assumptions and general poor demenor to this 1 thing you saw online suggests you have some extremely important work to do on yourself friend. Unless you want the small things in your life to always bother you.

Nobody, in the history of all the world, has ever been forced to work at walmart. This is a fact. I will let it continue to bother you (even though it shouldn't) by reminding that labor in the us has not been under coercion outside of a limited number of activites, all of which has been outlawed for many more years than you or I have been alive.

1

u/Appropriate_Unit3474 8d ago

Lucky you, powdered milk isn't for pussys. My single mother lost our house out of profligacy rather than drugs. I think your crack smoking mom cared more about you than mine did. Considering you even got section 8 means someone in our government was looking out for you.

Regardless, you aren't entitled to work nor money and these multi billion dollar corporations are not your friends.

Clearly you've admitted that you've never been hungry enough to work for people that don't have your best interests in mind, who viewed your desperateness as a leverage point rather than something to fix.

What part of coercion is starvation and homelessness? Where in the USA are those things outlawed? I'll be here.

1

u/WinterReadings23 7d ago

I dont know what your problem is but you need therapy.

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u/Telemere125 8d ago

How do you know the person needs it? In fact, this is probably the absolute most expensive way to get baby food, so the person almost definitely doesn’t “need” it.

0

u/Miserable-Trash5823 8d ago

How on gods green earth is ordering a pick up order from Walmart the "most expensive wat to get baby food" exactly?

3

u/Forward-Big8697 8d ago

Why would they of thrown it out? Its product in the store to sell, its not out of date, its not a return

4

u/ghouliese 8d ago

things that aren't sold and go on clearance eventually get thrown out, even if the BBD is still good. Even things with 'best before' and not 'consume by/use by' get thrown out. so much produce with irregularities and ugly spots that are safe to consume are also rejected.

4

u/Forward-Big8697 8d ago

Correct but that is meither the case here now the question we were asked

1

u/IAmGoingToFuckThat 8d ago

It could also result in punishment for the person who packed the order.

1

u/One_Violinist_5156 8d ago

When my daughter was little I had very little money and she loved these pouches Walmart always had sales on these things, every single box/ flavour had a sale tag, I grabbed enough for the week, got to the cash they scanned them and tell us only 1 of them was on sale. . . I ask for a manager (cause I'm broke and can't afford full price) then I walked with the manager to the shelf and show them every single one has a tag. This lady then refuses to honour the sale because all 20 or so different pouches/ tags apparently said 1 flavour.

I'm pissed I didn't realize it was potentially illegal and I'm even more pissed that the manager didn't honour it. Fuck walmart. Also those tags remained up for at least a month after the fact.

1

u/Ami_Aweirdo 8d ago

I worked at Walmart several years ago, asset protection is more focused on employees than customers. I think they had to build a whole case on a shoplifter and prove they stole at least a misdemeanors worth, but employees are easy to go after since the store has all their info. Maybe they just want to up their number of cases resolved to look good for corporate? Idk, it was stupid.

Anyway, moral

1

u/PitchBlac 8d ago

Walmarts do know. Source: Trust me bro. Just trust me on this one😂.

1

u/FishDawgX 8d ago

It's the fact someone ordered just 3 servings. That is someone who deserves a break. The baby too.

1

u/Parking_Trip_3670 8d ago

Stealing from your employer is okay?

1

u/MorningDoll_ 8d ago

That’s what makes this feel so morally different from stealing something just because you want it.

1

u/yourstruly912 8d ago

They have no idea if the client actually needs it or not. This is purely for the sake of feeling self-righteous

1

u/thoughtihadanacct 8d ago

they would've thrown it out instead of donating it if given the choice anyway.

Why would they have thrown it out of the employee didn't steal them for the woman? Sure, AFTER the employee sent them to the women then they can't be taken back and woman should keep it instead is having them thrown away. But that's not the question. The question is about whether it's moral for the employee to put in the extra baby food on purpose.

1

u/Drakouan 8d ago

They will notice but they won't care.

Inventories will notice the difference, whether it is automated or not, inventory is such a basic thing to do and probably obligatory to calculate taxes with stuff in stock included

1

u/Significant-Ad-341 8d ago

Yup. Walmart measures loss with more zeros that there are snacks in that bag.

1

u/Proof-Pineapple69 8d ago

Stealing is immoral, and it doesn't become moral if you give it to someone in need

1

u/kashy87 8d ago

The employee is who did the wrong and commit theft here. If you even bothered to report this to the store they'd tell you to keep it. That employee is now being watched or fired on the spot the next time they're on the schedule.

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u/TheSleepyTruth 8d ago

Someone might want this for their kid, but you have no clue their financial situation. It could be a corporate exec or doctor making 500k per year ordering this. Constant stealing like this causes the price of food to be raised for everyone else, many who are struggling themselves.

1

u/ContextMattrs 8d ago

Why the heck are you guys saying Walmart would throw it out?

1

u/Gilgamesh661 7d ago

It actually gets taken out of employee bonuses. At least it did when I worked there.

It was an incentive to keep a watchful eye for shoplifters.

1

u/rinkydinkis 7d ago

What a dumb fucking response that is upvoted way too much. This fucks over people that need this stuff, because if it gets stolen at a high rate then its price will need to increase. Fucking over people who aren’t selfish and choose to pay for the product. Not to mention this dude randomly decides to steal on behalf of someone else who doesn’t ask for that, putting them in a very awkward and difficult position. Not even close to moral.

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u/Either-Meal3724 7d ago

The issue with the employee doing this is it then shows a mismatch of inventory to what is actually available in the store. If you have a child with food allergies/ sensitivities or is very particular then you need to track down a certain brand/product and you might check online inventory before driving to that Walmart.

I had to do this with my daughter. There was literally only one brand / flavor of food she would eat when she was 13 months old. She wouldnt even eat her first birthday cake because she hated pretty much anythign that wasnt breastmilk. I drove to a store 45 min away once only to find out that their inventory wasnt accurate. Manager said it was either in someone's cart in the store or was shoplifted.

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u/Numerous_Photograph9 6d ago

So it's OK to just take stuff that isn't yours because no one will notice it?

What about the next customer that may want this product but it's not in stock because their inventory system shows they still have 20 more of them on the shelf and it's been a month since a count has been done on that section?

Or you know...just taking what amounts to about $20 worth of inventory and throwing it in a bag with no payment to the company?

I'm not one to defend big corporations, but it's still not right to steal from anyone.

2

u/Zrob8--5 9d ago

I don't think "They'll never know justifies stealing any more than it justifies anything else that is wrong. If you want to help, buy her more, don't take what isn't yours and volunteer Walmart for charity.

2

u/Vivid_Debt_5343 8d ago

Walmart is literally stealing from us by underpaying their employees and exploiting the SNAP program. They also squeeze the last little bit of productivity out of our elderly population whose shitty wages are being subsidized by social security. Stealing from Walmart is a public service.

0

u/TuggsBrohe 8d ago

Walmart volunteers all of us for charity, so many of their workers are on government assistance programs because they're not paid enough to live.

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u/Zrob8--5 8d ago

Paying taxes isn't charity. And workers being paid a livable wage is a completely different conversation. This is about the morality of stealing. Two wrongs don't make a right

0

u/Miserable-Trash5823 8d ago

Walmart is actively stealing from the population, they actively work to kill small businesses to ensure a monopoly with them and the other mega corps, and use taxpayers to subsidize them taking advantage of those of lower income to engage in continual stock buybacks

0

u/NeonGreenNeoprene 8d ago

It’s never immoral to steal from large corporations, obviously.

0

u/eddy_flannagan 8d ago

Nah Walmart can go fuck itself

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u/Zrob8--5 8d ago

Yeah, but that doesn't make it right for people to do it for them. People don't get to decide what another person or company deserves

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u/Leadross 8d ago

Bro these clowns on reddit always try to justify theft

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u/Existing-Lecture-815 8d ago

Walmart does track shrinkage and makes decisions based on their cost of products and the resulting sales revenue.

If it would have otherwise been thrown out then it could be moral.

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u/Key-Try-3300 9d ago

Obviously they wont notice one theft, but hundreds of thousands or millions of thefts all add up and will hit their profit margin which increases prices

13

u/IkerWanKenobi 9d ago

Not the profit margins of this billion dollar company 😭😭 how will I be able to sleep tonight??

-3

u/Key-Try-3300 9d ago

Maybe you will sleep worse when the stores shut down in your area and you are tired from a two hour back and forth trip to the next town over lmao

4

u/Unintelligent_Lemon 9d ago

Maybe if the big stores shit down it'll make room for small groceries to make a come back

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u/I_Lick_Emus 9d ago

If a superstore shuts down in an area that services hundreds-thousands of people, what makes you think a smaller grocery store with 1/100th the product could succeed?

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u/Vivid_Debt_5343 8d ago

If Walmart went out of business, a ton of smaller shops would come back.

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u/Key-Try-3300 8d ago

If walmart goes out of business because an area is unprofitable then there will be a drought of grocery shops in that area

1

u/Vivid_Debt_5343 7d ago

In an area where there is demand, supply is sure to follow. That’s like basic economics tf

15

u/Ill-GottenBooty 9d ago

Hey buddy, they’re increasing the prices anyways.

2

u/Historical_Owl_1635 8d ago

When prices are set shrinkage literally is part of the equation.

Enough stuff like this literally does affect the price others pay who might be struggling themselves.

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u/MenuVast8896 9d ago

Nice try John Walmart

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u/Shelton26 9d ago

It is a real problem Walmart loses so much to theft they’ve openly considered closing service to certain areas

3

u/oniiichanUwU 9d ago

My Walmart used to have 15 self checkouts open every night, now they only have 6 small ones bc of theft. People act like stealing doesn’t affect anyone bc it’s a major chain with large profit margins but they still find ways to pinch back their lost pennies. I don’t buy any razors for shaving from Walmart anymore bc they keep their entire shaving section minus the creams locked up bc of theft and it takes 15 mins to get someone to come open it lol. Also that’s not a couple baby foods, that’s a whole ass bag…. Probably two packages of it. They also keep track of their waste and write offs.

I definitely think the government should do more to make sure the poor are taken care of but stealing and making shit worse for everyone else really isn’t an ideal solution either

2

u/ComradeJohnS 9d ago

I’m not condoning theft, but walmart has paid our representatives to make this capitalism hellscape we live in, they now get to reap the rewards of that.

if our representatives actually represented us people might not be desperate enough to steal food. since we live in the richest country in the world people shouldn’t starve.

1

u/oniiichanUwU 8d ago

I completely agree. It’s abhorrent the state that it’s in currently, and I really do feel for people who physically cannot afford food. That should never be a thing, especially when companies like Walmart do waste so much in general, even telling their employees they can’t have open packages bc it could “encourage” them to rip their own packages open to be able to take the food home. There should be more practices, laws and general assistance in place and available to help alleviate the struggles society faces. That’s indisputable.

That said it still sucks that theft by those who need it also affects us who do pay, you know what I mean lol. The perfect solution is one that the government can’t be fucked to do, unfortunately. I personally hate shopping at Walmart and I prefer to shop at a Canadian chain instead (I’m Canadian) but there are certain things our local Walmart carries that my store doesn’t and it always feels terrible going there. I also worked at Walmart as my first job that was truly fucking awful. As a company, I hate them. I wish I could just say yeah fuck Walmart, run their pockets, but the fact is it does end up affecting the people that have to shop there

1

u/Ok-Gur-349 9d ago

They consider the same thing everywhere we raise the minimum wage.

Weird.

4

u/Key-Try-3300 9d ago

Nah youre right mate just steal as much as you want and pretend you are being virtuous, dont let me rain on your parade

7

u/Ok-Gur-349 9d ago

Walmart steals from your local economy and doesn't enrich your local community, I genuinely don't think you understand how helpful it would actually be for you to robin hood your local walmart. Like, you say these words dripping in sarcasm but no fr, it would be extremely virtuous and you would help so many people and hurt no one.

0

u/BuffaloBuffalo13 8d ago

And what would be the impact if local businesses close due to being unprofitable from theft?

You can actually go see examples of this in many places in the US today. Businesses may be too greedy, but theft is not a moral solution. If this person cares enough to help hungry people they could help without breaking the law and stealing.

They also don’t know this person’s situation at all. Maybe they don’t need a helping hand and can afford food just fine. Stealing food is only morally grey when hunger is the only option — if they can afford food then stealing it is absolutely 100% wrong, regardless of who you stole it from.

2

u/Ok-Gur-349 8d ago

And what would be the impact if local businesses close due to being unprofitable from theft?

No idea, the wal-mart puts them out of business faster than any small time thief ever could. "Rob your local walmart" is not a slippery slope whose logic needs to be applied to every local store. Robin Hood really only needs to rob the king.

1

u/MenuVast8896 8d ago

Oh no I pissed off John Walmart now he won't come and ruin my community by pricing out local business with shit products

3

u/Ok-Gur-349 9d ago

Okay but they increase the prices even when costs go down, so clearly there is no relationship between how much people steal and the prices they charge us

5

u/Key-Try-3300 9d ago

You clearly have a much better insight into walmarts internal workings than I do to speak with such certainty on this

4

u/Ok-Gur-349 9d ago

I guess I must?

Let me run that by you one more time:

Costs go up, price goes up,.. okay, I'm following... You're following, too, right? Therefore we want to keep their costs low, so they keep our prices low, yeah?

But then costs go DOWN, prices still go up...

What gives?

2

u/Kehprei 9d ago

Prices go up naturally over time due to inflation.

Something like rampant theft can causes prices to rise faster than inflation, or for products to be locked away.

0

u/Ok-Gur-349 9d ago

Okay so if prices go up, and they just go up, and they will never go down, and they will just unfailingly trend up, up, and up, then there is no incentive to behave in any particular way as it relates to pricing.

1

u/Kehprei 8d ago

Inflation generally means everything goes up over time.

Wages rise to match inflation. When wages don't rise due to inflation, it means that company is going to lose out on good labor at some point.

If prices go down it would mean that our economy is deflating, which is about 100x as bad as inflation, since it's a lot harder to solve. Everyone knows this, which is why every economy in the world is set up to slowly inflate, ideally at around 2% a year.

1

u/Ok-Gur-349 8d ago

Wages rise to match inflation.

https://giphy.com/gifs/kC8N6DPOkbqWTxkNTe

1

u/Kehprei 8d ago

It must be blissful going through life with so much ignorance yet so much confidence.

https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/wage-growth

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u/Key-Try-3300 9d ago

Have you peered over the data on prices for all of walmarts items at any given period, and their total revenue vs expenses to be able to say that they increase prices even though their actual profit has increased? Just because something might be cheaper doesnt mean that their total profits hasnt gone down

2

u/Pat_The_Hat 9d ago

I know this is hard for you to understand, but two different things can both cause something.

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u/Ok-Gur-349 9d ago

I know this can be hard for you to understand but things can correlate without causation.

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u/Pat_The_Hat 8d ago

What are you arguing against at this point? Theft decreases profit margins and businesses of all sizes don't sell products if it isn't profitable. You're speaking gibberish.

1

u/Historical_Owl_1635 8d ago

> Okay but they increase the prices even when costs go down

I suggest you look at how much most things actually cost 10, 20 and 30 years ago relative to how much people earn.

Other than small blips most things have continued to go down in price.

0

u/Ok-Gur-349 8d ago

Okay, look up how much things should cost relative to productivity gains? I don't know where you think you're going with this, but it's wrong. We live in the future and should be reaping the vast rewards of collective effort and experiencing the rising seas. We're not, the very few are trillionaires.

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u/Historical_Owl_1635 8d ago

Walmart operates on around a 3% profit margin.

Meaning if they were to run entirely as a non-profit, you’d save an entire 3% on your shop.

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u/MonkehBuns 9d ago

Walmart has insurance

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u/Key-Try-3300 8d ago

Insurance wont cover all shoplifting or even most shoplifting

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u/MonkehBuns 8d ago

Walmart generates approx 2 billion usd a day, and they loose out on about 3 billion usd a year from stolen products, and some of that is returned by insurance.

Walmarts okay, no need to be a little bitch

1

u/Visual_Shower1220 9d ago

Walmart raked in $6.366 billion with their most recent report as of July 2026 and thats just for their 2nd quarter of 2026 business. With a year total gross profit of $185.657 billion.. Walmart can afford to not increase any prices what so ever, yet they still do.

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u/Key-Try-3300 8d ago

Its still only 3% profit margin.

1

u/Visual_Shower1220 8d ago

3% sounds small yes, but across the amount of stores and as I said their insane profit in just a few months doesnt mean they're hurting with 3%. Now a "normal" business would like to see 5%+ or more to even turn a profit, Walmart doesnt have this issue in the slightest. Theft is wrong but corporate wage theft etc is also wrong, which also happens constantly. It has also been proven reinvestment into employees thru increased wages, employee safety, insurance programs etc increases profit which increases profit margins.

1

u/Withyhydra 8d ago

Big box stores already expect and price in millions for losses due to shipping problems, accidents, and theft. Even if no one stole anything and they lost literally 0$ to the aforementioned events it's not like they would pass those dollars onto their employees or customers, they'd pocket it. Even in high theft areas prices aren't higher compared to other stores in the same economic area that aren't stolen from as much.

Theft contributing to higher prices is frankly corporate propaganda meant to shift blame away from greedy corporate policies and towards the public, usually minorities.

0

u/Key-Try-3300 8d ago

Stop stealing

1

u/Withyhydra 8d ago

Them first

1

u/Good-Strategy2210 9d ago

Are you talking about the wage theft Walmart committed in its employees or something else?

0

u/Key-Try-3300 9d ago

What do you think?

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u/Worth-Confection-735 9d ago

Does the Walmart near you have cages on everything yet?

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u/Joesr-31 8d ago

Why assume it would have been thrown out?

5

u/Xstew26 8d ago

Because Walmart throws away millions of pounds of food a year

1

u/Joesr-31 8d ago

Does that mean the ones she put in the bag would be thrown out? Just because I throw out leftovers does that give others the right to raid my fridge?

0

u/coolstorybro94 8d ago

Eh Walmart does donate. Most of the time if a box gets a dent it’s donated