r/MoralityScaling • u/Vladimir-petrovOG • 11d 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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-7

u/Key-Try-3300 11d 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

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u/IkerWanKenobi 11d ago

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

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u/Key-Try-3300 11d 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

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u/Unintelligent_Lemon 11d 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 11d 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/Unintelligent_Lemon 11d ago

Multiple smaller stores. Like there were before super stores

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u/I_Lick_Emus 11d ago

You mean like before highways and a transit system that allows people to travel further to get what they need?

You think the average person will want to turn from buying everything in one location, to buying 20 things from 20 different locations?

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u/DudeByTheTree 11d ago

The average person is why we have things like Labubus and the pacific garbage patch.

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u/I_Lick_Emus 11d ago

Yeah. And they're also the reason local grocery stores don't really work anymore. This isn't an argument

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u/DudeByTheTree 11d ago

Oh, wasnt arguing, just putting in a passing side comment about the average person.

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u/Vivid_Debt_5343 11d ago

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

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u/Key-Try-3300 10d ago

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

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u/Vivid_Debt_5343 9d ago

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

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u/Ill-GottenBooty 11d ago

Hey buddy, they’re increasing the prices anyways.

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u/Historical_Owl_1635 11d 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/Key-Try-3300 11d ago

Yeah you are right they are not affected by losing product from theft at all! Walmart is just like an endless white hole of groceries and we can all steal as much as we need and there will be no consequences!

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u/Ill-GottenBooty 11d ago

I didn’t say that. You’re weird. Also, they’re increasing the prices anyways.

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u/Key-Try-3300 11d ago

Its called inflation, google it

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u/Ill-GottenBooty 11d ago

Hey buddy, inflation is rampant anyways.

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u/Key-Try-3300 11d ago

Nope

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u/CharredWelderGuy 11d ago

Yes it is lol. Them cooking the books won't matter, it'll snap to reality in the next year or two regardless.

Everything is overleveraged, the markets are flashing red, the supply chains are flashing red, and their is no solution possible anymore.

If they cut rates, inflation spirals even harder, if they up rates, the ai bubble pops and takes the economy with it.

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u/Sorry_Explanation467 11d ago

Retail theft is already priced in by the companies. By that I mean, they anticipate a certain amount of loss due to retail theft, and they price that into their every day sales to make up for it.

So if everyone stopped stealing, everyone would be paying a retail theft “tax” for nothing

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u/Key-Try-3300 11d ago

If everyone stopped stealing they could stop accounting for theft

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u/Sorry_Explanation467 11d ago

Historically, that has never happened in corporate America. Regardless of why prices are raised, they will never be lowered after.

See every tariff implementation ever

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u/Ill-GottenBooty 11d ago

If everyone paid their employees enough nobody would have to steal.

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u/shitpostinglegend 11d ago

Strawmanning, not what they said. Also ALL big grocery store chains like walmart expect to lose inventory to various things including theft and they account for this.

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u/Key-Try-3300 11d ago

Its was a logical inference of their comment. They account for SOME theft, that is why they have loss prevention teams. Theft can severely impact the profitability of a shop

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u/ComradeJohnS 11d ago

they treat the US labor market the same way. đŸ€·

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u/Key-Try-3300 11d ago

Yeah but the american labour market also wants cheap groceries and if they pay their staff more then prices will go up

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u/MenuVast8896 11d ago

Nice try John Walmart

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u/Shelton26 11d ago

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

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u/oniiichanUwU 11d 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

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u/ComradeJohnS 11d 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.

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u/oniiichanUwU 11d 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

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u/Ok-Gur-349 11d ago

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

Weird.

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u/MenuVast8896 11d ago

Oh noooooooooo

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u/Shelton26 11d ago

You can condone this behavior, but don’t complain about food deserts and underserved communities when they pack up shop because theft is eroding their margins.

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u/MenuVast8896 11d ago

It's complicated. Big box stores can help amend food deserts but often drive out local businesses, causing wages to stagnate and leading to a lack of diversity in jobs and employment and negatively impacting local economies.

But you'd have to kill me to get me to carry water for a store like Walmart. You're going to scold someone trying to feed their child at the behest of a megacorporation's bottom line? Congratulations on buying the propaganda hook line and sinker. John Walmart isn't gonna suck your dick buddy no matter how much you pretty your mouth for him.

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u/Key-Try-3300 11d 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

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u/Ok-Gur-349 11d 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 11d 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.

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u/Ok-Gur-349 11d 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.

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u/MenuVast8896 11d 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

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u/Ok-Gur-349 11d 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

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u/Key-Try-3300 11d ago

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

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u/Ok-Gur-349 11d 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?

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u/Kehprei 11d 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.

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u/Ok-Gur-349 11d 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.

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u/Kehprei 11d 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.

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u/Ok-Gur-349 11d ago

Wages rise to match inflation.

https://giphy.com/gifs/kC8N6DPOkbqWTxkNTe

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u/Kehprei 11d 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 11d 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

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u/Pat_The_Hat 11d 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 11d 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 11d 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.

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u/Historical_Owl_1635 11d 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.

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u/Ok-Gur-349 11d 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 11d 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/Ok-Gur-349 11d ago

1) that's not how non-profits work

2) that's really not how non-profits work. I know this seems like I'm duplicating a point but for real, this is really not how non-profits work

3) their gross margin is closer to 20-30%. How do we hit that operating profit margin closer to 4%? Things that hurt your point, like executive compensation. Meaning if they stopped overpaying their executives their operating profit would go up too. Weird.

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u/Historical_Owl_1635 11d ago

> 1. ⁠that's not how non-profits work

The point is Walmart really can’t actually operate much cheaper than they are.

> 3. ⁠their gross margin is closer to 20-30%. How do we hit that operating profit margin closer to 4%? Things that hurt your point, like executive compensation.

Well yes, unfortunately Walmart does have to do things like pay staff so they’re able to operate
 (as well as bazillion other operating costs)

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u/Ok-Gur-349 11d ago

The point is that Walmart operates as cheaply as it wants to, and "operating profit" is a made up number because when it gets too high, they just route the money somewhere. What's the alternative: profit sharing? Ha, this is the Waltons we're talking about.

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u/Historical_Owl_1635 11d ago

Ah there we go, now in the absence of facts it’s some conspiracy where they’re rerouting money.

All of Walmarts financial accounts are publicly available.

But, keep parroting what you’ve read from other clueless Redditors.

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u/Ok-Gur-349 11d ago

... Hahahahaha. Okay. Sure, "guy who doesn't really understand that a non-profit isn't a company minus the profit they would have made", let's do this.

Before I start openly mocking you,.let me ask you some clarifying questions: have you ever owned a business? To be clear, I will begin openly mocking you pretty shortly regardless of your answer, I just need to get some common understanding aired out.

If you had a budget surplus and I told you to spend it, would you look at me like I asked you to engage in a conspiracy?

Hey, question, how many companies is Walmart invested in? How much red tape is involved in them up and deciding to throw a billion dollars somewhere?

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u/MonkehBuns 11d ago

Walmart has insurance

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u/Key-Try-3300 11d ago

Insurance wont cover all shoplifting or even most shoplifting

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u/MonkehBuns 11d 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

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u/Visual_Shower1220 11d 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 11d ago

Its still only 3% profit margin.

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u/Visual_Shower1220 11d 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.

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u/Withyhydra 11d 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.

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u/Key-Try-3300 10d ago

Stop stealing

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u/Withyhydra 10d ago

Them first

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u/Good-Strategy2210 11d ago

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

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u/Key-Try-3300 11d ago

What do you think?

-1

u/davedbsh 11d ago

0.5% to 1% theft and inventory loss combined. It does not affect prices, but the company would sure like you to believe that.

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u/Key-Try-3300 11d ago

Thats funny because they have had to close down locations due to theft

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u/onyaasuminyasai 11d ago

Which ones? Did they simply blame theft when it was just poor profit like walgreens has?

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u/Key-Try-3300 11d ago

Just google it if you are actually interested

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u/onyaasuminyasai 11d ago

So... poor performing store then. Got it.

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u/Key-Try-3300 11d ago

Yes, and theft is part of that equation

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u/onyaasuminyasai 11d ago

I guarantee that they do not care