LETTER: Stealing from whom?

I am somewhat disappointed with today’s perspective. (‘A how-to on scamming the ‘smart’ cart’, Dec. 1, p. 5).’ While your publishing of the perspective doesn’t shock me, I am nonetheless offended by your tacit approval of shoplifting. Waite seems to gloss over that particular aspect of his perspective, but his blatant advocacy of theft is no joke. The perspective is, yes, tongue-in-cheek, but it is true that people are stealing from Stop & Shop, and The Daily Free Press is not only failing to discourage people from doing so, but encouraging theft.

As a retail worker, I am trained to look out for shoplifting. After all, when my store sells something, the money is used to pay for more workers and more hours for existing workers. That’s how I get paid. When someone walks out of the store with $500 worth of merchandise, that’s $500 the store will never see, and $500 my coworkers and I will never get. Stealing from a store is not stealing from some faceless, evil corporation. It is stealing from the real people who work for the faceless, evil corporation.

But, Waite might argue, he is only stealing $20 worth of paprika and cereal! But Waite is not the only one. If six people steal $20 worth of merchandise each (a somewhat generous assumption) over the course of a day, the company loses $120. If this happens every day, the company will lose $840 each week. That $840 could pay for 105 hours of work at $8 per hour.

Ultimately, shoplifting affects real people who you probably see every time you walk through that store. And when the economy-which is based on people purchasing things, not taking them-is in crisis, why do you feel it necessary to print this? I must simply voice my disappointment in your choice of perspective, and most sincerely ask you to think of the repercussions of what you choose to publish.

Bryan Zaramba

Kohl’s employee

Boston