Comments by "irresistablejewel" (@irresistablejewel) on "Black Leaders DEMAND Walgreens Let Them STEAL" video.

  1. No. The protesters are upset that they are losing a medical dispensary; there is also evidence that retail theft in Boston is up (12%); but unless you are accusing the sick and elderly of theft these are two entirely different matters. I believe "Bath, Bed and Beyond" recently closed over 400 stores; the reason given wasn't theft, it was: recession; inflation pushing up the cost of borrowing up; covid... other reasons. It doesn't excuse theft, but there are problems with the supermarket chain model. They've moved into other professions; now they are chemists; opticians; tobacconists; off license; even selling insurance and local businesses find it difficult to compete (even with the ones that don't give political contributions) and one closing down leaves a hole. If it's a recession they'll close down their foreign operations; lay-off staff; keep only the most profitable stores... yes it's all about profit and staying in business... and this store didn't say it was closing down because of theft (that's your claim). While the root cause of people stealing food is most likely poverty (which is rising, right across the Western economy). The father of economics, Adam Smith, did not like: mass production and big companies entirely focused on profit; he believed companies must put something back into the community besides just wages for their employees; otherwise you get things like Detroit in a recession; where after a boom in car manufacture, companies made their money then left: a lot of brown field sites; a 16% unemployment rate and a lot of people left with them. This focus on profit can cause a lot of damage to local communities. There are other ways supermarkets could sell food, but it would undoubtedly cost them more (and these costs usually get passed on to the customer) while here in the 21st century: companies like Amazon are doing to supermarkets what they did to local retailers; supermarkets are also major contributors to plastic waste and they throw a lot of food away. So while the private sector companies mission statement is to maximize profit for their shareholders, I doubt (m)any live in that community; companies want the rights accorded to people, some of the employees in these multinationals require "welfare" (so the taxpayer is, in effect, subsidizing their profits). Another odd thing is that if you give the rich money, they often don't need to spend it; while poor people do. It's up to Wallgreens what they pay people; as long as it's above minimum wage; but the CEO's annual wage (in 2021) was a basic wage of $695,652 and in total (including other forms of compensation) $28,333,498. The job may be highly dangerous; they may give a lot to charity, but that's a lot of produce to sell just to make $700K. That's their business, but removing a medical dispensary; that's the communities business. So I don't regard your headline "Black Leaders DEMAND Walgreens Let Them STEAL" as an honest portrayal of events. You seem to want to blame the wrong people; want to call others stupid when the community should have basic medicine available for reasons of common sense and we don't have a statement from the company as to the reason(s) the store intends to close. I'm not trying to talk Wallgreens down, but a lot of companies (some household names) have gone bankrupt recently; banks are closing branches; profitable outlets are being closed (not profitable enough). If you have a solution to that, or why the area is so poverty stricken; that would be of some interest; but thieves don't usually ask, or demand, permission to steal. It doesn't work that way. If you want to be a serious investigative journalist, you'll need to stop blaming the wrong people; recessions kill a lot of poor people, shareholders not so much; while theft is a police matter.
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