To a capitalist, there is no good shoplifting.

You’ve misunderstood the thesis of the post.

Nobody’s going to check the expiration dates on what you stole before arresting you.

Only cops can make an arrest where I am and there is only an occasional security contractor at the shops.

You don’t think the moment store staff sees and reacts that I will be able to get a word in edgewise about the date before police are even called? You don’t think the value of stolen goods is relevant when a judge enters a judgment?

You took stuff off their shelves that they could have sold

Nonsense. Not in the face of the law.

I once asked if I could get the zero waste pricing on something that was a day past expiry. They confiscated the food from me and told me they cannot sell it to me. Don’t you think it might be illegal for a grocer to knowingly and willfully sell expired food? Do you think they would actually try to present as an argument to a judge that they could have sold something that expired?

In the US, I once discovered I bought several things that expired and brought it back because I was not happy to pay regular price for expired food. They would not negotiate a markdown but took it all back and refunded the price I paid times two, and the CSR asked me to bring her to where that item was so she could remove the other expired packages.

come on, do you really think stores pull expired product the day it expires?

It’s not a conspiracy. You either have an absurd amount of confidence in their competency or an unrealistic and unhealthy presumption of malice toward customers by min wage workers just trying to get through their day. I’ve seen enough to know that they pull items when they notice. I sometimes see them carting off food and marking down food near expiry. They don’t have an inventory system that tracks expiration dates and sends notifications. This isn’t Wal·Mart -- It’s a manual human effort to check all those dates which are not well visible. The reason food makes it to the date of expiry is because they sometimes miss things days earlier that they need to mark down 30%. I’m not sure how to convince you there is no conspiracy. They are busy. I never see them standing around or idling.

I really hope my supermarket believes this too!