#shoplifiting

The rise of the anti-Amazon avengers

Irate Americans are registering their economic outrage by stealing from Jeff Bezos

The Bezos bashers' complaints ran the gamut: Whole Foods is a gentrifier; he's just too rich; shooting himself into space is gauche. Whatever anyone's precise justifications, there have been plenty of headlines and accusations that paint Bezos and his companies in an unflattering light. Amazon's e-commerce practices are bad for the environment. His businesses have been widely criticized for their approach to workers, including subjecting them to brutal work conditions and engaging in wage theft. His recent political turn and push to exert more influence over The Washington Post, which he owns, has turned many people off and reportedly lost the paper thousands of subscribers.

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In the current economy, it's hard not to feel like you're being taken advantage of at every turn. Everything's getting more expensive, but corporate profits are still going up. Companies are constantly cutting costs, whether that means laying off workers or making it impossible to talk to a customer service representative on the phone. People feel like they have to be on guard against business trickery and slights. If you've shrugged and said, "That's how they get you," enough times, you start to think about how you'll get them. People feel like big business has broken the social contract, so they can break it back.

‘Frifting’ (free shopping) is a legitimate action for the working class to take in ongoing class war. Staying above the poverty line, for many, is a full-time job.

Be sure to target large corporations and not “ma and pa” joints, take what you need, and even what you can (giving to others in need), or at least turn a blind eye.

This is a short guide – DM Semper for more.

Consider establishing a ‘safety radius’ Do not frift close to home.

Ensure you’re frifting during peak hours and the busiest days of the week.

Park (if driving) away from the building, and take CCTV into account.

GROCERY STORES

Wear a mask and cover identifieables – piercings, tattoos, and your hair.

Ensure you can afford what you’re frifiting: “whoops, sorry, I’ll pay now”.

Go to whichever self-serve machine is closest to the staff monitoring them.

CLOTHING CHAINS

Take 2 of each item.

Take off the metal tags. In some stores (eg. UniQlo), barcodes trigger alarms.

Put on the clothes you’re frifting, and layer them: loosest first, tightest last.

Ditch additional clothes & hangers out of sight from CCTV/staff, in other changing rooms, or on rack.

PICK YOUR CHARACTER (LARP)

Confused, stressed, & clumsy nerd: dress like IT worker, take a phonecall.

Flirtatious, sexy, & slow to understand: pretend not to understand self-service.

Business/upper-class attire.

Stressed parent/s with upset child: induce your child to throw a tantrum.

Shadow your friend who is “shopping”: take thrifted items and wait for them.

Lastly, make sure you’re not being followed, and be sure to leg it if all else fails.

What the actual fuck is wrong with you people. Go fucking burn if you think it’s okay to simply repeatedly steal things that are not even necessities to your lifestyle. Especially the fact that most of you fuckers are from completely well-off families or aren’t even 18 yet.

Kiss my ass and go get a fucking job, you fucking butthurt crybabies. You don’t have a hard life. Stop making excuses. There’s no fucking excuse to go around and start stealing things, especially when you could potentially hurt an employee’s wage by doing so.

Can’t afford that expensive lipstick, purse, sweater, etc. that you want? You fucking work for it until you’re able to earn it. You don’t fucking steal it, you fucking trash.

I hit Vivec up for some more stuff. First stop was the Telvanni mage in the Telvanni compound, and I managed to nick quite a few things without notice!

7 Greater Soul Gems: 60 Septims each

8 Petty Soul Gems: 10 Septims each

3 Grand Soul Gems: 200 Septims each

1 Common Soul Gem: 40 Septims

Total Savings: 1860 Septims!

There were a ton of Ordinators walking around and I’m already on the rocks with them due to this whole “Nerevarine” business, so I went off to the Foreign Quarter where it was much less guarded. I grabbed some stuff from one of the smith’s in the plaza that appealed to me.

1 set of Repair Tongs: 6 Septims

17 Chitin Throwing Stars: 3 Septims each

Total Savings: 57 Septims!

I nearly got caught when I grabbed the tongs, so I went and laid low in the lower waistworks for a little while before picking up some reading material from Jobasha’s Rare Books. THAT was a risky haul since there was an Ordinator standing right in front of the bookshelves, but I made off with three books before hightailing it to Balmora.

Boethiah’s Glory: 25 Septims

Confessions of a Skooma Eater: 25 Septims

Words of Clan Mother Ahnissi: 40 Septims

Total Savings: 90 Septims!