Quality of Life

We don’t have this where I live. Everything is standing openly on the shelves at Target, Walgreens, Walmart, everywhere. The only thing I’ve seen locked down are bottles of Scotch upwards of $300.

I’ve heard in some places even detergent is under lock and key.

For a normal person, these locked shelves are a signal of a lower quality of life. When everybody gets treated like a criminal because there are many criminals in a community, that has a demoralizing effect.

When I traveled to the UK in 1990, little stores would place their wares outside. There was no supervision, and as a Soviet child I was stunned by this carefree, trusting approach. When I went back to the UK in 2012 and 2015, I no longer saw that. And it’s sad.

2 thoughts on “Quality of Life

  1. That is one of the more obvious cultural differences between VN and PE: In VN everything is set up as though the default setting is zero shoplifting. You can pick up anything and look at it. In PE, there are many many shops where it is really just a counter. You ask for the thing you need, they go get it, you pay for it, and they give it to you.

    Shops like this in the US are a step down even from PE: it is all the anti-theft security, minus the customer service. There was, at least, always someone friendly available at the counter, who would get stuff *for* you, there’s a friendly social interaction, and even though it’s to prevent theft, it feels like very nice service. This store full of locked cases… it’s like they *want* it to be as unpleasant as possible. Why not have all that stuff back in the storeroom, and have a counter?

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  2. OT, but thought you might be interested:

    “SENATE AMENDMENT TO INCREASE PROPOSED REMITTANCE TAX

    Senator Eric Schmitt (R-MO) announced an amendment to the Republican budget reconciliation bill which would raise the proposed tax on remittances from 3.5% to 15%.”

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