Locking Up Stores' Merchandise Is Ruining One Writer's 'Happy Place'By Jim Thompson
August 15, 2023
Stacy Torres has a long resume filled with everything but living. She teaches at UC San Francisco in the sociology department and is affiliated with another half dozen departments, including “The Institute for the Study of Societal Issues.” She often writes Op/Eds for “leading” publications about social issues. In May, she wrote about never having a smartphone or “used social media,” yet several paragraphs deeper, she writes about getting off Twitter and dealing with compulsive texting.
A few days ago, she penned another op/ed that suspended logic. Stacy, it seems, is bummed that her Bay Area grocery store is locking up items. Stacy is perplexed. Her “happy place” used to be her Safeway grocery store located in Rockridge, close to Oakland.
Stacy writes:
Some people seek a bar or nature hike when they feel low. I go to the supermarket.
My spirits lift as I stroll the aisles. I bop along to easy-listening music. Exchanging pleasantries with cashiers lessens my loneliness. I celebrate the small wins — I procured broccoli (OK, and ice cream) — and leave with renewed purpose.
As someone with depression, I find that brick-and-mortar businesses help me avoid isolation by providing a space to be alone with others. But my happy places — supermarkets and pharmacies — say they have seen increasing theft and violence.
Torres believes that retail stores, particularly her happy place, have an obligation to customers. They bear a social responsibility to entertain her while she shops for broccoli. Anti-theft measures are but a “band-aid” for what she sees as the real problem: “socioeconomic conditions such as inflation, poverty and opportunity deficits.”
She suggests “long-term investments in our social safety net, including restoring SNAP benefits slashed for millions in March, and ensuring access to high-quality education, job training and a living wage, will alleviate economic desperation.”
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Source:
https://redstate.com/jimthompson/2023/08/15/locking-up-stores-merchandise-is-ruining-one-writers-happy-place-n2162670
