By Michael Snyder
Food has become a prime target for thieves, and that should deeply alarm all of us. Once upon a time, shoplifting was a minor nuisance for most retailers in the United States. But today the game has completely changed. Highly organized gangs of thieves are systematically looting stores all over the country, and this is costing retailers billions upon billions of dollars. Authorities call it “organized retail crime”, but I call it complete and utter lawlessness. When you have large groups of people storming retail stores all over the nation on a regular basis, that is a major crisis.
Originally, a lot of these gangs were primarily targeting goods that could be resold on the Internet very easily. But now a lot of grocery stores are being targeted, and food is being stolen on a scale that we have never seen before.
In New York City, things have gotten so bad that some stores are thinking of implementing dramatic measures. The following comes from a Fox News article entitled “NYC grocery stores consider locking up food due to rampant theft; workers are ‘traumatized’”…
Shampoo, toothpaste, and razor blades are all items that grocery stores have increasingly started locking behind counters. Soon, that list might include food.
“People have no fear of coming to your store and stealing,” said Nelson Eusebio of the National Supermarket Association.
“Our employees are terrified,” Eusebio continued. “We have young people that come to work, young cashiers who work part-time, these kids are 16-17 years old. They’re traumatized.”
When I first started warning that we are becoming a “Mad Max society”, a lot of people thought that I was exaggerating.
Sadly, the breakdown of law and order just continues to accelerate in many of our largest cities. In fact, it is being reported that grand larcenies “were up 80% in New York City last year”…
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has made a point of combating the repeat offenses. “Criminals believe our criminal justice system is a joke,” Adams said in comments referring to a serial intruder who was arrested and released 26 times. “Those arrested for grand larceny go to court, get released and on their way home from court, they’re doing another grand larceny.”
According to the New York Police Department, grand larcenies, thefts of over $1,000, were up 80% in New York City last year.
Only an 80 percent increase?
Yes, that sounds perfectly “normal” to me.
In other areas of the country, shortages are the big news right now.
I never imagined that Costco would totally run out of eggs in early 2023, but this has actually happened at many of their stores.
As I discussed yesterday, bird flu is one of the factors that is causing supplies of eggs to get tighter.
But as the farmer in this video explains, it is certainly not the only factor.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1612939580902199296
The real reason for the egg shortage is NOT avian flu.
According to this farmer … the producers can’t cover their costs, so there are now millions of fewer hens, and many millions of fewer eggs produced PER DAY. 🧐
No matter how high interest rates go, people still need to eat.
So the Federal Reserve can hike rates to the moon, but food prices are still going to remain ridiculously high.
However, higher rates will crush many other areas of the economy, and some of the biggest names in the corporate world are now conducting mass layoffs…
Goldman Sachs is just the latest firm to reduce its size in recent months. Morgan Stanley announced that it would cut two percent of its staff in December, Amazon plans to cut over 18,000 jobs, and Salesforce announced it would cut ten percent of its workforce and close some offices last week.
While white collar workers were less affected by the COVID-19 pandemic lock-downs than their blue collar counterparts, many jobs were simply done remote instead of being cut, professionals are now bearing the brunt of the economic headwinds America faces.
When are people going to finally understand that we have a major league crisis on our hands?
When Goldman Sachs lays off large numbers of workers, that is a red flag.
When Morgan Stanley lays off large numbers of workers, that is a red flag.
When Amazon lays off large numbers of workers, that is a red flag.
Facebook, Twitter, McDonald’s and Walmart are also laying off workers.
As they used to say in the 1980s, it is time to wake up and smell the coffee.
At this point things are so grim that the World Bank is warning that the entire global economy could plunge into a recession this year…
The global economy is just one more knock away from a second recession in the same decade, something that hasn’t happened in more than 80 years.
That’s the latest warning from the World Bank, which on Tuesday sharply lowered its forecast for global economic growth.
As economic conditions deteriorate, people are going to become increasingly desperate.
And desperate people do desperate things.
So if you think that organized retail theft is bad now, just wait until you see what is ahead.
The social deterioration that we have been witnessing over the past several years will soon accelerate significantly, and that is really bad news for all of us.
Many retail stores on both coasts have already closed due to the epidemic of theft that we are experiencing, and a whole lot more will soon be permanently shut down.
We really are in the process of becoming a “Mad Max society”, and we only have ourselves to blame.
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About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “End Times” is now available on Amazon.com. In addition to my new book I have written six other books that are available on Amazon.com including “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned) When you purchase any of these books you help to support the work that I am doing, and one way that you can really help is by sending copies as gifts to family and friends. Time is short, and I need help getting these warnings into the hands of as many people as possible. I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe. I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article. The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions. I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is definitely a great help. These are such troubled times, and people need hope.
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