This is the result of idiotic left wing policies

K Douglas · Apr 23, 2024

silentkisser said:
The thing with theses videos is that they likely cherry pick what they show, and blame it on things that may or not be relevant. What is this gentleman's great thesis on why there is vacant retail space in that areas? Is he blaming it on crime or the unhoused? Is it because of the debunked shoplifting surge? I mean, some of those could be legit. Or, it could be the building is planning on a refurbishment/renovation and the work hasn't started yet. Or, as I mentioned, maybe they cannot get tenants because companies have downsized their office space needs due to an increase in hybrid work. And commercial real estate is an odd one in the sense that they can have vacancies for a long period of time, then suddenly the property becomes attractive and they become fully leased. It isn't like a vacant house or rental unit.

Look, I will put it this way. The vast majority of theses videos (both from the left and right) cherry pick their viz and supposed facts to make their point or disprove another's. I see this mostly from the right, but that could be because the only place I see this shit is here, and the righties are using it. I don't actively look for it, and usually ignore it for the above reasons.

Debunked shoplifting surge are you nuts? Look at what's happened to SF. The stores have left and they've said on record why they left. What is it with left wingers and their propensity for ignorance?

K Douglas · Apr 23, 2024

jalimon said:
Absolutely.

I would add that work from home since covid simply made it a bit faster.

I co-owned a commercial building in Montreal. It was empty from 2020 to 2023. We now have a single tenant who pays 50% less than would have in 2019. The building is in excellent shape and amazingly located. We are just starting to get some rent offers. But that's only because we are so well located.

Guys, there is 1 trillions of commercials loans that are due to be renegotiated by the end of 2025 in commercial lease. Be prepared for an economic cataclysm. All companies are reducing or even eliminating their office space.

If you blame it on left or right policies you are only fooling yourself.

Quebec is not business friendly that probably has something to do with it. Plus rents are astronomical because pretty much every landlord was on a variable mortgage/credit line.
More companies are going back to the office, at least in hybrid setups.

jalimon · Apr 24, 2024

K Douglas said:
Quebec is not business friendly that probably has something to do with it. Plus rents are astronomical because pretty much every landlord was on a variable mortgage/credit line.
More companies are going back to the office, at least in hybrid setups.

quebec is business friendly dude. Yes on a hybrid setup that is correct. But a setup that needs about 40% of commercial rental of what they used t.

silentkisser · Apr 24, 2024

JohnLarue said:
if big retail chains go bankrupt all the stores close , not just ones under discussion here

if lease rates in inner city blue shitholes have increased you might have a logical argument
without facts you are just speculating 9grasping for straws actually)

govt has a responsibility to provide an environment where business can succeed and employees can work safely
you cited organized shop lifting is not increasing, that represents a small silver of total shop lifting / employee five -finger discounts
if shop lifters are not being prosecuted its a free for all for those willing to self -justify stealing.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/liquor-thefts-lcbo-1.5069842#:~:text=%22This%20is%20the%20worst%20that,due%20to%20theft%20in%202018.&text=LCBO%20staff%20are%20trained%20not,thief%20takes%20off%20with%20products
.

again retailers do not shut down profitable stores
it is as simple as that

You say I'm just speculating. I am. And so are you. My point here is that neither of us have any reliable facts. I am not taking the word of a random YouTuber on this, and I would hope you wouldn't as well. As for companies like retailers, they shut down stores all the time, for a variety of reasons. It could be they are not seeing the return on them they thought they would, or the lease rate went too high and would significantly cut into the bottom line. It could be several other issues. Let's face it, even big chains can underperform in the wrong location, and they might cut their losses. Maybe they thought a big residential project would be built, but it got cancelled or delayed.

Or other factors hurt sales. For instance, the Eglinton LRT in Toronto. If fucked up street traffic and hurt many small businesses that operated there. Yes, you can say that was bad planning (and I doubt most would disagree with that), but it was also something the city desperately needed to help cut down on congestion.

I'm willing to say there is a chance this is related to the crime rate, but you just don't know. You want to blame it on one specific thing, and ignore all the other possible reasons. You are the one who is grasping at straws to fit your narrow focus that leftist policies MUST be behind this, and there can be no other reason.

silentkisser · Apr 24, 2024

K Douglas said:
Debunked shoplifting surge are you nuts? Look at what's happened to SF. The stores have left and they've said on record why they left. What is it with left wingers and their propensity for ignorance?

What is it with you righties to not be critical thinkers? National statistics show that shop lifting has not surged, retailers are not saying they've seen massive increases. And the person who planted that seed in the media was a private security dude who was selling his services to retailers. Are there high profile acts of theft, where folks basically steal high-end stuff and walk right out the door? Yes. But, is it worse than usual? No. That's been happening for a long time. Employees are not allowed to confront the thieves, and they know that. It has NOTHING to do with the current laws. The retailer's insurance company (who, by the way, tend to be VERY conservative) do not want lawsuits or injuries from people trying to stop a shop lifter. Yes, a $2000 TV is expensive cuts into the bottom line, but a $250,000 lawsuit for things like wrongful confinement or what not are even worse.

Basically, thieves know they can usually get away with these thefts because the employees ain't gonna do shit. Nothing to do with lefty or righty laws, no matter how much you wish that was the case.

mandrill · Apr 24, 2024

K Douglas said:
They used to say "Go West young man". Now they're saying "Get the hell outta Dodge"

Kirky, are you ranting about the total horseshit nonsense about the Wicked Dems "decriminalizing" shoplifting again.

Remember what I went and found out and wrote before:

That shoplifting is not "decriminalized". It was just re-classified as a misdemeanour from a felony, so that shoplifters can't clog the system by demanding jury trials. Shoplifting is a misdemeanour (summary conviction offence) in Canada. And the UK. And most other places.

That the surge in shoplifting occurred because insurers will not longer issue insurance coverage for injuries sustained by employees or perps in self-help arrests of suspected shoplifters. Nothing to do with the Dems.

Ok, I want you remember what I just wrote, so you don't post the same horseshit again in 3 weeks' time.

JohnLarue · Apr 24, 2024

silentkisser said:
You say I'm just speculating. I am. And so are you. My point here is that neither of us have any reliable facts. I am not taking the word of a random YouTuber on this,

why not, its the only factual information you have, as you just admitted
visual confirmation (which is a whole lot more believable than some random youtuber claiming ice is melting faster at one of the poles)
its the only factual information you have, but you rejected it immediately and without viewing all of the video

a perfect example of ideological bias doing the thinking for you

and I would hope you wouldn't as well.

sorry , your hopes are dashed

As for companies like retailers, they shut down stores all the time, for a variety of reasons

.
they open more stores than they close, in order to sell more and increase profits.. That's the business model.

It could be they are not seeing the return on them they thought they would, or the lease rate went too high and would significantly cut into the bottom line. It could be several other issues. Let's face it, even big chains can underperform in the wrong location, and they might cut their losses. Maybe they thought a big residential project would be built, but it got cancelled or delayed.

sure, retailing has its ongoing challenges, always has, always will
shrinkage (Theft) is a metric retailers watch closely
they need to sell 5 , 10, 20.... incremental SKUs just to cover the cost of the same SKU that disappeared via the 5 finger discount and zero profits from all those sales
a bump in shoplifting wipes out the profit very quickly

Or other factors hurt sales. For instance, the Eglinton LRT in Toronto. If fucked up street traffic and hurt many small businesses that operated there. Yes, you can say that was bad planning (and I doubt most would disagree with that), but it was also something the city desperately needed to help cut down on congestion.

too funny
1, did you see any construction in the video ? Oh, wait, you did not watch the video
2. now you are pointing out the loonie left city planners may have bankrupted retailers along Eglinton ave. (is that LRT abomination running yet ??) , pretty much confirming the threads title......Too funny

I'm willing to say there is a chance this is related to the crime rate, but you just don't know. You want to blame it on one specific thing, and ignore all the other possible reasons. You are the one who is grasping at straws to fit your narrow focus that leftist policies MUST be behind this, and there can be no other reason.

you rejected the factual information without watching it
what you are willing to say is irrelevant

an option was to say nothing, view the video, do some extra research if you were skeptical
who knows , had you watch the video, you might have noticed something, i.e. filming the same buildings 2 or 3 times

Thanks for confirming the threads title.

JohnLarue · Apr 24, 2024

silentkisser said:
What is it with you righties to not be critical thinkers? National statistics show that shop lifting has not surged, retailers are not saying they've seen massive increases.

Opinion: Why the rise in shoplifting? Blame our addiction to online shopping

Shoplifting has surged to an alarming level across Canada, industry insiders say

www.theglobeandmail.com

Why the rise in shoplifting? Blame our addiction to online shopping
MICHAEL KEMPA
SPECIAL TO THE GLOBE AND MAIL
PUBLISHED APRIL 22, 2024

headline only, but it works

and from loonie left CNN

https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/23/business/retail-crime-economy/index.html

Why retail theft is soaring: inflation, the economy – and opportunity

Published 9:32 AM EDT, Tue May 23, 2023

Retailers large and small say they’re struggling to contain an escalation in store crimes — petty shoplifting to organized sprees of large-scale theft that clear entire shelves of products.

Target last week said it was bracing to lose half a billion dollars this year because of rising theft. Nordstrom, Whole Foods and some other big chains said they were abandoning San Francisco because of changing economic conditions or employee safety. Many other retailers have blamed crime for closing stores.

It’s not clear that crime is growing significantly more serious. But as economic fears grow amid inflation and rising borrowing costs, shoplifting often comes with the territory, industry watchers say.

Need and opportunity become forceful catalysts for driving up incidents of retail crime, experts said.

“A community might be struggling with heavy job losses and people can’t easily find another job. Now they can’t afford basic necessities,” said Read Hayes, criminologist at the University of Florida and director of the Loss Prevention Research Council, which has members including retailers such as Walmart, Target, Home Depot and Gap.

He described two types of store theft plaguing retailers currently.

“There is a trend of people who may have never stolen before, they are unsophisticated in how they steal. They’re taking necessities like bread and meat. We are seeing some of that,” he said.

The bigger bucket, however, is crime of opportunity. “This is organized retail crime. It’s an opportunistic crew stealing specific items from a specific place or one item from many places to resell them,” said Hayes. The stolen goods are most often sold online or to neighborhood mom and pop shops or at street fairs, for example.

Americans are hurting
Among the triggers for shoplifters is inflation. Although inflation is cooling — slowly — US prices are still on the rise, even after a two-year slog of consumers enduring painfully high prices on everything they need to sustain themselves and their families.

Economic distress is amplified on budget-strapped consumers during inflationary periods, said Burt Flickinger, retail expert and managing director of retail consultancy Strategic Resource Group.

“Millions of Americans can’t afford to fully buy their groceries or a full tank of gas, pay for public transportation, their home bills or pay their credit card debt,” he said.

According to a recent Gallup poll, three in five Americans, or 61%, are suffering financial hardship because of rising prices. Among them, lower-income households reported feeling the greatest strain versus higher income brackets.

“Even as inflation has been cooling, the effect of continued high prices has broadened the financial pain Americans are feeling,” the Gallup report said. The recent slowing of inflation, it said, “has so far done little to provide relief for Americans, and it may take more dramatic changes in prices for the harmful effects of inflation to subside.”

Deepening the financial burden for many in those households is the loss of Covid-era boosts to food aid earlier this year, which is likely creating more constraints on families, he said.

“What’s happening in the overall economy matters when you analyze retail crime overall, but also what is happening more locally, in towns and neighborhoods,” said Hayes.

A changing view of crime

Click to expand...

Mark Cohen, director of retail studies at Columbia Business School, agreed that the “multi-layered” problem of escalating retail crime does shine a light on social distress at any given point in time.

“We’re in a period where bad behavior is legitimized, even normalized,” said Cohen. “Gun violence has exploded, bad behavior among citizenry has exploded, civil discord is high and Americans are very polarized.”

Retail crime, he said, is an unfortunate consequence of this as well.

“It’s a manifestation of bad behavior. I can sympathize with someone stealing a sandwich because they are hungry, but not with a thief clearing an entire shelf of products and calmly walking out of a Target store.”

According to the National Retail Federation, the industry’s biggest trade group, large-scale store theft is becoming a bigger part of annual retail “shrink,” a term that refers to merchandise that goes missing due to theft, fraud, damage and other reasons.

The NRF said total annual shrink reached $94.5 billion in 2021, up from $90.8 billion from 2020. Nearly half was attributed to large-scale theft of products. The group said retailers on average saw a 26.5% increase in this type of theft over the previous year.

Retailers are losing profit
For Target, the scope of the challenge is immense, Target’s CEO Brian Cornell, told analysts during the company’s earnings call last week.

“The problem affects all of us, limiting product availability, creating a less convenient shopping experience and putting our team and guests in harm’s way,” said Cornell, who pegged it as an urgent issue “not just for Target, but across the entire retail industry.”

The retailer told CNN that it was experiencing a large number of incidents of shoplifting and organized retail crime in Target stores nationwide.

While no item is being spared, it said many of the products frequently stolen are necessities, such as soaps, shampoos and other personal care items.

But the issue goes far beyond Target, the company believes. “While we’re doing all we can to address the problem, it’s an industry and community issue that can’t be solved by a single retailer,” Cornell said.

But even with a retail bellwether like Target sounding the alarm on store theft as a pervasive, persistent and worsening trend, the gravity of the problem itself can be difficult to prove.

Within the industry, at least one major player, for instance, has argued that the problem is being overhyped.

Walgreen’s earlier this year changed its tune on store theft hurting its business, saying, “Maybe we cried too much last year.”

Target’s rival Walmart (WMT), which has more than 100 million shoppers head to its stores in the US every week, said rising store theft could force it to raise its prices if the trend doesn’t correct itself. “If that’s not corrected over time, prices will be higher, and/or stores will close,” Walmart (WMT) CEO Doug McMillon said in a CNBC interview in December.

At the same time, Walmart has also been closing stores because of its poor performance and sagging sales, not because of crime.

Despite these conflicting signals, what can’t be argued is that retailers have, and will continue to be, vulnerable to shoplifting, said Flickinger.

retailers do not close profitable stores

more prosecutions / jail time is needed

Frankfooter · Apr 24, 2024

JohnLarue said:
why not, its the only factual information you have, as you just admitted
visual confirmation (which is a whole lot more believable than some random youtuber claiming ice is melting faster at one of the poles)
its the only factual information you have, but you rejected it immediately and without viewing all of the video
a perfect example of ideological bias doing the thinking for you
sorry , your hopes are dashed
they open more stores than they close, in order to sell more and increase profits.. That's the business model.
sure, retailing has its ongoing challenges, always has, always will
shrinkage (Theft) is a metric retailers watch closely
they need to sell 5 , 10, 20.... incremental SKUs just to cover the cost of the same SKU that disappeared via the 5 finger discount and zero profits from all those sales
a bump in shoplifting wipes out the profit very quickly
too funny
1, did you see any construction in the video ? Oh, wait, you did not watch the video
2. now you are pointing out the loonie left city planners may have bankrupted retailers along Eglinton ave. (is that LRT abomination running yet ??) , pretty much confirming the threads title......Too funny
you rejected the factual information without watching it
what you are willing to say is irrelevant
an option was to say nothing, view the video, do some extra research if you were skeptical
who knows , had you watch the video, you might have noticed something, i.e. filming the same buildings 2 or 3 times
Thanks for confirming the threads title.

Your rambling is inchoherent.

All that is wrong with right wing models shows up in Ontario health care and the demise of family doctors.
Its happening because of DoFo policies and cuts. DoFo wants to 'save money' so fixes fees and costs for doctors through massive inflation and a pandemic. Now family practices all across the province are closing because they can no longer make a living running a family practice.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1782909941390405902

Skoob · Apr 24, 2024

Frankfooter said:
Your rambling is inchoherent.

All that is wrong with right wing models shows up in Ontario health care and the demise of family doctors.
Its happening because of DoFo policies and cuts. DoFo wants to 'save money' so fixes fees and costs for doctors through massive inflation and a pandemic. Now family practices all across the province are closing because they can no longer make a living running a family practice.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1782909941390405902

BOOM! DoFO injected into a thread again!

You need to seek psychiatric care asap.

Frankfooter · Apr 24, 2024

Skoob said:
BOOM! DoFO injected into a thread again!

You need to seek psychiatric care asap.

You really hate talking about politics in the politics forum, don't you skoobypoo.
Maybe there's a basketweaving forum somewhere on the board, or a forum where everyone can take turns complaining the other person is off topic.

If you don't have anything to say about Ontario health care and family practitioners maybe you should just not say anything.

mandrill · Apr 25, 2024

K Douglas said:
Quebec is not business friendly that probably has something to do with it. Plus rents are astronomical because pretty much every landlord was on a variable mortgage/credit line.
More companies are going back to the office, at least in hybrid setups.

Kirky, I dropped by the head office of MB Canada about a year ago on business. Wednesday at 2:30 PM, I met a corporate counsel and their head of security. They both traveled into the office specially for the meeting. No other execs were in the office suite.

The demand for office space is crumbling.

JohnLarue · Apr 25, 2024

mandrill said:
That shoplifting is not "decriminalized". It was just re-classified as a misdemeanour from a felony, so that shoplifters can't clog the system by demanding jury trials. Shoplifting is a misdemeanour (summary conviction offence) in Canada. And the UK. And most other places.

changing the deterrent changes the risk / return trade off for the shoplifters
human nature dictates shoplifting wiil increase.... and it has
going soft on crime just increases crime

shoplifters can't clog the system by demanding jury trials.

gee a clogged system vs. increased crime ??
because of the demands of ..... criminals ?

mandatory minimum 6 or 12 months jail time for shoplifting would soon unclog the system
5 years for repeat offenders

That the surge in shoplifting occurred because insurers will not longer issue insurance coverage for injuries sustained by employees or perps in self-help arrests of suspected shoplifters. Nothing to do with the Dems.

so insures / demands of criminals determine the laws ??????????
i wonder what demands the mafia might have

Ok, I want you remember what I just wrote, so you don't post the same horseshit again in 3 weeks' time.

OK, lets revisit this on an annual basis so you can explain why shoplifting has not declined

mandrill · Apr 25, 2024

K Douglas said:
Debunked shoplifting surge are you nuts? Look at what's happened to SF. The stores have left and they've said on record why they left. What is it with left wingers and their propensity for ignorance?

Kirky, go find us stats on the increase in shoplifting, so we can look at them.

mandrill · Apr 25, 2024

K Douglas said:
Debunked shoplifting surge are you nuts? Look at what's happened to SF. The stores have left and they've said on record why they left. What is it with left wingers and their propensity for ignorance?

Oh look, Kirky. What you posted is nonsense. Look!

https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/07/business/shoplifting-surge-hype-nightcap/index.html

mandrill · Apr 25, 2024

Larceny theft rate in the U.S. by state 2022 | Statista

In 2022, the District of Columbia had the highest larceny-theft rate in the United States, with 2,783 cases of reported larceny-theft per 100,000 inhabitants.

www.statista.com

mandrill · Apr 25, 2024

U.S. Shoplifting Rate Down As Some Cities See Spikes [Infographic]

Despite worry about rampant retail theft, a city sample shows the current shoplifting prevalence as below pre-pandemic levels. Yet, a resurgence happened in some cities.

www.forbes.com