Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

No, not for unruly kids, I suspect that if it was a daily occurrence that they would eventually be held by store staff until a sheriff could arrive, but the other BS spoken about in this thread such as adults taking high value objects would be met with resistance in a small town, it would not be tolerated.

bobups Loc: Bath pa

At one time about 50 years ago a judge would give you a option jail or enlist in the service

clint f. Loc: Priest Lake Idaho, Spokane Wa

Watched a news segment about the pre-paid debit cards being handed out to non citizens (illegal aliens) followed by an ad seeking money for veterans disabled in service to our country. How can we accept this as a country?

Barre Loc: Fairfax Co, VA

New York City is launching a pilot program to provide 500 migrant families with prepaid debit cards that they can only use to buy food or baby supplies at certain types of stores in the city.

The $53 million pilot program is meant to be a more cost-effective alternative to “the city’s current system of providing non-perishable food boxes to migrant families staying in hotels,” a spokesperson for New York City Mayor Eric Adams said.

“What had been happening in this particular program is that every couple of days, we were going to the hotel and we were delivering food,” Adams’ chief of staff Camille Joseph Varlack said during a Feb. 5 media briefing. “And so what ended up happening is you have the cost for the food itself as well as the cost for delivery services.”

The new pilot program providing migrants with prepaid debit cards will save the city an estimated $600,000 per month and $7.2 million per year, the mayor’s office said.

A spokesperson for MoCaFi, a financial technology company the city is partnering with for the pilot program, said the cards will be loaded with about $12 per person per day for 28 days.

clint f. Loc: Priest Lake Idaho, Spokane Wa

Convert the card to cash and buy contraband. Happens 24/7/365 in every state in the US.

steve03 Loc: long Lsland

I do not go shopping in any stores except Grocery stores anymore. I order everything on line.

Bridges Loc: Memphis, Charleston SC, now Nazareth PA

That will be more and more the norm as gas prices rise and people become more isolated, not requiring human interaction. Once shopping was in itself a form of community activity as we would see neighbors in stores and stop to talk, and a lot of older people just liked to talk to strangers and store personnel because they were lonely at home. Now with the internet, a lot of us have formed communities online and talk to specific people we identify as online friends, or just reach out to groups like here on UHH. The trend of not getting out can be seen in our neighborhoods as well as in stores with people not knowing or socializing with those living around us.

We are obsessed with our TVs, computer time, and Tic Tock. There is just no time left to go shopping. Some people hesitate to order through apps like Uber Eats or Door Dash because there is a delivery fee but if you take the government allowance of fifty-seven cents a mile for auto usage and multiply it by maybe a 14-mile round-trip to a store, you will find the price of delivery is about the same as you going to pick up the product and delivery is much more convenient.

Bridges Loc: Memphis, Charleston SC, now Nazareth PA

Plane fare to where the illegals came from would cost maybe 3 million and save NYC 50 million a year vs. the mayor's estimate of 7.2!

steve03 Loc: long Lsland

I worked in retail all my life for over 50 years.The large retail companies do not care about security any more they are more concerned about pay roll. They have cut security back to a point of non-existence. They are hiring people that they don't train so they really don't know what they are doing. Today when you walk in a store you have a time trying to find someone to help you. In one department store I worked for they only had one employee on a floor and one person on checkout, and people wonder why there is shoplifting?

When you go shopping at a store you really don't know if they have the item your looking for and neither does the employees so your on your own. In a Mall you may have to visit a number of stores to find what you're looking for. So why not just go to Amazon or B&H to get what you want on-line without taking an afternoon. Some people may have the time to shop like that but if you are a working person you don't have the time.

Triple G

Something that serious is not likely to happen in a small town. Everybody knows everybody and unless high on drugs and not thinking straight, no one thinks they could get away with it. That kind of thing happens where anonymity exists.

RodeoMan Loc: St Joseph, Missouri

A sad point, but a valid one.