Stores Are Casing Up Packages Of Meat To Prevent Theft As Americans Increasingly Eat Dinners From Dollar Stores

As inflation and low-income wages continue to batter Americans, some stores are taking preemptive measures to prevent people from stealing their products.

More specifically, meat products are becoming hotter commodities and people are increasingly try to steal these meats from the store.

Earlier this year a WinePress reader provided a picture from his local Walmart not too far away from Indianapolis, Indiana, where electronic security tags – the ones commonly seen used for expensive tech products in places like Best Buy, for example – were wrapped around large cuts of steaks:

Last month one woman filmed a short video from a Walmart located in the southern Maine area, where the store was limiting the purchases of certain meats, while many parts of the refrigerators lay empty or very understocked.

Last week one store, a Duane Reade, in New York City was found to be selling Spam and other canned meats in plastic anti-theft cases, which made the rounds on social media.

https://twitter.com/willystaley/status/1552736717173657602?s=20&t=aEnH_MOhXhQAauyH7BjlsQ

SPAM goes on lockdown due to inflation https://t.co/mzsH4Kv2Tr pic.twitter.com/cTjFtzD4ep

— New York Post (@nypost) July 30, 2022

Spam and other canned meats are usually not very expensive, which indicates that crime is increasing as people become more and more desperate.

A little over a week ago the Wall Street Journal published a report that explained that grocery store sales at dollar stores have vastly increased since last year, a trend that has increased this year as well. Food sales at these discount stores leapfrogged 71% higher between October 2021 and June 2022, with sales of these same items at dedicated grocery stores falling 5%.

Citing that WSJ article, the Daily Mail wrote:

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San Antonio resident Lily Penelope told The Wall Street Journal how they had begun relying on a local Dollar General for groceries, eating mostly canned chicken, peanut butter and vegetables from the store.

Penelope, 26, is unable to drive due to a disability and can no longer afford the cost of both food from the local grocery store and the cost of an Uber to get there. Previously the total for such a trip was about $120, they said, but since January that cost has nearly doubled. 

My health and the quality of my life has gone down. I’m in a position where I’m having to choose between making meals I can afford and putting my health on the line.

Penelope said

The Dollar General nearest Penelope doesn’t carry fresh produce, a problem which many across the country face as they turn to dollar stores for relief.

Of the more than 18,000 Dollar General locations across the country, only about 2,300 carry fresh produce, something the store said they are working to improve but don’t expect to see fulfilled for ‘several years.’ 

While Dollar General isn’t a full-service grocer, we consider ourselves today’s general store by providing nearby and affordable access to daily household essentials, including the components of a nutritious meal.

A spokesperson said. She added that the company expected to stock fresh produce at 10,000 locations over the coming years.

Until then, consumers will have to depend on their boxed, canned, and if they have them, frozen produce options. Though such products are less healthy, customers are willing to endure those drawbacks for the price.  

Everything in there is super-duper sweet. But it’s nearby, and it’s cheap.

41-year-old Phoenix Kamlo told The Wall Street Journal

Dollar Tree has echoed Dollar General’s sentiment that they never intended to be  grocery stores for their customers, and are instead intended to supplement more robust grocery options.

According to a spokesperson for the chain, 16,162 of their stores carry frozen produce, along with sugar-free groceries, whole wheat options, and milk and eggs.

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Dollar General To Create 1050 New Units In 2021

Meanwhile food banks continue to see growing demand around the country, but routinely are running low on supplies.

We haven’t had access to eggs in several months, our connection to milk is going to be drying up.

Covid money is drying up, so whatever extra benefits people had through the pandemic, those are leaving now, and that just puts an extra burden on families that are just looking to eat.

Chad Vandierendonck, coordinator of the Bay View Community Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, said a couple of weeks ago

On June 29th the Iowa Capital Dispatch reported “Iowa food pantries see high demand amid supply chain shortage.”

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AUTHOR COMMENTARY

Forgot what the mainstream media and financial channels and false prophets are telling you: this is evidence that society’s total collapse is rapidly increasing, by design. However, the already impoverished consumer was riding the high of all that free Covid money and not having to pay bills for a year, and now it is coming back to haunt them. So many Americans have giant homes too big for them, full of junk they don’t need and don’t like, all to impress their neighbors and feed their narcissism, while not even being able to eat!

This is one of the reason’s I have harped about doing intermittent fasting. Is perpetually doing this daily sustainable? No, not really; but I have endorsed it, beyond just the amazing health benefits of it, but because I think it is prudent to get your body acclimated to the reality of you just having to skip a day of eating or greatly reducing your caloric intake for a time.

Your health is extremely important, and I would not waste that away. If you can be made unhealthy, you can be controlled all the more easier. I can speak highly of such, as I spent most of my life being in atrocious health. Now I am in great shape, lost tons of weight, I can clearly think, I have deep and sweet sleep, my energy and cardio is great, and so forth. I have reallocated my expenses on food in sacrifice of other areas, simply because I know what it is like to be in garbage health, and I refuse to go back to that.

The rich man’s wealth is his strong city: the destruction of the poor is their poverty.

Proverbs 10:15

I did a short article in 2020 about what Proverbs 10:15 means, and you can check that out here, and some pertinent comments that are of noteworthiness.

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[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).

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