Things are getting so bad in Joe Biden’s America today that stores are feeling the need to lock up food items so that they won’t be stolen, either by starving people or by criminals looking to turn a quick buck in an economy where food prices are skyrocketing.
According to the New York Post, small grocery and convenience stores in the Big Apple are putting even some traditionally inexpensive foods in plastic, anti-theft cases in a desperate attempt to prevent loss.
Stores are putting cans of Spam, ham, sardines, tuna fish, and similar small food items in the oversized, plastic lockboxes.
The thoroughly revamped loss-prevention regime at the Port Authority Duane Reade has finally created something of beauty, a sort of Jeff Koons homage. pic.twitter.com/gtlpzY2l9G
— willy ?? (@willystaley) July 28, 2022
The Post added that small items of food aren’t the only things ending up in lock boxes. Other small items of necessity, such as toothpaste, soap, deodorant, and the like are also being theft-proofed as both crime and prices soar.
One clerk told the Post there are at least four instances of shoplifting every work shift now.
“With inflation out of control,” the Post added, “the consumer price index spiked 9.1 percent in June compared to a year ago, even as President Biden this week refused to acknowledge the nation is in a recession despite the economy contracting two quarters in a row — emboldened thieves have found a ready market for discounted stolen goods among recession-weary consumers.”
In New York City — like many other Democratic-run major cities in the country — crime is also out of control as progressive prosecutors like Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg willfully turn a blind eye to lawbreaking. That leaves business owners as well as regular citizens at the mercy of the criminal element.
Shoplifting and small theft reports are up 52 percent in Midtown over last year, according to the New York Police Department. It’s no coincidence that Bragg’s term as Manhattan’s DA started in January.
And according to Hormel, the company that produces Spam, another price hike is coming for the popular product as increased costs in transportation, packaging, and meat soar, CBS News reported.
Many Americans are painfully familiar with the rampant rise in the cost of a gallon of gasoline. But food prices have also soared to never-before-seen highs in this Biden era.
From beans, to hamburger, to fast food, prices are surging and have been for some time. In June of last year, The Wall Street Journal reported that companies from Chipotle to Piggly Wiggly were raising prices in an effort to make up for elevated costs in labor, goods and transportation.
In June of this year, the Biden White House made history as presiding over more inflation than any other administration since 1948.
In July, the National Black Farmers Association warned the Biden administration that rising prices were on the verge of causing food shortages across the country, especially for poorer communities.
But raw food is not the only place millions of Americans are finding themselves pinched out of affordability. Many Americans are finding that they can’t afford to go to their favorite McDonald’s, Taco Bell, or Wendy’s because prices have climbed so high.
Both McDonald’s and Chipotle, for instance, recently reported lower sales from their less-affluent customers amid the historic inflation that’s eroding consumers’ buying power.
“We’re definitely seeing a slowdown in their purchase frequency,” Chipotle CEO Brian Niccol told Bloomberg last week. “You’ve got higher gas prices. Everything is more expensive.”
According to Restaurant Dive, in April, McDonald’s had raised prices in the U.S. by about 8 percent.
McDonald’s is not alone. According to the National Restaurant Association, fast food joints all across the board have raised prices nearly 8 percent over their prices at this same time last year.
All of that adds up to a market for stolen foods being sold at a discount price, and an environment where criminals believe they can act with impunity.
Right now, it seems that as prices rise, only the easily stolen food items being locked up. But as the economy continues to worsen, we could see this trend grow, especially at the smaller stores in big cities.
It is all the sign of the times as spiraling, out-of-control prices, and increasingly out-of-control crime, assault the nation in this Joe Biden era.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
