https://twitter.com/istrebki/status/1452356186683187206
I’ve seen this shit online recently.
Leftists saying something to the effect of “see, there are shortages in capitalism too.”
Except…
Every single shortage in the US right now is directly caused by government intervention.
The government shut down sectors of the economy.
It shut down transportation.
It forbade people from going to work.
This is literally the absolute closest the United States has ever been to a centrally planned economy and the government nearly collapsed it in 18 months.
Capitalism has shortages when the Communists run it.
That’s the lesson, why is why the Communists lie about it.
Tell me you’ve never worked retail without telling me you’ve never worked retail…
“Fronting and facing” the shelves in order to fill holes is standard practice in every retail business I’ve ever worked in. Even when the supply chain is running at peak efficiency, there are days when you sell out of Widgets and the next Widget shipment doesn’t come in until tomorrow. So if you have extra Whatzits and Thingamabobs, you spread them out on the shelf to fill in the space where the Widgets would be. Keeps the store looking cleaner and cleaner stores have better sales than messy ones.
Sure thing, how many times has this many widgets and thingamabobs been out at the exact same time?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m well aware of the supply chain issues that are currently plaguing the country. I’m not trying to pull a Psaki and deny the reality of it all.
But in the case of this specific video, we aren’t looking at “capitalism’s empty shelves,” we’re looking at a couple of items at one store that appears to be low in stock.
Although, without knowing what the normal quantity on hand for these items is, what the restocking frequency is, et cetera, it’s hard to even say if these items are low in stock. Maybe this store just plain doesn’t sell a lot of organic sugar and this is a completely full shelf.
TikTok videos never provide full context and Commies always lie.
Spacing out merchandise to make it look like the shelves or pegboards are full is something that’s been around for a very long time.
I did the same, carefully spacing stuff at an Eckerd’s Drug Store back in the early 80’s.
So, well, it’s, as you (Ish) said, normal practice.
What Ish said.
When stocking the shelves, it was the shop clerk’s responsibility to pull one or two of the neighboring items forward to dress up the shelves. It not only made the shelf look better, it allowed the customer to see from a distance whether the product they were shopping for was in stock.
Additionally, watch that video closely. There is plenty of stock available for almost all the items in that aisle. The person shooting this video is deliberately choosing the two or three items in the aisle that have been fronted. Why lie? Why the deception?
Pointing out the exception does not disprove the rule.
Note as well that they are in a aisle of organic sugar. A premium version of a luxury good.
Just looking at the still photo that you see before the video plays, I count twenty-two (22!) five-pound bags of organic white sugar, two one-pound(?) bags of organic brown sugar, two one-pound(?) bags of organic powered sugar, and six one-pound(?) bags of organic palm(??) sugar. I think I also spy the corner of a five-pound bag of King Arthur Flour in the corner too.
A century ago, the personal pastry chefs of the British Sovereign wouldn’t have had that much high quality sugar on hand… Now you can find it, year round, at every supermarket in the Western Hemisphere.
(?) I’m estimating on the weight here, but they look like the one-pound bags in my local grocer.
(??) I can’t quite read the label.
Ain’t we got fun?
And I love that the example of “empty shelves” are shelves with product and choices.
“OMG! The shelf isn’t packed!”
Real “empty shelves” are NOTHING on the shelves. No alternatives, no “only 2 per customer”. EMPTY.
I don’t remember the author of the quotes:
In communist countries, people wait in line for bread. In capitalist countries, bread waits on shelves for people.
The place where I do my shopping for drugstore things has removed shelves from aisles rather than have empty spaces. Only one set of aisles still has four rows. All the others now have three rows of various products. It’s depressing, but better than trying to cover gaps for products that they can no longer get. (If there’s a space, they are waiting on a shipment. If there are no tags for the item, they can’t get it any more.)
Yep. Removing a shelf and respacing the remaining shelves is as common as pulling product forward. And moving things from the cardboard end-cap stands to the shelves also takes up empty space. Another thing is bringing stuff out that’s not seasonal just to make the shelves look full.
There’s a whole set of tricks, up to and including the famous “Remodeling this section, sorry for the inconvenience” where the store shuts off a section, makes it look like remodeling is going on, but nothing is happening.
Removing shelves is MASSIVE work just to dress the store.
There are some empty shelves around here. For some weird reason, cat food, but not dog food, for example.
When I see an item that is almost out except for a couple of cans at the very back of the shelf, I’ll bring them forward so that shorter people or people with disabilities can reach them. No intent to fool anyone, just kindness.
Not enough simple kindness like yours, in this world.
Not to mention clearly skipping over the products that arent stacked one deep…