Creator Reveals Why People Are Stealing From Stores; ‘Not Because It’s Fun'

Inflation and an uncertain economy have caused the prices of daily essentials to skyrocket. The affordability and cost of living crisis has impacted millions of Americans and an example of it was shared on TikTok by creator Steve Owens (@iamsteveowens). He shows how costly daily essentials have become and explains why stores like Target are locking up items and canceling self-checkouts. A wide majority of Steve’s viewers agreed with his opinion showing the degree of rising costs.

Here’s how much Steve paid for four daily items

In the video, Owens is seen in his car looking concerned. He says that he bought some daily essential items from Target for which he had to pay $35. He goes on to show the items which are body wash, mouthwash, soap, and toothpaste. He says the average price for each item is $8.75, which is crazy.

He goes on to say that pretty much everything is locked up in Target and they have also stopped self-checkout as people are stealing. Owens says that people aren’t stealing for fun, people are struggling. Owens then says that the average wage in America is about $11 per hour which means people would roughly need to work three hours just to get these four items.

He says that only the essential items like soap, deodorant, etc., are locked up and nobody is stealing these items to sell them on the black market. “Y’all, people are not stealing because it’s fun. People are stealing because they have to,” Owens says in the video which has over 399,000 views.

People in the comments echoed Owens’ concerns and further elaborated on the crisis. One (@Shannon) user said that they had been buying the same groceries from the same store for the past four years and their bills have more than tripled during this time. Another user pointed out that different Targets have different prices causing more trouble to customers.

Another user (@dani) shared a similar experience where they had to pay $50 for just three items, detergent, soap, and a new toothbrush. Meanwhile, one viewer pointed out that even size and quantity choices have been limited in stores forcing people to buy large items by paying more.

U.S. has been dealing with high inflation in the economy over the last several years, with everything from groceries, and food to new vehicles and construction supplies soaring in price. In the last four years since the pandemic food prices have gone up by 25%, according to BLS data, via Yahoo!Finance. Furthermore, according to the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity's True Living Cost Index, the cost of necessities went up by 7.8% year-over-year in 2022 alone, marking the highest increase since 2004.

This has come amid the housing affordability crisis which has caused rents to skyrocket. The high cost of rent has impacted people across all income levels, according to a Harvard University study, NPR reported. All of these costs have been pushed by the pandemic, soaring inflation, and several geopolitical disturbances affecting the global supply chain.