A few months ago, @turtlekiosk tweeted an idea that I keep thinking about: “In the future shoplifting won’t matter, not because loss prevention or surveillance will be really good but because everything will require a subscription service that subsidizes the price of the thing you stole.” It’s not so difficult to imagine a scenario in which some version of an Amazon Prime subscription turns Whole Foods into the supermarket equivalent of an all-you-can-eat buffet, with a monthly or annual price calculated based on how much an average customer (or even a specific individual) might realistically carry out of the store—the formerly opposite acts of shopping and shoplifting converging upon the same process. That isn’t such a departure from the present-day flow of CVS self-checkout, made possible by a dystopian tradeoff between the increased probability of theft and the reduced labor costs that offset those losses. None of this should really bother me—I don’t shoplift—yet it unsettles me in a more abstract way, as a restructuring of the world that offers us complete freedom within an increasingly constrained and controlled space, where transgression is impossible as well as unimaginable.
#134: Shoplifters of the World Unite
Sign up to like post
A few months ago, @turtlekiosk tweeted an idea that I keep thinking about: “In the future shoplifting won’t matter, not because loss prevention or surveillance will be really good but because everything will require a subscription service that subsidizes the price of the thing you stole.” It’s not so difficult to imagine a scenario in which some version of an Amazon Prime subscription turns Whole Foods into the supermarket equivalent of an all-you-can-eat buffet, with a monthly or annual price calculated based on how much an average customer (or even a specific individual) might realistically carry out of the store—the formerly opposite acts of shopping and shoplifting converging upon the same process. That isn’t such a departure from the present-day flow of CVS self-checkout, made possible by a dystopian tradeoff between the increased probability of theft and the reduced labor costs that offset those losses. None of this should really bother me—I don’t shoplift—yet it unsettles me in a more abstract way, as a restructuring of the world that offers us complete freedom within an increasingly constrained and controlled space, where transgression is impossible as well as unimaginable.
Create your profile
Only paying subscribers can comment on this post
Check your email
We sent an email to with a link to finish logging in.