Oh Atlanta #886

Long story short: Kroger grocery stores in select (read: predominantly black) Metro Atlanta areas have implemented enclosed aisles in order to reduce theft; shoppers feel the motivation behind them are racist

Kudos to CBS46 for such a captivating screen grab that made this so easy to get sucked in.  But yeah, shoppers accusing Kroger for making them shop “in cages,” because these particular stores are in predominantly black areas, totally legit motivation.

It’s kind of funny to me the sheer persecution complexes of the people who are complaining about having to shop in enclosures.  And while I don’t disagree that the optics are poor, and it does suck when you’re a law-abiding citizen, having to suffer the indignity of having to shop inside a cage because of the shitheads that steal, when the day is over, Kroger and any other business with the goal of making money, are going to make choices that protect profit, over slighting anyone’s collective feelings.

But I’m going to go ahead and take the side of Kroger in this situation, and deem the whole allegations of racism as bullshit baloney.  Kroger isn’t trying to be racist as much as it’s more likely that they’re acting on statistics and numbers; it’s unfortunate that there’s a strong correlation between high theft and the stores that are in predominantly black neighborhoods, but if the numbers say that enclosures are necessary to implement, they’re going to implement them, regardless of the demographic of the area.

If there were high theft rates in Kroger stores in Peachtree City or Roswell, you better believe Kroger would implement the enclosures in those stores, and make Karen, Susan and Carl shop inside cages too.  It just so happens to be the case that the stores in South Fulton, Forest Park and Covington have the theft rates that warrant implementing the enclosures in those particular stores.

So everyone mouthing off about how Kroger is being racist needs to stfu and take a minute to understand why there are enclosures in their stores instead of knee-jerk whipping out race cards and expecting anyone to give a shit.  The numbers are all that matter, and the only color that influences any decision is green.