The "1619 Project" author, Nikole Hannah-Jones, complained about drug stores locking up merchandise without recognizing the threat of shoplifting in a tweet on Tuesday.
The New York Times reporter remarked how if stores are going to lockup merchandise, they should have plenty of workers to help open the cases.
"If you're going to lock up everything in the drug store, an already demeaning shopping experience, at least have enough workers to open up the cases for all the customers who just need a razor," Hannah-Jones tweeted. "It can't be a financial winner. I spend a lot less because I'm not waiting every time I need to grab something from a different aisle or even a different shelf in the same aisle. You can't read labels, etc. I've literally walked away. It's just a terrible shopping experience."
A rise in crime rates and shoplifting cases have forced stores such as Walgreens and Wal-Mart to lock up certain merchandise and even shut down stories because of loss of revenue. However, Hannah-Jones denied that threats of theft were behind these changes, citing an article from CNBC.
"Over the last two years, Walgreens has been raising the alarm about increased theft. As a result, it hired private security guards and locked up merchandise so it can't be accessed without a store associate," Gabrielle Fonrouge reported in January. "[Chief financial officer James] Kehoe said the company has spent a ‘fair amount’ to crack down on the thefts but acknowledged the private security companies they've hired have been ‘largely ineffective.’ These guards can do very little but call law enforcement or hold a suspect until police arrive."
When another Twitter user called out Hannah-Jones on shoplifting, she cited a New York Times article similarly claiming that Walgreens executives "cried too much" over "organized shoplifting."
In the past, Hannah-Jones has shown little concern over the destruction or loss of private property. In 2020, she insisted that the destruction caused by the George Floyd protests was "not violence."
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"I think we need to be very careful with our language," Hannah-Jones said at the time. "Yes, it is disturbing to see property being destroyed, it's disturbing to see people taking property from stores, but these are things."
She added, "And violence is when an agent of the state kneels on a man's neck until all of the life is leached out of his body. Destroying property, which can be replaced, is not violence. And to put those things- to use the same language to describe those two things I think really- it's not moral to do that."