Is Sears selling stolen merchandise?

[Alley_Dweller]

@watchwolf49

I spent a few nights in a hotel … there were big square foot placards every ten feet warning me that building contained cancer-causing substances … why bother if y’all just ignore the warnings anyway … you’d save more lives enforcing your speed limits …

Prop 65 is brought to you courtesy of California’s voter initiative system. That’s where voters can gather petition signatures to have a law put directly on the ballot to be voted on by the residents of California, bypassing the legislature. So a group puts a Proposition on the ballot and runs ads saying “this will prevent cancer!” Who could be against preventing cancer, right? So the voters vote for it and it becomes law.

What is really nasty is that Prop 65 contains what is known as “a right of private enforcement.” Anyone “acting in the public interest” can sue a business that does not comply. They do not have to show any damages or harm has been done to the person bringing the suit. The private enforcer can collect statutory damages plus legal fees.

So you have a small industry of citizens and law firms looking for technical violations of Prop 65 in order to collect their fines. Since there is no penalty for posting an unnecessary sign, businesses cover their behinds by posting signs everywhere. The Prop 65 signs just blend into the background as white noise.

[snfaulkner]

@Dag_Otto

Sears doesn’t sell stolen merchandise. They haven’t sold anything in years.

What’s a Sear?

[running_coach]

@snfaulkner

What’s a Sear?

It’s something applied to the exterior of a Steak.

[Exapno_Mapcase]

@running_coach

It’s something applied to the exterior of a Steak.

Technically, the steak has to be cut from a Roebuck.

[Atamasama]

@Exapno_Mapcase

Technically, the steak has to be cut from a Roebuck.

I’ve heard of those; they’re male deer that lay fish eggs, right?

[Omar_Little]

Seriously get a clue.

[kayaker]

@Alley_Dweller

Since there is no penalty for posting an unnecessary sign, businesses cover their behinds by posting signs everywhere. The Prop 65 signs just blend into the background as white noise.

I was in New Orleans shortly after a law passed requiring places selling alcohol to post signs explaining that it wasn’t a great idea for pregnant women to imbibe. The law was vague on exactly where on the premises the sign had to appear, so everyone (as far as I saw) posted the sign in their men’s bathrooms.

(I just had to get a picture of the sign in a fancy hotel men’s room. Awkward when a guy walked in as I was taking the pic. I also got a picture in Cooter Brown’s men’s room; an old metal trough with glorious algae waving in the flowing water was a cool urinal.)

[iamthewalrus_3]

@markn_1

I don’t understand why a customer would do this (assuming they understand the whole process). So I buy some carded merchandise, knowing that it’s paid for with a stolen credit card. The cardholder disputes the charge, the credit card company discovers the fraud and reports it to the police, the police see where the merchandise was shipped and show up on my doorstep asking a bunch of questions. No thanks.

Presumably they do it because they don’t think they’ll get caught. And they might be right.

If Alice buys something that’s, say, worth $200 for $100 from some fly-by-night website ShadyDeals.com, and it’s bought with a fraudulent charge on Bob’s credit card at Amazon.com, shipped to Alice in another state, who’s going to come knocking on Alice’s door? Her local police? Probably not. They’ve got better things to do than investigate a low-value crime with a victim that’s not going to complain to the mayor or be on the news and be bad PR. Bob’s local police? Ha. The FBI? Probably not. They’re involved, but they’re trying to catch the fraudsters. They can’t actually learn anything useful from Alice, and they certainly don’t have the manpower to bother.

That looks like a pretty low-risk $100 savings.