A new Washington Post report has garnered backlash for blaming empty store shelves on “capitalism” and referring to the surge in crime reports as a conservative-driven “moral panic.”
“America is a sticky-fingered nation built on stolen land, and its current moral panic is about shoplifting,” culture reporter Maura Judkis wrote in a Friday piece titled “The zombie CVS, a late-capitalism horror story.”
Judkis painted a story of a Washington, DC, CVS store that had been looted so much that almost nothing was left on the shelves before it eventually closed down in February.
“Blank CDs, for example — the thieves don’t even bother with them. The greeting card section has been left alone,” she wrote.
“Everything else that remains in the store in Northwest D.C., which is not much, is under plexiglass: Dawn dish soap, L’Oreal shampoo, MiraLax, a handful of Clairol root touch-up hair dye kits, flu season combo packs of DayQuil and NyQuil.”
“Other shelves, stretching entire aisles, are totally empty,” Judkis added.
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Tiny-Remove-3734 / LOCAL NEWS X /TMX
Shortly before the store shut down, employees told FOX 5 that crime was the reason.
“They said dozens of kids were regularly going in to steal chips and drinks before school, after school, and late at night,” the local outlet reported.
Store workers also said thieves were organized enough to target the business when shipments were coming in.
“Some even alleged that street vendors were paying people to steal from the store so they could re-sell the goods,” the station added.
But instead of pointing the finger at the culprits of these crimes, Judkis complained that conservatives had used the uptick in crime to criticize liberal-run cities.
“It became a horror story of Late Capitalism,” the Washington Post report stated, adding that “the empty CVS had somehow become a stand-in for all that is wrong with American cities — and liberals (and liberal democracy?) — in 2024.”
Calling the retail theft spike a “political talking point,” she argued that such crimes have “gotten worse in some cities but better in others.”
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“In certain conservative circles, there’s a wild narrative about cities as terrifying hellholes of crime, theft and lawlessness. The bleakness of the D.C. CVS played right into this belief.”
“While it’s true that the Columbia Heights CVS, as well as parts of the surrounding neighborhood, are experiencing crime and theft, it’s hardly the dystopian nightmare that outsiders make it out to be,” Judkis continued.
Footage captured before the store closure showed depressing scenes of bare shelves and street vendors just across the street, allegedly hawking stolen goods.
The shelves of CVS in Columbia Heights (in DC) have been empty for over a year.
Street vendors a few inches away from this CVS store openly resell the stolen items at cheaper rates.
CVS just announced that this location is permanently closing next month.
On this same block in… pic.twitter.com/GoZTe4nDj7
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) January 24, 2024
According to the culture reporter, crime is “either underreported or over-exaggerated” in different cities across the nation, and “anecdotes and vibes have filled in the gaps.”
Author and commentator Michael Malice called the piece “propaganda” written by a “demon.”
Corporate journalist @maurajudkis–who is a literal demon–tries to frame this empty CVS as a function of “capitalism.”
“The reasons this particular CVS’s shelves have been empty are complex,” claims the demon.
propaganda here:https://t.co/dQ96IWFClM pic.twitter.com/UawJc2v1sF
— Michael Malice (@michaelmalice) March 1, 2024
“I can’t even,” wrote Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Victor Joecks, alongside screenshots of the controversial article.
A CVS in Washington DC is shutting down after thieves kept stealing the shelves bare. The @washingtonpost blames “late capitalism.”
I can’t even. https://t.co/nI4WqINV00 pic.twitter.com/C3G02AY4r3
— Victor Joecks (@VictorJoecks) March 1, 2024