When one thinks of Whole Foods, one might think of its selection of cheeses and organic yet processed offerings. Perhaps one thinks of the pizza and all-natural deodorants and lotions. Maybe one thinks of the patchouli that struggles to mask the aroma that comes with all-natural deodorants. (If so, you’re out of luck, though parent company Amazon has you covered.)  What you most likely do not think of, though, is jail. This is a mistake for, unlike patchouli, when it comes to being detained, Whole Foods is there for you.  When talking about Walmart or Target, theft is a given. If your local supercenter switches back and forth from self-checkout to human checkers, theft — or shrink, as it’s known in the retail world — is the real reason. It’s just so easy to bag a few items that didn’t get scanned. Shrink is one of the prices of doing business. Its presence is factored into budgets, both in expected amount and the cost of hiring people to thwart it. General employees are instructed to ignore it thanks to America’s surplus of lawyers. Instead, as is done in Whole Foods, you deploy specialists to combat the problem.  This isn’t new. Back in the mid ‘90s, when I worked at Hastings Books, Music, and Video, which for the younger readers was one of the various places people could go to buy books and music and rent videos before streaming was a thing, we knew our most prolific shoplifters. We could never catch them in the act, though, so they were free to steal with impunity. We didn’t have a Mike, as the Fort Greene Whole Foods does, but we had a Toni. Toni, a former state trooper, never caught them either. It didn’t help that they were certain traveling people who only came through periodically. There were also teenagers who couldn’t afford the latest from Wu-Tang Clan. They were sporadic and small potatoes, though, unlike those who preferred to steal CDs that they would later sell back to us a few months later when they swung back through the area. Most importantly, all of them knew they were stealing. There was no rationalization. For those who end up in Whole Foods jail, it’s all rationalization. It’s not that they can’t necessarily afford “Bonestorm,” it’s that, like punching someone in the dark, they view shoplifting as a victimless crime. This isn’t exactly shocking coming from a collective that thinks Bernie Sanders is correct about millionaires — make that billionaires, doesn’t understand that assets aren’t necessarily walking around money, and just really needs a sushi tray before therapy. The therapist, presumably, does not get stiffed, though this piece in Curbed on Whole Foods jail doesn’t specify. (Journalism is dead.): For years, she had thought of the California rolls, brownies, and protein shakes she stole as a kind of artist’s subsidy while she got her own practice off the ground. But on this particular day, her luck had run out. Astrid was late for therapy and hadn’t eaten, so she stopped in for a quick lunch. As usual, she began her meal in-store, moving toward the door with confidence, while ripping open a sushi tray. Soy-sauce packet between her teeth, one foot out the door, she felt a hand on her arm. As with all the people mentioned in the piece, Astrid is a pseudonym. Her story is amazing. California rolls, brownies, and protein shakes are not exactly sustenance foods. She could have stolen bananas, which I am not condoning, even as some extoll the benefits of shoplifting, which are super healthy and also low cost, but no, Astrid had to go elite. This also gets to the other problems with this attitude. First, shrink is really detrimental to business. In the early days of Walmart, founder Sam Walton gathered a group of store associates around him early one morning. He had a coffee can with $1 in pennies in it. He starts taking pennies out for overhead, utilities, merchandise, payroll, and the other obvious costs of doing business. When he was done with those, only four pennies remained. He then took two of those, explaining that those two cents represented shrink, meaning that despite starting with a dollar, profits only equaled two cents. Walmart famously operates on razor-thin profit margins, usually in the 2-3% range, though. What about Whole Foods? Surely hippie Walmart is pulling Apple-esque numbers, right? Wrong! Whole Foods is operating on … razor-thin profit margins comparable to Walmart. Stealing eye cream, sushi trays, tuna rolls, soft French cheeses, steaks, and the like means the company has to pass its increased costs onto paying customers. In other words, if you see something, say something. The other, and to my mind larger, problem with hipster heists is there is a much better solution, especially for those who are presumably concerned about food waste, climate change, and inequality: dumpster diving. And look, I get it, dumpster diving isn’t as sexy as committing crime, but it is victimless. You don’t even have to call it dumpster diving. Just become a freegan and really lean into “strategies for sustainable living beyond capitalism.” Commit, people! It may even provide your life with enough meaning to get you out of therapy. Will you have to learn to live with bread that’s maybe a little stale, not that I’ve ever had a prototypical freegan give me such a loaf, or strawberries that are a little mushy. Toast the bread. Enjoy fruit when it’s at its sweetest. Wonder why you didn’t go dumpster diving with and learn from your anti-capitalist acquaintance who’s now building a private for-profit space station. You can start tonight. And it won’t even require you to give up Whole Foods, though I’d steer clear of the sushi if I were you. The cover of darkness may be required to become a successful freegan, but if you fly too close to the sashimi, you’re going to feel that punch to your stomach. * * * Rich Cromwell is a writer living in Northwest Arkansas. He produces the Cookin’ Up a Story podcast. You can also follow him on X: @rcromwell4 The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Just one day after voting against legislation to fund the Department of Homeland Security, Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) called for the department to be funded while speaking about a terror attack on a Michigan synagogue.  During a press conference on the attack at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Michigan, Slotkin said Congress should fund DHS but exclude allocations for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).  “We need to fund the Department of Homeland Security, and we need, in my view, to cut away all the conversation on ICE, which is its own conversation, from all the core missions of the Department of Homeland Security,” Slotkin said.  Her remarks came one day after Slotkin joined all Senate Democrats except Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) in blocking legislation to fund DHS. When asked whether DHS was less prepared for terror attacks because of the partial shutdown, Slotkin said essential personnel were still working.  “The department, because they are essential workers, they have been at work, certainly in Michigan, we have a ton of DHS folks, CBP, and so they are on the call and they are doing their jobs,” she said. “But they’re essential, they’re on the job, they’re working today.” Slotkin made the comments alongside Michigan Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer during a press conference addressing Thursday’s terror attack. Authorities say Ayman Mohamad Ghazali rammed his truck into the synagogue and opened fire with a rifle before being shot and killed by synagogue security personnel. Ghazali was born in Lebanon and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2016.  DHS has faced a funding lapse since February 14 as Democrats and Republicans clash over ICE policy. Agencies under DHS include the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), FEMA, Customs and Border Protection, and the Coast Guard. Some analysts have warned that the shutdown is hampering the government’s counterterrorism efforts.  “We’re dealing with a heightened threat environment right now, and we need the federal government security capabilities to be firing on all cylinders,” said Nathan Sales, former special presidential envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIS.

Actor Timothée Chalamet sparked backlash after saying “no one cares” about opera and ballet, comments that quickly drew criticism from artists and cultural figures. But one singer admitted that she joined the pile-on for a different reason: “virtue signaling.” Recording artist Doja Cat acknowledged that her criticism came not out of personal conviction, but because she wanted to participate in online outrage, revealing that she has never even attended an opera or ballet performance. “I took it upon myself yesterday to kind of give it to the man because there is a culture based around outrage and things like that, and people want to feel like they’re part of something,” the 30-year-old singer shared in a TikTok video. “It’s a need to connect, whether good or bad.”  @dojacat♬ original sound – Doja Cat “What I was doing…was virtue signaling because I wanted to connect and I knew that Timothée’s goof up was something that I could leverage in order for people to connect with me and f*** with me,” Doja Cat went on.  “And it’s easy. It’s a modern way to garner clicks, likes, approval and all kinds of things like that from people. And so I did that yesterday, and I didn’t really think about why I was doing it… I don’t know anything about opera. I don’t know anything about ballet, and I’ve never been to either shows.” That message was shared after Doja Cat’s original, since-deleted TikTok told Chalamet to “sit the f*** down and shut the f*** up” and insisted that “people give a f***” about opera and ballet. The controversy began after a clip from Chalamet’s conversation with Matthew McConaughey during a CNN & Variety town hall event went viral. The “Marty Supreme” actor was blasted for saying “no one cares” about the two art forms.  Ballet dancer Misty Copeland claimed Chalamet wouldn’t have his acting career if opera and ballet didn’t exist. Legendary opera singer Andrea Bocelli said Chalamet’s comments “surprised” him and invited the actor to attend one of his performances.  Many social media users are now saying the outrage cycle has dragged on too long. Chalamet has not issued a public apology or clarified any of his comments. So far, Doja Cat appears to be the only celebrity who has admitted that she was only coming down hard on the actor to get clicks.

A popular social media news page in Dearborn, Michigan, sparked outrage for a post on Thursday that focused on the Michigan synagogue attacker’s recent “family tragedy” just hours after the man rammed his vehicle into the largest Jewish Reform synagogue in the United States and opened fire with a rifle. TCD Dearborn News, which has over half a million followers on Instagram and 150,000 followers on Facebook, wrote that synagogue attacker Ayman Ghazali “recently experienced a family tragedy overseas” when two of his brothers and some of his nephews were killed in an Israeli air strike in Lebanon. The news page also described the attack as an “incident” and wrote that “the suspect died following reports of an active shooter at the synagogue.” View this post on Instagram   A post shared by TCD News (@dearborn) The Dearborn news page was blasted on social media for its framing of the story. “Trying to justify terrorists living in your city

Michigan Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer said Friday that heated political “rhetoric” was to blame for the terror attack on the Temple Israel synagogue, calling Thursday’s incident a clear act of antisemitism. Whitmer’s comments come after a man rammed his truck into Temple Israel, the largest Reform Judaism congregation in the United States, and opened fire with a rifle. The suspect, identified as Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, a Lebanese national who became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2016, was killed by synagogue security.  “Yesterday’s attack was antisemitism. It was hate, plain and simple,” Whitmer said. “We will fight this ancient and rampant evil, we will stand together as we do it, and we will call it out. We must lower the rhetoric in the state and in this country, especially at this moment where we have seen such a rise in antisemitism and more attacks on the Jewish community.” Whitmer said that the attacker was “fomented by rhetoric that they see online and that they see on television and they hear on the radio. It radicalizes people, and it endangers our fellow Michiganders. We cannot let this continue.” She did not mention Ghazali by name and referred specific questions about the investigation to the FBI.  “I am calling on anyone with a platform to be very responsible with their rhetoric, not to identify or target the Jewish community,” Whitmer said. “That is antisemitism writ large, and I don’t think that any of us should permit or allow that to stand. And that’s why I’m asking people to turn down the rhetoric.” Ghazali was born in Lebanon in 1985 and entered the United States in 2011 on an immigrant visa as the spouse of a U.S. citizen, the Department of Homeland Security said. He applied for naturalization in October 2015 and became an American citizen in February 2016.  Whitmer praised the synagogue’s security team, noting that the attack occurred while children were present.   “I want to thank Temple Israel’s security personnel,” Whitmer said. “They were selfless in their courage, and they saved lives. These heroes threw themselves in harm’s way, engaging the suspect, and let’s be very clear, yes, this is a place of worship, but at the time that this attack occurred, it was a school, 104 children, aged 5 and younger.” The FBI is continuing to investigate the attack.