AMERICANS are furious as they join a US State Governor in calling on retailers to leave merchandise unlocked for shoppers.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis made his feelings regarding anti-theft measures practiced at multiple stores like Walmart, Target and commercial pharmacies known multiple times.
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While signing a bill that raises the penalty for criminals who commit retail theft in the state, DeSantis expressed serious feelings he has against retail anti-theft measures.
As he signed the bill into law, DeSantis stressed that he hopes it will help combat the rising theft rate at big retailers.
He also took his sentiments online, where numerous Americans supported his call to “free the toothpaste.”
From his official account on X, formerly known as Twitter, the governor shared a graphic showing the hygiene product behind bars along with the ‘free the toothpaste’ slogan on the image.
“Going into a drugstore to buy toothpaste shouldn’t be like Fort Knox,” he stated in the post.
“You shouldn’t need a clerk to unlock a case just to purchase basic items.”
In another post, he announced the signing of the bill into law.
“Today I signed HB 549,” the post stated.
“Which will increase penalties for retail theft, porch piracy, and using social media to incite looting. Many leftist jurisdictions are enacting policies that ignore retail theft or even encourage it,
“Those policies are dead on arrival in Florida. We catch criminals and prosecute them.”
Quoting his own tweet about signing HB 549 into law, DeSantis made a post about the law from his personal account.
“Retail stores shouldn’t have to keep toothpaste under lock-and-key due to fear of shoplifting,” he said in the tweet.
Many users on the platform replied to the tweet in support of his stance in wanting retailers to stop locking certain products so that shoppers don’t need an employee’s assistance to get an item.
One Twitter user replied: “FREE THE TOOTHPASTE!!!”
WHAT DID RON DESANTIS SAY ABOUT TOOTHPASTE?
After signing a bill into law that raises the penalty for retail theft in Florida, DeSantis went to X, formerly known as Twitter with his sentiments regarding stores’ anti-theft measures:
Here’s what the governor had to say about extreme anti-theft measures:
- “I signed HB 549, which will increase penalties for retail theft, porch piracy, and using social media to incite looting.”
- “Many leftist jurisdictions are enacting policies that ignore retail theft or even encourage it.”
- “Those [leftist] policies are dead on arrival in Florida. We catch criminals and prosecute them.”
- “Retail stores shouldn’t have to keep toothpaste under lock-and-key due to fear of shoplifting”
- “Going into a drugstore to buy toothpaste shouldn’t be like Fort Knox.”
- “You shouldn’t need a clerk to unlock a case just to purchase basic items.”
- “One of the things that I’ve noticed is that if you go into, like, a pharmacy and the toothpaste is behind lock and key. Like, it’s almost like Fort Knox, some of these places, just for normal items.”
- “You’ve got some problems and what you’ve seen in different cities, whether it’s San Francisco, LA, New York. All these places, they’ve effectively enacted policies that legalize shoplifting. So people just go in, they take what they want, they leave.”
- “It also just has a demoralizing effect on people when you go in and you want to buy toothpaste and it’s like Fort Knox because it’s all under lock and key for basic items.”
- “You gotta get a clerk to come and open it and all this stuff just to do basic shopping. That is not something that is good for quality of life.”
Source: Twitter, Florida Politics
“Lock up these criminals,” another person added.
“Not the toothpaste.”
“Finding someone to unlock the case is hard,” someone shared.
“In all of the stores [that] then expect you to check yourself out.”
“You said a ‘mouthful’ there,” an individual said as a play on the toothpaste DeSantis referenced.
“Sometimes I wonder if it’s really about the theft in some cases,” a shopper stated.
“At my local CVS stores, they only lock up the name-brand items but they keep the CVS brands unlocked on the shelf. So they are selling much more of the CVS brands.”
“It should be easier to buy toothpaste than a gun,” a different user chimed in.
In response to DeSantis’ tweet, a shopper even noted: “This [forces] you to shop online it’s all by design.”
While making the bill a law recently, DeSantis acknowledged retailers’ $112 billion loss in 2022.
Of course, as the new law raises the penalty for retail criminals, the governor has continuously argued that there should be stronger penalties for those who steal from stores.
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