Re:Walmart’s Crime Problem
by wpietri on Wednesday August 17, 2016 @10:37AM
(#12305017)
I'd be super hesitant to see laws written like that; it would be very easy to get them wrong. I'd much rather see some sort of cost recovery system for businesses with excessive crime. That would avoid penalizing the stores doing fine, and wouldn't fix possibly-inappropriate solutions in law.
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But do you really want to penalize companies for opening stores in bad neighborhoods? Fewer companies competing for business means higher prices for (presumably poor) people in those neighborhoods.
I'd be happy with a definition of "excessive" that's sensitive to that.
A couple of times I've lived near corner/liquor stores that were obviously more problematic than their competitors, for example. If those stores exerted downward pricing pressure then it might be to a level that was problematic. I don't want all stores to become poorly run crime magnets because they can't afford to stay in business.