An Investigation: Shoplifting

By Badface

I used to shoplift a lot. Well not “a lot” a lot, but I stole several hundred dollars worth of stuff over a couple of years. It adds up pretty quick, especially when you’re stealing text books from your university (expensive!).

Shoplifting becomes addictive, the thrill, the adrenalin, the rush, the sense of accomplishment. Badface says that after shoplifting the “relief and buzz is like a drug running all through my body. Except it’s way better than drugs...”. Even if you start out shoplifting for need, you probably end up shoplifting random crap you don’t even want because it becomes an addictive habit. Something that is both incredibly easy and almost second nature. “Oh,” you think “that looks vaguely interesting, but I can’t be bothered spending money on it” and then you walk out of the store, and later find that no, it wasn’t worth paying for, but it also wasn’t worth stealing.

This small zine is about Badface’s first time shoplifting. The fear, the thrill, the excuses: it’ll all ring true to anyone who’s ever shoplifted before. The only really puzzling thing is that it’s all about shoplifting CDs. I’m kind of shocked anyone would bother to do that in a world where you can download pretty much any song you can imagine in about five minutes. To each their own I suppose.