Woman Sees 85-Year-Old Stealing At CVS & Lets Her Take Everything— 'Go Off Queen, These Prices Are Ridiculous'
Stealing isn't always a black-and-white issue of right versus wrong.
@iamjojohadid / TikTok A woman named Jojo Hadid posted a video to TikTok, filming herself walking down the aisle at a CVS while running errands. She narrated an event that she noticed occurring as she shopped.
Hadid had seen an elderly woman slipping items from the store into her purse, but rather than alerting employees to the alleged shoplifting, Hadid took a much more relaxed approach.
The young let the elderly woman shoplift by not telling any employees.
“Go off, queen,” Hadid recorded herself saying. “These prices are ridiculous.”
Hadid shared the incident in a lighthearted fashion, yet her post became an unlikely point for conversation about the murky intersection of morality, stealing, and basic survival needs.
In her caption, Hadid doubled-down on her support for the older woman she saw shoplifting, writing, “Don’t worry lady, I know the rules. Snitches get stitches.” She used the hashtag #inflation.
Some of the comments left by followers embraced the same laid-back attitude Hadid espoused — to live and let live, without getting involved. Other comments commiserated on how high prices have become at CVS, with one person noting that they spent $35 on pads, a bag of chips, and deodorant.
As another woman noted, it’s not always such a dire crime to steal. She said, “I turned a corner at the grocery store to see a woman give her crying toddler a banana from the bunch and I kept walking because I appreciate it, honestly.”
Hadid posted a follow-up video, reacting to a comment from a follower who claimed, “Theft is bad, actually.”
She explained that stealing isn’t always a clear-cut ethical issue between right and wrong, especially when people struggle to meet their basic needs.
“This is by no means a video saying theft is good,” Hadid stated. “But I can be blessed to afford my basic necessities, whether CVS raises their prices or not. I don’t need to steal.”
Hadid outlined the various ways stealing might be a necessary action, saying, “It’s not lost on me, and I’m not [unsympathetic] to the fact that some people need to do what they need to do to survive. Feed their kids, feed themselves, wash their bodies, have deodorant [and] shampoo, things that a lot of us don’t even think twice about purchasing.”
She offered her own analysis on what to do in a morally gray area, and how CVS could combat shoplifting and compete in a market flooded with online shopping.
“We all need to mind our own… business,” she said. “People are like, ‘CVS raises the prices when people steal.’ CVS raises the prices for their margins. Actually, if CVS lowered their prices a little bit, they might see less theft, and be able to compete with Target and Amazon.”
In her caption to the post, Hadid wrote, “Y’all need to focus less on what everyone else is doing and focus more on being grateful for what you DO have.”
It’s not an earth-shattering or revelatory statement to acknowledge that the cost of being a person and surviving the ups and downs of daily life have become wildly expensive, while wages have yet to catch up. Single people are struggling to afford apartments. Families are struggling to keep themselves fed.
Maybe the actual injustice isn’t stealing from convenience stores, after all. Maybe the injustice lies in the way the larger world works, where we’re lacking any social safety nets that might protect us when times get hard.
Alexandra Blogier is a writer on YourTango's news and entertainment team. She covers social issues, pop culture analysis and all things to do with the entertainment industry.