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They’re stealing from the rich to give to… themselves.
A lefty New Yorker writer who lives in a $2.5 million Brooklyn brownstone has kicked off fury from real hardworking New Yorkers after she claimed it was just fine to shoplift on a podcast praising “microlooting” — a trendy new term for stealing from big companies such as Whole Foods.
On the New York Times opinion podcast, New Yorker writer Jia Tolentino describes the “several” times in which she swiped items such as lemons from Whole Foods — adding that she “didn’t feel bad” because it was a big corporation.
The podcast, titled “The Rich Don’t Play by the Rules. So Why Should I?”, praised microlooting as a form of anti-capitalist protest Wednesday.
But New Yorkers on a budget weren’t buying it — saying that well-to-do lefties stealing only trickles down trouble to them.
“She is rich…and I am not. We don’t live on the same planet at all,” said Andrea Jones, 49, who lives in Gompers Houses public housing, when told about Tolentino and the podcast.
“Because of her they’ll raise the price and I have to pay more. She is hurting me, she is not helping me,” she said.
Jones, who uses food stamps, called the claims out of touch — saying she’d likely be tossed in jail for the same crime.
“Me being black, [I’d be] arrested, for sure. As soon as I walk in, they’d be watching me. They are not watching her.”
Another 65-year-old resident of the housing project called the sanctimonious five-fingered discount “bulls–t.”
“What she’s saying doesn’t make sense. Mr. Bezos will just increase the prices,” said the resident, who goes by Mr. Carter, and is on fixed income. “She is not doing us a favor. She is in a movement of her own — to justify what she’s doing.”
Jenny Garcia, 35, a low-income single mom of three, added: “This is not how you help us.”
“Some of these rich people don’t know how to stretch a dollar and they don’t have to,” Garcia said. “They have never walked in poor people’s shoes.”
Tolentino, meanwhile, owns a Clinton Hill brownstone valued at $2.5 million.
The New Yorker and its parent company, Condé Nast, along with the New York Times, did not respond to requests for comment from The Post Thursday.
On the podcast, opinion culture editor Nadja Spiegelman describes “microlooting” as a way of sticking it to billionaire Whole Foods owner Jeff Bezos.
“What I’m seeing on TikTok and social media is people saying that they’re stealing from Whole Foods not just for the thrill of it, but out of a feeling of anger and moral justification. Because the rich don’t play by the rules, so why should I? And Jeff Bezos has too much money — he’s a billionaire — so why should I have to pay for organic avocados?,” she said, parroting the views of microlooters.
“Petty theft might be the new political protest,” the opinion piece notes in a printed online version.
Billionaire supermarket chain owner John Catsimatidis also called the podcast “mindboggling.”
“It is the beginning of the ruination of our country,” said Catsimatidis, who owns the Gristedes and D’Agostino supermarkets. “I would look to the publisher to do something about it.”
“We should talk to the US attorney about that because if New York City and New York state don’t prosecute things like that it’s a free-for-all,” he added.
In a series of questions about ethics, Tolentino and lefty political commenter Hasan Piker were asked on the podcast, “Would you steal from Whole Foods?”
“Yes. And I have, under very specific circumstances. I will say, I think that stealing from a big-box store,” Tolentino said — adding she doesn’t believe it’s “significant as a moral wrong, nor is it significant in any way as protest.”
Describing one of the shoplifting incidents, she said was buying food for a family friend at Whole Foods.
“I was like, OK, great. And so I’d be getting [her] all of her groceries, and then I would finish, and I’d be like, oh my God, four lemons, I forgot four lemons. And on several occasions I was like, I’m just going to go back, grab those four lemons and get the hell out,” she said.
She added, “I didn’t feel bad about it at all” in part because the store was a corporation.
“And it certainly felt, in a utilitarian sense, I was like, this is not a big deal. Right, guys?” she added.
Piker, meanwhile added, “I’m pro stealing from big corporations, because they steal quite a bit more from their own workers….one thing that might even help your ethical dilemma is the fact that the automated process that they design, these companies know will increase shrink, right?”
“So it’s actually factored in. The lemons that you stole are factored into the bottom line of these mega-corporations regardless,” he said, adding that he hasn’t personally stolen anything since he was a kid.
Others said it’s the low-wage store workers who are hurt by microlooting.
“That’s not what a protest is. If you’re gonna be a shoplifter, at least don’t lie to yourself about what you’re doing,” one commenter on a Reddit thread about the podcast fumed.
“You’re not hurting the corporations. The consequences are felt by the workers who get grilled about their location’s shrinkage numbers and the rest of us that now have to push a button and wait for someone to come unlock the toothpaste cabinet.”
A rep for Whole Foods did not return a request for comment.
— Additional reporting by Estrella McDaniel
English (US)