Up until recently I’ve been laughing along bemusedly at the Stanley cup craze. But now I’m starting to get nervous that it’s a bad omen for an election year. Quick recap: TikTok has bewitched the masses into losing their ever-loving minds over the $45 Stanley Quencher. Which is a water bottle. That’s it! Maybe it’s just because the caucuses have begun and I’m projecting all my fears onto the public’s vehement selection of a water bottle that I patently don’t understand the zealotry over. And speaking of, police arrested a woman in Sacramento for stealing 65 Stanley cups from one store, about $2,500 worth of merchandise. Please let the madness stop
The craze for Stanley stainless steel drinking cups reached new levels last week when a woman was arrested for allegedly stealing 65 of them, worth almost $2,500, from a store in California.
Police in Roseville, Placer County, northeast of Sacramento, said Sunday that they were called to a reported theft from a store on Stanford Ranch Road in the city on January 17.
“Staff saw a woman take a shopping cart full of Stanley water bottles without paying for them. The suspect refused to stop for staff and stuffed her car with the stolen merchandise,” police said in a statement on Facebook.
“An officer spotted the suspect vehicle as it entered Highway 65 from Galleria Blvd and initiated a traffic stop,” the statement said.
The so-far unnamed woman, 23, from Sacramento, was arrested for grand theft. Pictures released by police show her car trunk and passenger seat stuffed with a variety of cups.
Stanley cups have become highly-sought items in recent months, thanks to a trend driven by social media influencers. The “Quencher” cup, which holds 40 fluid ounces and retails on the Stanley website at $45, has in particular become a fashionable item.
“While Stanley Quenchers are all the rage, we strongly advise against turning to crime to fulfill your hydration habits,” police said.
OK here’s where I’m struggling, aside from the fact that we’re still just talking about stainless steel water bottles: the store employees see this woman with 65 Stanleys in her shopping cart, they ask her to stop but she refuses, loads up her car, and drives away. Was it not possible to detain her while she was transferring the cups from cart to car? Please educate me! Because right now I’m just imagining myself as the thief and… yeah I would totally be apprehendable in the act of moving 65 water bottles into my car. The maneuver would be neither smooth nor swift. Plus I’m a responsible shopping cart user and would be simply unable to leave the parking lot without returning the cart to one of the designated stations. Thieves can have manners too, you know. Anyway, I applaud the police for not only stopping the theft in action, but even more so for issuing the superbly dry statement: “we strongly advise against turning to crime to fulfill your hydration habits.” No notes.
Retail workers aren’t paid enough (or trained) to apprehend shoplifters. I think they’re actively discouraged from engaging with them at all. That’s best left to the professionals so no one gets hurt.
If you’re crazy enough to load a shopping cart full of items and walk out without paying, who knows what else you’re capable of. No one being paid $9 an hour or whatever should have to deal with that nonsense!
Exactly! When I worked at a Lush store, the policy was to politely ask someone to put an item back and if they refused we were supposed to wait until they left and then call security. Even at our little shopping center there were instances of shoplifters hitting/scratching/biting the security team. No way were we going to endanger ourselves or our other customers over a bath bomb.
I agree except for the pay..no one in California is making $9 that’s not even minimum wage. I think 1995 was last time minimum wage was $9 in California, it’s $16 now. I think Target it’s 20 bucks
Federal minimum wage is STILL $7.25, and some places are still paying that.
I wanted to say the same thing. My mom worked at Kmart for a long time & no way would it have been her job or any co-worker’s to physically detain someone. It is security’s job, but–they’re not cops & if they’ve got somebody determined to steal something, like this person was, they’re not allowed to grab them or anything. Good for them for calling police, that’s the appropriate procedure.
And as AuntRara says, employees are also taught that it’s not until someone leaves the store that they can even be considered to be stealing something. They could always say they forgot, or put it in their pocket 🙄 until they could get up to the checkouts & then forgot.
I worked at a discount shoe store in college about 18 years ago and even then we were told not to follow a shoplifter out of the store. If they were still in the store and we saw it happen or noticed an empty shoe box after they left a section we could ask them nicely if they were meaning to pay for whatever the took, but not until they walked past the cash register on their way to the door. Once they left we were told to just let them go and file a report.
My boss at the time was hilarious, and one time two ladies came in with an empty stroller. They cleared out at least 8 pairs of shoes and some socks and purses but because it was a busy Saturday we didn’t notice the empty boxes until right after they walked out. My boss grabbed as many of the empty boxes as she could carry and followed them out to their car yelling “Oh excuse me ladies, you forgot your boxes! Did you want me to bag them up for you? Does your ‘baby’ really need all those shoes? You’re welcome to come back and pay for them! By the way, don’t EVER set foot in my store again!” while she threw the boxes at their car. Totally broke protocol but she was just so fed up with the theft that happened every day.
Unfortunately stores have a policy that prohibits any employee that is not asset protection or management from detaining any person who is stealing. You are just to get as good of a description as possible…also the employees are not even allowed to follow a customer to the car to get their license plate number. You never know if someone has a weapon. Employees can actually get fired for trying to detain someone or follow to car to get license
Does anyone else think those cups are kind of ugly and weird looking?
Me…
Yep.
Thanks for the early morning laugh, Kismet! I would be similarly easy to apprehend.
I really don’t get what the fuss is about. I can see they would be suitable for driving as they have a narrow base. But … it is just a cup??? They’re not that cute.
Are collecting Stanleys a Basic Beetch thing? (I’m Irish, so they probably retail for €50+ per cup here plus postage, and I already have too many travel mugs from various jobs and trade fairs!!)
Yes, I do. And here in Australia they are $80. $80!! Highway robbery.
As I am sitting here sipping from my 40oz Simply modern, almond birch travel mug just like Meghan has I’m going to give my observation on this craze😉 I buy cream or light almond colored water bottles so I’m not truly a crazed water bottle person, but I do have my color issues. I watched the beanie baby adults behave in horrible ways over a child’s toy, so the Stanley cup adults are not a surprise truthfully they are probably offspring of the Beanie parents, which is perfect fine until it becomes criminal that is what I will never understand. I hope no one gets hurt over these travel mug.
Yes! I think it’s a lot about getting narrower at the base for me. Aesthetically really not a look I like. Plus anything with a built in straw grosses me out.
As a European, I got so completely confused by that design (the narrower base). Only after reading some articles online did I realize it was to fit in a car’s cup holder! That’s so foreign to so many people on this side of the ocean, I think – driving somewhere (try driving in Paris, ha ha…) with a giant beverage of something. It’s hard to understand the craze from here…
@LeatherFrench, I think it has to do with how long people sit in cars here. I live in California, and it’s a huge state. It takes a 6.5 hour drive to reach my daughter in Southern California. And many people have jobs that require them to drive at least an hour and back because transit is not good or not flexible, or they simply need a truck for their work. Many people can be on the road for hours. That said, I would not get one of these. The obsession is a bit odd to me, too. I mean, it’s a cup. If I didn’t already have a travel cup, MAYBE I’d get one. It’s just so big!
I do
Legally retail workers are not allowed to stop shoplifters. When I worked in retail we were explicitly told NOT to try to stop a shoplifter. We were told to contact our security to let them handle it. All we could do was observe and report. And there are many legals reasons why this is the case.There are major liability issues around it. And also once a shoplifter has left the store security cannot go after them either. They have to call the police. This whole Stanley cup obsession is just weird, but the shoplifter knew they cold make BANK reselling them lol.
Yup yup. I worked retail and was a manager for years. Customer service was how we were told to prevent loss (i.e. if you are managing the dressing rooms properly, its harder to shoplift, if you’re approaching customers and offering to help them, harder to shoplift, etc.) If we suspected someone was stealing we had to wait for them to leave the store and then we could call security and then security would call the police. We were told part of the reason for this was to prevent a hostage situation???
Stealing Stanleys is crazy but these are crazy times.
As far as I know, the store employees are explicitly told not to put themselves in danger to stop things like that. They are supposed to only call the police. It is just stuff at the end of the day, you would never know what kind of crazy person you are dealing with. No need to die for protecting the profits of big stores.
There are no Moriaritys.
This trend is simply insane, just another scam to buy things off influencers that you can find at half the price exactly alike anywhere else.
A friend of mine called me up and mentioned she and her husband had just gotten Stanley cups. And then suggested I should get one. And kept saying it, like, intensely.
And then seemed to get a little grumpier every time I was like “oh I’ve already got a water bottle and plenty of travel mugs” “oh, I’ll think about it, thanks”. “Nah, I’m good” It was noticeable and weird how vested she seemed to be in these mugs. Do they contain some kind of fairy dust that makes people obsess about them?
@northofboston she wanted you to gush too so she wouldn’t feel silly for buying an expensive trendy item. Instead your responses helped her realize that she was and is : The Target Market for all these “viral” marketing campaigns.
That is very very weird, LOL.
Your friend was engaging in literal peer pressure lol. A lot of the time people will want you to participate in something because it makes THEM feel less silly/awkward/weird about it. It validates THEIR choices.
This has been happening w multiple people for about a year but w Temu – we’ll be having a normal conversation and suddenly it seems like I’m in a Temu commercial. Three times now in person. Acquaintances are also texting some kind of Temu partner link. It’s … very disorienting.
This reminds me of when I was in high school and there was a craze over Nalgene bottles with the carabiners used by rock climbers. And that was without social media. Similar price for an ugly plastic bottle. Didn’t get it then, kinda get the cute matching coordination of these but not enough to want to go to jail over it… well at least everyone will be well hydrated.
When I worked at Lowe’s, I was taught in training that the only person allowed/authorized to confront a suspected shoplifter is the Loss Prevention Officer. I didn’t have any plans to risk my life for stuff that doesn’t even belong to me, but I guess other people want to be heroes and corporate doesn’t want to be on the legal/financial hook for it.
Also: 65 water bottles should NOT cost $2500. The price for these is insane. But I’m also a hypocrite because two of my daughters HAD to have them. Ugggggh!!
I’m relieved no one was hurt trying to apprehend her, and I’m well aware that this question is not a key point, but WHY? What was she going to do with all those cups? Resell them? Or use them all and coordinate with her outfits?
I’m sure they were going on eBay as soon as she got home.
So the craze is fascinating to me because Stanley has been around forever. I guess that viral TikTok of it surviving a car fire with ice still in the container did it for people.
Employees are encouraged and told not to apprehend shoplifters. Some of it is for the employees safety but also a liability issue. What if an overzealous employee hurts a customer who we find out hadn’t stolen anything? Or what if you have a bad employee that profiles people and harasses them? Employees can be fired if they try to stop a shoplifter and should just call the cops to handle.
Stanley has been around forever in general but these cups have been a thing now for…..a year? Two years? I got mine a year ago and I feel they were already popular at that point. I just don’t get the resurgence over the past month and the obsession. Maybe just the holidays?
Well, she should have stopped at 25 cups, because then it would have been a misdemeanor in California, instead of grand theft. I don’t think there’s a California law that prohibits employees from stopping shoplifters, but employers have certainly discouraged it.
But it’s crazy how people are shoplifting. Here, on the other coast, you can’t buy a tube of toothpaste without calling someone to unlock a display case. Is there some kind of toothpaste black market?
Actually, yes. Along with body washes, deodorant, and laundry detergent. It’s not uncommon to see people coming into laundromat’s or nail salon’s selling that stuff if the owners let them. And if you are selling 64 tide pods for $10 and the store is selling them for $30. Well, there’s your market. I’m sure this is way more prevalent in cities though where they can make a quick escape
@Dee(2) – thanks. I don’t know that anyone can make a quick escape from my local CVS, even the people who want to pay. The other day I tried to pop in to buy some toothpaste and they couldn’t find someone to unlock the case – I was going to be late for an appointment, so I’ll go back when there’s more time.
I live in port Angeles Washington everything is in locked cases at our Walmart only but this cup this is just ungodly bs. yall adults should be ashamed for acting so childish god gave me built in water bottles its called my hands cupped in a mountain stream or face first. You all have brains so its time yall use them. Thats why the new generation is so weak its the adults who make weak children and acting childish over a cup is absolutely pathetic. And NO crime does not pay at all i am inmate 326113 Washington State department of corrections I KNOW IT DOESN’T PAY. Prison is way worse then just paying for it. But do you WANT IT or do you NEED IT IS THE REAL QUESTION. With inflation that money could be better spent for thing that are actually worth it. Family, home, car, emergency fund you get it i hope. May god have mercy on all you crazy cup people. I own Stanley. Lol Stanley tools not cups
Just a week or two ago a security guard got killed trying to apprehend a shop lifter. So, yeah, retail employees, even though it makes us mad, we let thieves walk out the door.
I was given a 30 oz for Christmas and I love it. It keeps my Diet Coke really cold so it doesn’t go flat. The handle keeps me from dropping it which I sometimes do with my old cup. I’m clumsy! So I love it!
So do 20 others, more effectively and more cheaply. These are literally just a dumb water bottle. Mostly kids have them now as a school status symbol. 1/2 my son’s 5th grade has them. lol
I love the 9 to 5 quote on that cup but I wouldn’t pay more than twenty bucks for it.
Why is no one commenting on the police photo release of a drug, I mean, Stanley bust? 😉
As a Canadian, I thought you meant the Stanley Cup, like the NHL Hockey trophy. I was going to say, I thought there was only one Stanley Cup?! Lol.