• Xerxos@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    4 minutes ago

    The difference in building a loyal customer base vs expelling unwanted low lifes

    Excepted return of investment

    PR vs hand outs

    CAPITALISM!

  • 11111one11111@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    4 hours ago

    Help those who help themselves. That plus it was prolly no secret in the town the disability fraud the grandfather was pulling.

  • WoodScientist@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    10
    ·
    7 hours ago

    The shop keeper is just prejudiced. Charlie’s four grandparents are in a long-term polycule together. Charlie is the result of an insane two-generation long plan to get all members of the polycule to have a single genetic child together. The polycule has been completely open to the whole town about this plan, and everyone knows it.

    The shopkeeper isn’t prejudiced against the poor. He just has sexual hangups. And he’s projecting his bigotry onto an innocent young child that had no choice but to be part of this whole situation.

  • Skullgrid@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    18
    ·
    8 hours ago

    it’s a demonstration of classism in england. The rich kids get things for free, the poor have to pay.

  • 𝙈𝙞𝙖@quokk.au
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    55
    ·
    16 hours ago

    Rich people get things for free or as gifts all the time. Meanwhile us peasants have to pay.

  • TheTechnician27@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    63
    ·
    edit-2
    17 hours ago

    The scene is cut in a way that you don’t know for sure they aren’t paying him. They’re probably pretty loyal, long-time customers given the way they all run right there after school, so he can take it on the honors system that they’ll pay for what they’re taking. (And he’s probably able to keep track of it pretty well on his own given he knows their names and preferred candies by heart.)

    As for the candy he throws aimlessly into the crowd, I’m sure he can afford to blow some pennies’ worth of money on customer retention by literally throwing candy at them.

    • jqubed@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      42
      ·
      16 hours ago

      I suspect the rich kids had a line of credit where he’d just send the parents a bill at the end of the month. My understanding is many grocers used to operate that way, especially before credit cards.

      • mkwt@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        17
        ·
        10 hours ago

        Yep. My aunt got in trouble for exactly this when she was a child. Abused the grocery line of credit all summer getting unnecessary candy for herself and her siblings.

    • wuffah@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      54
      ·
      17 hours ago

      The Candy Man can cause he mixes it with savvy business practices and loss leaders, and makes the world taste goooood!