‘It’s organised looting’: UK in grip of a shoplifting epidemic, say store owners
‘It’s organised looting’: UK in grip of a shoplifting epidemic, say store owners
Shop thefts have more than doubled in the past three years, costing retailers £953m a year, according to the British Retail Consortium
"There are only nine meals between mankind and anarchy." - Alfred Henry Lewis
Asking the government for funding for additional security measures is like sticking a plaster on the collapsing wall of the cost of living crisis.
76So standard conservative policies.
Dont adress the social issues. Repress the symptoms until the system collapes, while your friends rob everything they can grab.
8
Our local big Sainsbury's supermarket has installed airport-style barriers everywhere and you now have to queue and scan your receipt to get out.
As a kid, I always wanted to live in some science fiction futuristic society. I never thought that I'd actually grow up to live somewhere where I had to scan to get out a supermarket only to be under threat of attack by ravaging killer dogs.
41Our local big Sainsbury's supermarket has installed airport-style barriers everywhere and you now have to queue and scan your receipt to get out.
The store nearby installed that a while back, and someone just broke the gate down, and honestly I have never been more proud of my community.
21sci fi is about the present. Atwood said that everything that happened in The Handmaids Tale happened in real life — just not to white people.
So too, cyberpunk dystopias were happening while being made. Yes Akira has people with magic powers — but delinquent kids, government experiments on children, a brutalist police force that murders without question: all modern day.
14Those gates are so fucking stupid. They barely work, usually one of the two actual gates doesn't open, and the gates stay open long enough that multiple people can just walk through. I kinda really hate having to prove I've just paid for the things I've just overpaid for.
11Plus if you decided not to get something you either have to ask someone to open them, or sneak out otherwise. They're just very unpleasant.
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Our local big Sainsbury's supermarket has installed airport-style barriers everywhere and you now have to queue and scan your receipt to get out.
what if you didn't buy anything?
6I’m not an expert on Sainsburys, really. We just used to shop there. Most of it is self-checkout but they do have 3 or 4 tills with checkout workers down at one end. I guess you could walk through there. Also there’s a security guard who I guess could let you out.
I only put up with it once - about 3 weeks ago - and haven’t been there since. We’ve done our family shopping there for 15+ years.
2
How does this work if you don't get a receipt? Haven't shops been pushing not to print paper receipts for a few years now
1I don't know. There's always a queue because the scanner wasn't reading the receipts properly and wlll only accept the receipt scanned once. We had to be helped through by a shopworker who checked we had paid. It was super-frustrating to wait and the gates were too strong to push through. We've just stopped going to Sainsbury's now and just use our nearest Aldi.
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Not really a surprise when you consider just how bad the cost of living crisis is to some people.
36The fact that the article is mostly focused on stores selling food and essential items is telling (compared to things like USB cables, wrenches and succulent plants). Sure, there is a segment of young teens and pensioners that steal because nothing is as exhilarating. Decreased affordability, stagnant wages, more of the population left hungry or a paycheque away from being hungry encourages theft and illegal resale of essential goods.
If people were well-fed and prices were reasonable, there would be no need to steal these things and there'd be little demand for stolen food goods. To an extent, if jewelry cost £1 to buy then who would bother stealing it anyway?
Back to the main issue, what's a hungry person on the street supposed to do, if begging for spare change barely gets you anything? Pick berries? Hunt squirrels, pigeons, raccoons and cook them over a rubbish fire? Food bank lines are getting longer, while other supports (like health and mental health support, employment resources, disability payments) are difficult to navigate and sometimes impossible without access to technology nowadays.
34What do you expect when so many people can’t even afford basic needs?
33w crime
if shoplifting were really a problem, they would just shut the stores down. corpos always take fraud and theft into account before hand.
26And then raise prices after because, "We have to account for that loss!"
3Corporation bosses want to increase profits again:
"We've already used Covid."
"We've already used war in Ukraine."
"We've already used climate change."
"How about increasing looting... to increase prices?"
5
You're right that they'll take it into account, but there are other steps they'll take before shutting: more stuff going behind the counter, etc.
I think the logical conclusion, if things get steadily more dystopian, are supermarkets that look like a giant off-licence: all staff and product behind barriers.2Unfortunately that will come eventually. Shops that have too much loss just get closed
1That may yet happen. When it’s more corner shops and convenience stores, they’ll go under.
1
I worked out last night that the points program in my local pub means I have to buy 33 drinks if I want a free drink of equivalent price. That's daylight fuckin robbery mate
21I was actually in my local co op last week (edit - time flies, no, it was a few weeks back now!) When a group rushed in, literally ransacked the place - openly filling up their bags, then brazenly quickly walked out. Absolute cunts.
Staff couldn't do anything. Said it's happened numerous times before. In this case it was a lot who were parked up on the local field before being evicted and moved on.
19Staff couldn’t do anything.
Neither should it. The wares are insured, there is no need for them to bring themselves in danger.
I used to work at a fuel station and I was told to back off if something remotely dangerous was happening. The station was insured and we had cameras all over. Let them rob, then report to the police.
Now, of course, this necessitates that the police does something, which I am aware, is a bit of a coin toss in the UK right now.
14Well yes, of course they couldn't do anything. I used to run a large convenience store before leaving retail for good around 15 years ago - I know the score. But it didn't stop ruining their day, and making them feel helpless.
The issue is the knock on effects. One of my staff members back then had her ribs broken in one shoplifting attack, and that was unprovoked. Police never caught the guy.
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Most of the nicking I’ve seen has happened in co op as well.
From what I’ve noticed they seem to be the least likely shop to have a security guard, so maybe that’s why.
The onestop down the road from me locks the shop up after 9pm and individually lets people in, as they don’t have a security guard.
7This is why people don't want them parking up on the local field before being moved on. They want them to drive past without stopping at all. And they'll fix their own driveways and gutters.
4
Steal more
18Hey the guardian, you spelled "poverty" wrong.
16When people steal the latest iPhone they should go to jail
When people steal a bread they should be given the help they need
15just wondering aloud here (genuinely - i'm not trying to be an ass)
are iphones sold from local shops? or just apple stores.
i think a lot of small business owners sell bread.
can buy a lot of bread after stealing an iphone
6What % of stolen iPhones do you think are sold for food money
5And what about bottles of alcohol, toiletries and meat to be sold at the local pub?
2
No, organized looting is what the Tories and their corporate pals are doing to the NHS.
12I’ve definitely seen a lot more shoplifting over the past few months. From what I’ve seen, they don’t go to the big shops they go to the Tesco Extras, Sainsburys local etc.
One time I was stood a metre away from some guy openly just heaving stuff off shelves into a backpack.
He ran out of the shops and called one of the workers a cunt when she got in his way. She was obviously quite autistic and very distressed by the situation.
I swear everything about this country is getting worse.
12Underfunding the police, all mental health and social support, and having leaders who constantly, openly cheat, steal and lie for a decade.
This makes the country and people's behaviour worse? Surprised Pikachu
I feel like the UK is falling apart and half the population is doing their best to fuel the flames.
16Yeah, it’s all gone to shit.
In a way I’m kinda hopeful for the future though, it feels like more people are gradually acknowledging the country is in a poor state, and some Brexit people even acknowledge it was a mistake.
Unlike in the US where people seem to double down on the country being great when things are actually getting worse.
7
You saw a 5 second interaction and diagnosed someone as autistic?
2You could know that staff at your shop
1
Shop thefts have more than doubled in the past three years
wow, what a crazy point in time for something like this to begin
11All a bit weird because it’s the same narrative in the US at the moment
8You are on to something.
If you are careful and observant, you''ll notice that things that we think "only happen here" seem to happen across Western countries at the same time.
It only seems to take someone like capitalist edgelord, Tim Gurner to reveal things are often coordinated.
11Other things that are happening across many countries: Migrant crises; extreme weather events related to heat and flooding.
1
Mafia is the NWO.
1
This is the best summary I could come up with:
In recent months, David, the manager of a Leeds Co-op store, and his staff have been threatened with razors, knives, screwdrivers, needles and hammers by shoplifters who have become more brazen and aggressive.
Paul Gerrard, the chain’s director of public affairs and a former customs officer, described some of the shoplifting as “organised looting”, saying gangs would climb over kiosks and brazenly empty shelves into rucksacks, construction bags and even wheelie bins.
Earlier this week, Laurence Guinness, the chief executive of the Childhood Trust, told the Big Issue: “I have spoken to many children, some as young as seven, who have resorted to taking food from shops because they are hungry.”
In Cambridge, Ronnie, a convenience store owner, said in the last week alone shoplifters had stolen five £7.99 steaks, 15 packets of chicken and lamb, 25 chocolate bars and fruit chews, 15 cans of energy drink and six bottles of wine.
The company said it had been forced to spend more than £200m to counter criminal behaviour, with measures such as body-worn cameras and headsets for staff and “dummy” packaging for items such as £6 boxes of Ferrero Rocher chocolates and £6 jars of Kenco coffee to deter thieves from looting or “bulk-shoplifting”.
James Lowman, the chief executive of the ACS, described the levels of theft as “unprecedented” and said official crime figures “barely scratch the surface” due to underreporting.
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3iPhones are only sold though apple stores and a few authorized dealers
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