To not understand why TF some companies don’t employ security guards to help tackle shoplifting in retail?

Because nobody wants to do it. It's shit money and you risk losing your SIA, and therefore livelihood, if it goes tits up. Also the high likelihood of getting hurt for minimum wage. To get an SIA takes time and costs money, and supermarket security isn't worth it.

Security guards are usually under contract to massive firms, which change their hands on/hands off policy every five minutes, and will wash their hands of you and hang you out to dry if anything gets put on social media and it looks vaguely unfavourable to said company.

Security guards have no more right to detain a person shoplifting than any other member of the public. The police don't turn up for hours, if at all, because there aren't enough of them.

Would you sit on/with a jangling crackhead who's robbed £30 worth of sirloin, who is going to get more and more arsey, for hours on end, on the off chance a PC will eventually tip up, for minimum wage? You can't leave the shoplifter alone and it means there's nobody doing the job of security on the shop floor.

My mother had two of those packs of 500ml water bottles. She gave one to the woman at the till and pointed at the other one in the trolley so she could put it through x2. A 'helpful' woman in the queue behind shouted "She's got TWO PACKS OF THAT WATER, TWO!!" It was so unnecessary and pathetic. I'm sure this same type of demographic would happily attempt to 'tackle' a shoplifter. Some people really live miserable lives.

And I’d say you’re very naive to assume that shoplifting doesn’t affect the consumers, of course it does!

I didn't say it didn't.

The Companies have certain profit margins they expect to reach, and if a company suffers huge losses through theft, they will recuperate these losses by hiking prices up even more for everyone else

Yes, but if those losses stopped overnight, they wouldn't put the prices back down again, they'd just keep the profits for themselves.

Shoplifters quite often respond well to a bit of humiliation I find....they don't like being called out on it

So imagine if there were no shoplifters at all, everyone would be a few hundred pounds better off a year.

Lol, you're very naive if you believe that to be the case.

If shoplifting stopped overnight, the only people to benefit would be company owners and shareholders.

That's not all security staff though. Some take pride in the work they do. Some also are literally there as a visual deterrent and under the company's policy cant do anything .

I couldnt work for a place that expected me to not do anything . But that's me . I retrieved ££££ worth of goods .

But you cant be everywhere at once

You're very naive to think that the customer would see any benefit if shoplifting stopped. Any increase in profits would go directly to shareholder's and senior management's back pocket.

And of course their are excuses for shoplifting. If someone is genuinely desperate/destitute then fine, in fact I think supermarkets could do a lot more to help those with genuine need (I know it's not their job officially but "every little helps" 😉). Away from that the tories have demonstrated time and time again that morales, rules, and laws are optional so I don't know why anyone is surprised when the public follow their lead.

I don’t think they are a particular deterrent. I frequently see obvious shoplifters going into my local supermarket or leaving with goods right under the security guards nose. Security guards don’t even seem to see ‘dodgy’ characters.
The staff members are much more on the ball really. Having a guard in uniform standing at the door is not helpful, might as well just have a greeter doing the same thing.

I said in a previous post that in my large superstore our biggest loses are due to waste not theft. We waste a huge amount of food due to dates and damages. We have a security guard (multiple) however I'm not front of store so don't really know how much they prevent theft but I do know that theft isn't our biggest problem. The cost of waste is also past onto customers I expect.

I was using the scanner on my phone for M&S the other day, already had a trolley full of shopping from another supermarket. I scanned the bits I needed, paid through the app and walked out. It never ceases to amaze me that no one checks you've paid. In fact when I first started using the app and went to show staff I'd paid, none of them were in the least bit interested.

I need to explain that last sentence!
Staff theft across the board accounts for 25 - 30%, but in the worse performing stores the majority is staff theft, either stealing or collusion with customers.

I've worked with Profit Protection in a retail chain, security guards are a very blunt tool, there are far more accurate and sophisticated methods available. Most of the shrinkage in food retail is down to the staff by value.

We must be a rare breed that dont racially profile.

I'm not saying it doesn't happen but I know or a fact nobody on my team racially profile customers .

But you right about the items put into a pram by "accident" that happens often

I bought an expensive pillow from Dunhelm yesterday. There were 4 different security things on which had to be deactivated. But the assistant said thieves just run in, grab a load and run out again. The alarm isn’t a deterrent.

I used to work in retail and can tell you that shoplifters are getting more violent, before I left a member of staff was punched in the face, another was kicked several times, Ive been spat at and ive cant count the number of times my colleagues have been called all the names under the sun.
Its easy to say let it go but when your working your socks off to keep the shop running and yet you get the same people day in day out nicking stuff its hard not to take it personally - company policy was to not get involved but honestly that makes its worse as they know they can walk in take everything they want and walk out ..... often to the amazement of customers who expect you to do something about it....... I left at the start of the year and with the current cost of living crisis it will only get worse, I honestly feel sorry for all the staff that have to deal with it, and the Police have no interest whatsoever

Most of them don’t seem to care anyway. Once, I was in Tesco Metro and a guy had an overflowing basket with a lot of the things the OP described. Anyway, he scanned it all (I assume) and just walked off!! I called out to both the security guard and the lady on the till but nothing was done and he was just allowed to stroll off. The lady on the till just cancelled the transaction and I went ahead with my scanning. I didn’t see the amount but judging by the amount and type of food I wouldn’t be surprised if it was at least £50 worth 🤷‍♀️ Made me so annoyed!