To wonder why shoplifters are so thick and selfish?

You can get kids paracetamol free from your GP on prescription.

Minor crimes like shoplifting are caused by grinding poverty,
There are housing, health, food, energy, crises that have been worsening year on year for 15 years at least.
More and more child poverty
More and more homeless

There is no epidemic causing people to be thick or selfish.
They’re poor and desperate.

Of course! I know its not going to really happen.. it's still an unhinged thing to say. It's not funny. Kids used to get their hands chopped off for stealing bread when they were starving. It's grim. As is the attitude towards shoplifters. Ghoulish and not really addressing any of the underlying issues.
Yeah sit there and wang on about corporal punishment and how these people are just filth, born evil or whatever.. then call anyone who wants to seriously talk about the causes 'a bleeding heart' or a 'woketard'..... but what good does any of that do? None. It's just smug.

I think it was a flippant tongue in cheek comment

You are unhinged.
That is something that used to be done as a punishment for stealing. Do you think it lessened thievery? Have a look at the actual statistics. Read a bloody book.
Crime was far far higher in the days when punishments like that were dished out.
But I guess ghouls like you felt entertained and vindicated so that's all right then.

Well, if there are no consequences then people think (rightly) they can get away with it. It used to be considered a crime and the police would, rightly, respond and the CPS would prosecute. Now the police can't be bothered, even where a shop has CCTV of the incident and the criminal (because that's what a shoplifter is) has been apprehended, nothing happens. Shop staff have, rightly, been told not to intervene because they may be injured or worse.

I predict the major retailers will respond at some point and will implement measures to reduce this. I'm not sure what but it'll be better than what's there now, which is nothing. A friend who works in a supermarket says people regularly come in and fill a trolley with no intention of paying. The staff don't do anything, the police don't either so they get away with it.

It's theft and it's wrong but this is where we are.

This fictional penniless young mother with multi kids, no family, no help from anyone now has a diabetic child. Can her luck get any worse?

But the shop stealing epidemic is not down to this fictional person. It’s entirely down to the fact certain elements of our society know full well how to game what little system is left. Watching a group of teens stroll out of Tesco without a care in the world, you do wonder how things went so wrong.

Exactly. You say you don't care about your neighbours helping themselves to stuff, but if they stole from you I'd expect you'd feel differently.

I own a shop and shoplifters boil my piss, they're not stealing essential items because they're starving or need medication. It's pure entitlement. The last one I caught was an almost 7ft tall middle aged man, he had no qualms about wrestling with a slight woman (me) as I tried to get my property back off him. I told him he was a pathetic waste of space for fighting a woman and he's stealing directly from my pocket as it's my shop. I got my stuff back and he slunk off, he was clearly counting on me not having the bottle to confront him.

Independent shops can't really afford to put up their prices to cover theft, otherwise noone would buy from them, as they can just buy cheaper online.

This.

Mmmm, I was in Marks & Spencer a few days ago for a couple of things when I overhead two staff members commenting that a couple had gone out with a trolley full of food. That couple walked up to their very large car, she got in the passenger seat, he filled up the boot and away they went! 🤷

Because the police do nothing. They’re too often more interested in investigating someone who’s posted something that could possibly offend someone on SM.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14994035/Serial-shoplifter-spared-prison-four-times.html

Sometimes it's the only life they know

I'm fully aware of the entitlement. I was simply saying not e eryone can get a pharmacist to prescribe for them.

Your child is entitled to free prescriptions and always will be as a diabetic then
I'm also the parent of a Diabetic
The lengths people are going to justify why shop lifting is ridiculous
The vast majority of shoplifting isn't dine by desperate mothers to feed their kids .

Thees a lot more potential Shame in being caught shoplifting.....

I only buy george asda or next on ebay. Most designer labels are knock off such as LV bags etc.

I would rather buy a real leather bag from m and s when they have a sale.

It's more complex than that. She'd need to contact her health visitor or social worker not a gp, and whilst yes they would signpost her to support/a food bank there's a lot of potential shame and fear of being judged as not able to meet the babies needs which could push someone to steal it instead of admitting they don't have enough money to feed their baby.

Anyone who works in retail knows that by far the largest amount of shoplifting is done by organised Eastern European gangs who do not come in and steal a loaf and a tin of beans to feed the kids. They come in well prepared, often with their own detaggers , and will take hundreds of pounds worth in one go then travel to the next shop and do the same.

Possibly, but as you're unlikely to be a net contributor to society, maybe that's the only way get you to contribute a bit. (through VAT)

Well it's pretty obvious on a base level - if more people steal things from a shop - that shop has to put up prices for everyone.

On a higher level - that criminal has got away with committing a crime and there is a lot of evidence (which I can google if someone can't be bothered to) that someone who commits smaller crimes and gets away with them, goes on to commit bigger ones.

if someone hasn't heard of a foodbank in 2025 they live in a level of obliviousness so extreme they shouldn't be procreating.

apart from anything else in every supermarket I've ever been in you would have walked past the dropping off point for the local foodbank after nicking your stuff.

my child is a type 1 diabetic. Pharmacists won’t touch him with a barge pole. Always tell us to speak to our GP.

Erm, because they’re thick and selfish ….

Because “thieves” might equally apply to the companies selling goods to a captive market at daylight robbery prices