Robbing from Tesco with impunity *edited by MNHQ*

Security guards at supermarket can perfectly make a citizens arrest then wait for police. They are not doing it because they’re on minimum wage. How about putting two burly security guards who are well paid by the door? Answer: because it’s probably more profitable for supermarkets to cut staff costs and let some stuff get stolen.

Absolutely agree with @HenriettaBaguetta you only have to see any social media story where someone's been arrested for drugs/violence/shoplifting, swathes of 'an absolute angel/pillar of community/ they're the victim '

Also they could make the doors less open - huge doorways at the moment-

Not great if there's a fire or need to evacuate in a hurry ...

Also they could make the doors less open - huge doorways at the moment- perhaps narrow doorways so people leaving the shop had to queue and slowly leave (they are happy to let us queue for a manned till). Then the CCTV gets a good close up of those leaving - helpful for police. They have CCTV in the car park (leave your car for more than 3 hours in Tesco car park and they will send you a charge) so track thieves by car no.
All this blaming police cuts are a bit of an easy option for the supermarkets.
Employ more staff - some a bit bigger and burly. We customers are covering the costs of their losses by higher prices (at least I don't see their share price or profits tumbling due to this) so get a grip Tesco.

Tesco cutting back on staff so it’s mostly self checking out doesn’t help.

The supermarket I work for makes a big thing that staff safety is far more important and we're not to take risks. There's been a huge increase in organised shoplifters being armed, to the point the Senior Head Office Director did a video specfically telling staff not to put themselves in danger.
The Reddit Tesco is worth a nose (I don't work for Tesco)

I don't think the staff member quite meant that they 'weren't allowed to stop them' but more like they've been advised not to put themselves at risk by doing so.

And yes, this is the way things are now in many areas. Security guards and putting alarms on baby milk, booze and meat are just used as deterrents that will put some people off but many will still do it.

Underfunding the Police force for years, increasing drug and other social problems and a social media culture where workers/security guards/Police can get dragged through the mud and have their lives altered because an out of context clip was posted on TilTok play huge parts.

How did that happen?
You complained to a staff member, they then called security who (illegally) detained you and called the police? There must be more to this story than that?

And come the next election, millions of people will be voting for more of the same. While at the same time the majority of the press will be scaring the public with tales of how terrible Labour would be. I'm in my 50s, life in this country was much, much, much better when Labour was in charge. And I'm not even a Labour voter and haven't voted Labour since the Iraq war.

I’ve seen people just walk out of a supermarket with a basket full of stuff. Staff felt they weren’t paid enough to care. It didn’t hurt them personally and they weren’t going to put themselves at risk to stop it. This is what happens when everything becomes depersonalised and huge companies own everything - individuals don’t care any more.

Could also have RFID tags in the labels so they know what's been brought to the check out, and can tell if something hasn't been scanned.

In decathlon for a few years now they've had self serve checkouts where you don't even need to scan anything, you just put your basket in the cubby hole on the counter and it detects the RFID tags and tells you instantly how much your basket is worth

There's aa new M&S just opened in my city. It's all self-service. You could have hundreds of pounds worth of clothes in your basket and presumably it's all done on trust because there are hardly any staff visible.

I’m so sorry it’s like this for you @OneTC

In a way it reminds me of when I was at school and they removed corporal punishment. Now at no point am I saying that hitting children in school was correct but I remember clearly when it was banned and the attitude of some children was that they will do what they want because no one will stop them now.

The coop in South Croydon is like a "pay what you feel like" shop.

This happened at a coop we used to live near, in a rough area. It wasn't up to the staff to get into physical altercations with those people, they had been told not to. It was not the staff's fault, I can't blame them for not wanting to get involved. Write to tesco HQ if you have an issue, don't threaten to steal yourself.

We had a group steal approx £100 worth of detergent yesterday. I wasn't there but my OH tried to stop them and they fought with her and her colleague. Fully brazen, walk in, load up a basket and walk out. Ever since the police said they won't come out for under £200 it's been heading this way. Luckily no one was hurt. When we reported it to the police (a formality for record keeping) they asked why we don't have security. The people that need to complain about this are the members of the general public. The government and the police have abdicated their responsibilities when it comes to policing the types of crimes that blight everyone's every day life. Walking home last night and at London bridge station there were 8 police dealing with a passive homeless person, mostly just standing round chatting and laughing, meanwhile all round them genuine fucking specimens continue plaguing the lives of normal people. About 20 feet further up saw some bloke blatantly handing off drugs and money to a woman.

In our shop we've been assaulted during robberies and the police don't come, we've been burgled eleventy million times, even on consecutive nights, by the same bloke, who's previously been locked up for being a serial burglar. We've got the video footage showing its clearly the same person in both sets of burglaries but the police aren't even investigating this time. Last time we got burgled the police did turn up but wouldn't wait while the building was cleared, they told us to give them a call if we find anyone inside and left a man in his 80s to go and find that out himself. We fully fortified the route they were using to break in and then they started smashing the massive front windows instead, which is virtually impossible but requires us to replace them at a cost of 5k+ each time

We're now thinking we're going to go the co-op route and not keep anything on shelves and people will have to ask for stuff and we'll keep as much stuff as we can at the counter. It will effect sales of those items though.

Or we'll go back to COVID times , counting people in & out and limiting numbers or shops will just choose to move out of certain areas

What's the point in security guards then?

To make people more wary of stealing

What's the point in security guards then?

Erm she's not paid to challenge them 🤣 but the security is actually paid to challenge people. What a stupid comment!

They all should do that

My other half works for a large retail chain. They try to have a member of staff by the door, to keep an eye out for shoplifters. They have a few regular "known bodies" who work in teams and distract staff whilst the others lift high value goods. A few months ago when OH was across the store serving a customer, two guys took a valuable item - OH realised what had happened, gave chase across the carpark, and ultimately was dragged some yards by the arm, by the thieves in their car. Very luckily he was fine apart from some cuts and bruises, and knew he should have left them to it.
The company's stance is "if they get it out of the store, it's theirs". The store are insured, and it's far better to lose an item they can be compensated for, than deal with the aftermath of confrontation and staff injury.
It's very common in all retail. Doesn't make it right though.... 😔

Not quite sure why you're getting so defensive?

You also haven't answered the questions I asked about how reasonable or legal it would be for any company to lock a group of innocent shoppers (including potentially children) inside a building for any length of time, never mind if a shoplifter who might become more aggressive/violent is trapped inside the same building, putting other's safety at risk unnecessarily.