Robbing from Tesco with impunity *edited by MNHQ*

At no point did I say it was ok. I used to be one of these poor fuckers in retail. We are not paid enough to risk challenging people, no.

Just that the information that Tesco etc are on their bare bones is incorrect. I have limited sympathy for the company but plenty for overworked underpaid staff. It doesn't mean I steal, it just means I'm not going to feel sorry for a company that is bleeding British dry.

As I said previously, there have always been lifters. Was ever thus.

Lastly supermarkets aren’t charities. They compete against each other hence prices are whatever gives them best profits versus market share.

What is an excess profit? Who is deciding how much is too much?

Pinching stuff from Tesco as some sort of socialist cause is ridiculous. Start your own low profit supermarket if that’s the way forward. Tesco pay and treat staff fairly. They donate the surplus food to charity at the end of every day.

Weirdly it’s the opposite in my local Tesco! I’ve seen people steal a few times in there and they always go after them. I once saw them refuse to let a homeless man go until he handed back a bottle of coke that he had stole

This is normal now. That how far this country has sunk. Basically, the police are more concerned about attending the local pride event than dealing with crime. Or policing people’s social media for non crime hate speech. And you are not allowed to use the word criminal to describe a criminal. They must be underprivileged victim of some sort:

It's all over the country now OP

I haven't seen much news but my sister tells me the police are doing similar to San Francisco now - they won't bother with a theft under $200 over there, she says the police have made a similar announcement here?

My bestie lives in Brixton and is surprised that my local supermarket doesn't have the alcohol locked away.

It does feel as if the governments across the world will do nothing, make of that what you will.

And that’s the argument that makes people who are shoplifting feel justified to do so.

‘what did you say to yourself to make it okay to steal?’ ‘I said they make enough profits, they deserve it’.

Surely it would be cheaper to employ a second security guard to do the early shift.

I get that - but all companies haemorrhage money in lots of ways.

Would you on your pay of £11.02/hour have challenged these 3 men over £50?

DH and I saw a large group of foreign students ( backpacks with language school logos) stealing, we alerted staff in tesco who said there was nothing they could do as they can't recover from them.

And who is raising this ever-growing crop of wasters??

We really need less careless & thoughtless procreation. People like this generally don't come from stable, respectful and enthusiastic parenting situations.

Bollocks.

People ( usually men because they are very entitled) do it because they can. I used to work with teenage boys that nicked large amounts of booze. They were well fed at home and parents would give them money for lunch and snacks.

It’s nonsense like this that means more people feel they can get away with it. The amount of people nicking stuff because they are hungry is virtually none. It’s perfectly well fed people exploiting open supermarkets, knowing they can’t be searched.

Recent research shows the big four supermarkets are making excess profits and benefiting off the cost of living crisis by not passing savings on.

There was an interesting segment about this on newsnight the other night. Basically, shoplifters know nothing will happen, so are increasingly brazen- think supermarket sweep type dashes. Blokes from co op was saying it's not necessarily people stealing to feed themselves, but organised and targeted theft, which their security guards can do nothing about.

As an aside, I was once involved with a bloke who believed that bacon and cheese were his human right (yes, he used those words), so he would steal them from our local supermarket because he couldn't afford them. The fact that he couldn't afford them because he was too superior to work like the rest of us escaped him.

@Pinkitydrinkity 3 bottles of spirits would be like £50? Peanuts to Tesco’s

That's not quite right - (I used to work for Tesco's)

In order to stay competitive in the marketplace Tesco's (and other supermarkets) operate on very small profit margins.

If I am stacking shelves with jars of coffee from a case of 12 jars and I drop one and it breaks, that's the whole profit from that case gone.
That is classed as a 'shrinkage' and has to be paid for somehow.

So shoplifters put the price up for everyone else.

I’ve heard of this a lot recently.

What is the point of having security guards then?

I reported an aggressive guy in the car park of our local Tesco who was threatening and frightening old women in the disabled bays, plus threatening the young female in his car. The security guard came out, had a look then retreated back into the store. 🤷‍♀️

A checkout operator at our local Tesco told me they routinely have people helping themselves to as much ££ steak as they can stuff in a rucksack

As a PP said, cost of living, not enough treatment for ails of society, not enough police = perfect storm

There is a general breaking down of society happened right now infront of us. We are impotent to it happening. Some of us choose to roll our eyes and shrug our shoulders as a coping mechanism. Others throw their hands up in the air furious. Many think it’s ‘no big deal’. But it’s happening. The criminals are winning. The bolder they become the more it will impact your lives abd your children’s lives.

My weekly shop is under £200 so I could then just push the trolley out but as I don’t look like a thug I know I would be stopped as I would be an easy target.

That’s not the point. It’s stealing.

My male colleagues would prefer the females to challenge as it’s less likely the situation will escalate ( and looks poor for the men if anything does happen).

One of the problems for shop staff is they are busy. Even filling shelves you are focused on getting the stuff out quickly so you don’t notice the people nicking stuff. If you’re on the tills you can’t leave.

The best way is for shops to refuse entry I think ie no more than 3 kids at a time or previous shoplifters banned.

There’s a lot of theft from the shop I work in, and from other businesses in the area. The police do not want to know, every incident is reported to the police and the company I work for, nothing changes and imo that’s why the thefts have increased, it’s brazen and an increasing number of staff have been assaulted along the way.

The staff member you spoke to sounds like someone who has had enough and isn’t prepared to risk their own safety for the sake of the stock. He won’t be the only one.

The situation may be ridiculous, but saying this means 'stealing is a human right' is goady nonsense. No one thinks that.

When cost of living goes up, when health care and social care and addiction treatment are not funded, when police are overstretched, people will steal more. Its not rocket science.

Sure Tesco can put their booze behind locks but that's a plaster on bigger problems only the government can fix.

Not cut enough that 8 officer have got time to harrass a disabled girl for thought crime.

Well.thars,all right then🙄