I knew shop lifting was a problem but I didn't imagine it was like this..

[SunShow]

DS is working in a Tesco Express. He personally makes around 8 shop lifting reports every day. Obviously these are just the one he sees.

I imagined that shoplifting was kids/teens stealing a chocolate bar or desperate people stealing food and that does happen, but most of it is much larger scale. Yesterday he had people arrive with rucksacks and literally sweep the contents of a shelf into their bags.

Staff are taught not to confront them (good as far as his mother is concerned!) and police take no action even when there is good CCTV.

This is a small supermarket in the nicer bit of a perfectly pleasant suburban town.

Yeah, my local co-op is like that. Every day these junkies just come in with rucksacks and clear the booze shelves. Multiple times a day. The manager just laughs.

It's really upsetting when you're on benefits and you are struggling to pay for stuff and some people just take it all for free. It actually makes me feel like I wish I could steal. Not that I would but i think it encourages a lot of people who wouldn't usually do it. When they see the lack of consequence.

Same problem in the co-op in the town near me too.

I understand there were some areas where there is stealing to order. People order goods from someone in their community, cash price, cheaper than the supermarket. Goods get stolen. Consumer doesn't ask questions about where the goods are coming from.

Perceived as a victimless crime except that we all pay. Higher prices, more security, less compassion for genuine mistakes.

I was in Boots once and this big bloke came in with a rucksack and started scooping the shelves of stuff. The tiny little female asian pharmacist (mentioning sex and race as impacts how tiny she was!) chased after him and shouted at him and chucked him out the store! She was amazing but, as I mentioned, tiny and a bloody trained pharmacist not a bouncer!

She said he comes in all the time... junky who sells it.

There’s a co-op in a nearby town where drug dealing takes place in the car park. Some of the small Tescos regularly close because they’ve been vandalised by thieves.

Plenty of expensive supermarket items now have security tags on them. These are not victimless crimes. We are all paying the price for people who have no morals and no intention of working to pay for their goods.

The woman I talk to on the til at the large Tesco I got to said they run out with trolley-loads. No one stops them. This isn’t an inner city. This is a sought-after Borough

I went into town yesterday and all you could hear was security people on radios communicating about multiple suspected shoplifters, really spoiled a day out feeling that thieves were omnipresent.

Previously, I used to work in a well known craft store, thousands of pounds worth of stuff "walked out the door". One guy used to wear his wellies and steal expensive brushes and paint pens, he'd just drop them in there!!! We were told, never confront, just call the police for the crime number for the insurance . Loads of CCTV evidence, but if it ever went to court it was 12 hrs community service maximum, repeatedly.

Yep, when DD worked at Wilkos her medium sized store was losing 10k a week to shoplifters. Not surprised the company went bust.

What do they do with a bag full of Gregg's fresh food? I'd assumed the stuff from supermarket shelves is being stolen to sell on.

Maybe the shops don't care, just raise the prices for the honest among us.

I'd love to see a barrier system where you have to scan your receipt to exit. Some stores do this at their self serve points. But then again someone could just buy one small thing to get a receipt and scoop the rest I suppose!

I don't know what that stats are for self service tills but I saw someone "buy three magazines and 3 meal deals at the Airport Smith's and only pay for his newspaper. I imagine that can't be that usual.

Well that is a good explanation of why food has become so ridiculously expensive. We all end up paying for this.

Witnessed exactly this scenario in a Tesco Express a couple of weeks ago, junky with a rucksack trying to steal all the meat. Coincidentally (or not) the 3 lads working there are all massive, walked slowly but purposefully towards the guy who ran off when he saw them so didn’t steal much. It was about 2pm on a Saturday and they said he was the 5th one that day. Again, naice commuter village area, apparently they get the train to places like that to go and steal because the shops are less likely to have security guards

Yes, it is rife everywhere and no one cares.

We're running out of baskets in our store because people keep running off with them. We're a small, very middle class, quiet town so I dread to think what it's like in inner city areas. The police do nothing, but to be fair to them it's constant and I'm sure they don't have the resources.

its because they know nothing will be done to stop them-police dont come for under 200 or they didnt used to and workers are told not to stop them

One of the issues is that the police don't take action for thefts under £250 in value. The Home Secretary announced yesterday that this is going to change. It's not all drug addicts. There's organised crime behind it in many instances. If you are offered something at a price which seems too good to be true then it's either stolen or fake. There is also stealing to order.

The pp who said it's seen as a victimless crime is correct. It's far from it.

Maybe it’s time to move away from the self-service model and back to human service? I wonder what annual losses to say Co-op or M&S food are and whether it would be more cost effective to have a person hand things over a counter?
Reminds me of the first time I went to an off-licence in a rough part of Manchester in the 80s and the shop assistant retrieved what you wanted from a cage 😱.

Many moons ago, as a student, I worked part time in a sports direct. It was like that since then

What I don’t understand is why they have security guards at supermarkets if they aren’t going to do anything. I once approached the security chap at my local Tesco as I was concerned about a girl in a car being abused by a bloke. An elderly lady had drawn the situation to my attention. The security guard came out, looked, shrugged and went back inside.

It's a huge issue.

In the USA, teenage (thugs), use apps on their phones to pinpoint a location/shop, which they swarm and loot. There are so many of them, they arrive with faces covered, in and out in a matter of minutes, and then back down to the metro and disperse.

In response, Shops are locking goods in cabinets (in response), and the higher valuable good must be requested from staff, no customer direct access.

Security guards are trained not to intervene but instead to call the cops, they are a visual deterrent.

We live very near a Tesco express, I saw a lad 16/18 fill his backpack with bottles of drink,walk out told them, they said there's nothing they can do! We have a grass area with trees at the bottom of our garden,DH was walking the dogs,found a stack of Tesco baskets,it's opposite the store,he took them back, they would be able to see them, but no one bothered. They said it was shoplifters, they are so brazen. Yet, me,in my 70s, I shot in there one evening, did the auto till, next time I went in there, got shouted at across the store, I was in a rush, urgently needed an ingredient,my card hadn't gone through, I was treated as though I had murdered a baby, almost in tears. 15 years of shopping in there and first name terms with a lot of the staff.

It is shocking in our local tesco's express too. I regularly see people walking out with bags full of chicken etc. I often go in the evening and it happens on a regular basis.I generally shout stop thief but obviously the staff can't do anything I understand that they can't put themselves at risk and just seem resigned. . My dh did see a Coop member of staff tackling a shoplifter the other day, they had tried to grab a whole box of chocolate bars and in the ensuing scuffle they were flying everywhere. I think generally the whole of society is in decline, I have never known things so bad.