to disapprove of shoplifting in any store?

[BodenBoredom]

A good friend regularly shoplifts in supermarkets, through the self-serve checkouts. She shows-off about getting all sorts of things, including clothing, home things, garden stuff, toys, DVDs, loads of food and wine etc, past the eyes of the assistants. She said it's easy and it's their fault for never checking her bags.

She says she wouldn't do it in a small shop, but big stores like Tesco can afford it.

She's a female Worral-Thompson! She also thinks that "everybody's" up to it, and that's why supermarkets are losing money through the self-checkouts.

I know that every now and then mistakes are made. I've accidentally not paid for items in the self-serve, but this is different. I think she even plans what she's going to take.

I know the law's on my side, but am I being up-tight in thinking that shoplifting's wrong, even if it's a giant retailer?

Do you download anything illegally? The reason I ask is that so many people 'steal' nowadays and approve of their own stealing but not other people's. She is BU BTW.

Of course it is. Maybe the retailer can afford it, but they will pass the costs on, and may also lay blame at the door of some worker on NMW.

Do you even need to ask!?

Your "friend" is a thief. I can't imagine being a "good friend" with someone who could brag about something like this. Why not tip off the shop about her?

YANBU. A colleague of mine goes on about tricks you can use like putting an expensive cake through as a 12p doughnut, or scanning one of the barcodes on a 4-pack of beer rather than the label on the cardboard part. It's the same IMO as if you put things on the bottom of the buggy and then accidentally-on-purpose forget to pay for them.

XP once painstakingly took 12 eggs out of a free range box and put them into an economy box so that it would keep me happy (free range) and him (cheapest eggs). He left them there twat. (Also didn't bother to listen to my argument about how it totally undermined the point of buying free range to pretend that they weren't )

Shoplifting is wrong YANBU.

Yes, I suppose I do download illegally. I also photocopy things that I shouldn't, such as sheet music.

Point taken. I suppose that's why I'm asking AIBU. Are we all stealing, just in other parts of life? For example, I gave someone a car park ticket the other day because it had a couple of hours left on it.

I'm sorry but you have to ask? It is stealing. She is a thief. She would be off my Christmas card list.

"Do you download anything illegally? " No
"The reason I ask is that so many people 'steal' nowadays " Do they? Even if that is so it still doesn't maske it any better.

Downloading illegally may also be morally wrong but it is different. If you were somehow duplicating the items in the shop and walking off with the duplicate, that would be the same.

BertieBotts your friend sounds like mine. She goes on about how easy it is to steal greetings cards for example, because they don't weight anything.

Thieves put the prices up for the rest of us.

No, in my reasonable opinion YANBU. It's just plain wrong. It's not a victimless crime as stores just pass on their losses to consumers.

And, if she got caught for nicking a few low value items, the store would still push for prosecution and the CPS might agree... is it really worth it?

Wrongity wrongity wrong.

YANU. Shoplifting is a criminal offence. It is against the law. Irrespective of a major supermarket's gross (in more ways than one) profit, it is wrong to shoplift in any establishment.

Sooner or later your friend will be apprehended. Given that honest shoppers pay for the activities of shoplifters, I sincerely hope it will be sooner.

People are such twats they have extra cameras on the self service tills its only a matter of time before she gets caught especially if she is so complacent. How stupid does that look on a grown woman's criminal record shop lifting fgs

DD works on a self check out not in tescos but she has to stop usually well dressed women as they have "forgotten" to scan something its the new national sport no i havn't shop lifted unless you count the pick n mix sweeties from woolworths when i was a kid

Yes it is wrong and most people that brag about these things are telling lies!
The ba vying part of a self scanner is a scale, you can't put one bottle through instead of a six pack, it doesn't weigh the right amount. As others have pointed out shops work out how much loss they make each year and add it to the cost of our shopping, so tell your friend she is stealing from you!

"For example, I gave someone a car park ticket the other day because it had a couple of hours left on it." Well I don't consider that stealing because you had already paid for the space for 2 hours so you were making a gift of it to someone else.

Yes, I'm sure it's just a matter of time before she's caught. She's wheeled out large household items before. I think she must have just kept pushing the trolley.

I told her she'll be caught and she says she'll just play dumb and will be let-off.

I wonder if they already have CCTV of her in action.

It's a shame because she's a genuinely lovely person otherwise. It's as though she's a bit addicted to it.

her friend is stealing from herself is your friend a bit thick as tescos will put the price up on her shopping the she does pay for

Yanbu, I hate TESCO as much as the next person, but stealing is stealing.

5foot5, I wasn't justifying it, I was pointing out that people sometimes only 'count' the crimes others commit as crimes, not their own.

I'm glad that everyone's in agreement. I was pretty sure she was in the wrong, but she's so convinced that it's fair game; it's their fault and there's no harm done.

I wasn't tempted to indulge, by the way!

YANBU.

Not only is it illegal, but as others have pointed out, shops pass the cost of stolen goods onto everyone else by putting prices up.

Oh and don't even get me started on theft online. Intellectual Property theft. Ggggrrrrrr...

I did steal a bit washing powder once was hanging on the back of the trolley and got tot he car park i did go back DH said TUT