To not understand why TF some companies don’t employ security guards to help tackle shoplifting in retail?

[Pebblesandshells]

I work in retail in just one store of very well known nationwide chain of supermarkets, and although the stores tend not to be superstores, they are still a fair size in general and are extremely busy.
As in the title, I can’t understand why the stores don’t have any security staff to help reduce the shoplifting. (Some of the much larger stores may have security, but in all the stores I know in my vicinity, including mine, there are none)

As you may imagine, shoplifting is extremely rife, and in our store alone we are dealing with shoplifters on a daily basis. Most of them just blatantly steal a basket of steaks, joints, cheese, alcohol and coffee (although anything that isn’t nailed down is a target) and often walk out with a ‘couldn’t give a fuck attitude’ if they’re seen.

It’s also not just a ‘stereotypical look’ of a shoplifter who will help themselves, (even the wealthy who pull up in their 4 x 4’s are almost as likely to steal, it seems, if they can get away with it, although they tend to try to hide their theft by being more discreet and accidentally on purpose not scanning all their items into the self scanners, then acting all innocent when you point out that they’ve actually got four bottles of wine instead of one)

Our store alone must lose AT LEAST a few hundred pounds a week because of the light fingered brigade , (and that’s only the thefts we know of) so surely if there was constant security, what the store would save in reduced theft would pay for the security guard to be there!

So basically, where’s the sense in having no security, which would in effect pay for itself?

Precisely!
We often have young people in the store who witness thieves just walking or running out with a basket of shopping. They see that nothing is done to the thieves, and so I imagine it must cross some of their minds that shoplifting is one of the easiest crimes to get away with in this Country.
How long before they think ‘fuck it , if I steal this item I won’t be in trouble’ and progress themselves into thieves?
No wonder theft is on the increase, it’s not totally to do with the cost of living, it’s also to do with the fact there are no bloody consequences for committing this crime!

You're very naive to think that the customer would see any benefit if shoplifting stopped. Any increase in profits would go directly to shareholder's and senior management's back pocket.

And of course their are excuses for shoplifting. If someone is genuinely desperate/destitute then fine, in fact I think supermarkets could do a lot more to help those with genuine need (I know it's not their job officially but "every little helps" 😉). Away from that the tories have demonstrated time and time again that morales, rules, and laws are optional so I don't know why anyone is surprised when the public follow their lead.

That's not all security staff though. Some take pride in the work they do. Some also are literally there as a visual deterrent and under the company's policy cant do anything .

I couldnt work for a place that expected me to not do anything . But that's me . I retrieved ££££ worth of goods .

But you cant be everywhere at once

So imagine if there were no shoplifters at all, everyone would be a few hundred pounds better off a year.

Lol, you're very naive if you believe that to be the case.

If shoplifting stopped overnight, the only people to benefit would be company owners and shareholders.

And I’d say you’re very naive to assume that shoplifting doesn’t affect the consumers, of course it does!

The Companies have certain profit margins they expect to reach, and if a company suffers huge losses through theft, they will recuperate these losses by hiking prices up even more for everyone else.

Shoplifters quite often respond well to a bit of humiliation I find....they don't like being called out on it

And I’d say you’re very naive to assume that shoplifting doesn’t affect the consumers, of course it does!

I didn't say it didn't.

The Companies have certain profit margins they expect to reach, and if a company suffers huge losses through theft, they will recuperate these losses by hiking prices up even more for everyone else

Yes, but if those losses stopped overnight, they wouldn't put the prices back down again, they'd just keep the profits for themselves.

And I never said they would put the prices back down. What I meant was, if shoplifting totally stopped (obviously not going to happen) then the companies wouldn’t hike the prices so much, and as often as they do, as they wouldn’t have to factor in recuperating money for theft losses.

My mother had two of those packs of 500ml water bottles. She gave one to the woman at the till and pointed at the other one in the trolley so she could put it through x2. A 'helpful' woman in the queue behind shouted "She's got TWO PACKS OF THAT WATER, TWO!!" It was so unnecessary and pathetic. I'm sure this same type of demographic would happily attempt to 'tackle' a shoplifter. Some people really live miserable lives.

Because nobody wants to do it. It's shit money and you risk losing your SIA, and therefore livelihood, if it goes tits up. Also the high likelihood of getting hurt for minimum wage. To get an SIA takes time and costs money, and supermarket security isn't worth it.

Security guards are usually under contract to massive firms, which change their hands on/hands off policy every five minutes, and will wash their hands of you and hang you out to dry if anything gets put on social media and it looks vaguely unfavourable to said company.

Security guards have no more right to detain a person shoplifting than any other member of the public. The police don't turn up for hours, if at all, because there aren't enough of them.

Would you sit on/with a jangling crackhead who's robbed £30 worth of sirloin, who is going to get more and more arsey, for hours on end, on the off chance a PC will eventually tip up, for minimum wage? You can't leave the shoplifter alone and it means there's nobody doing the job of security on the shop floor.

I disagree. Prices have skyrocketed in recent years for various reasons unrelated to shoplifting eg brexit supply issues, PPE surcharge, more eco friendly processes etc. Companies can simply get away with charging more regardless of the reason. If it’s not shoplifting, it will be something else. A company can’t even attribute shrinkage costs to shoplifting solely because of the nature of shrinkage, they don’t know what’s happened to the stock

Obviously it’s not just shoplifting that has caused prices to rise, that’s just one factor out of many. But, shoplifting IS taken into account when companies claw back their losses, and is passed onto the general public.

@Pebblesandshells you have mentioned impressionable young people being seduced into the idea of shoplifting multiple times. I think you need to give young people more credit, they’re not idiots. They see people doing other illegal/morally dubious things regularly and make the decision to not mirror that behaviour. They know actions have consequences. Shoplifting is ghetto, trashy and weird behaviour, it’s not exactly “cool”.

Probably the most sensible post on here.

Apart from the minimum wage comment . Not every security job is minimum wage

The supermarket where I worked until very recently had a team of security guards, usually 3 per shift and a plain clothes store detective.
Not sure if it makes a difference but they were actually employed by the store (I think) not an agency. I say this because the security guard used to do security until midnight when the store closed and then help the night staff put out stock.
Same set up in the early 00s when I worked for a different supermarket. I've only worked in the larger stores and both were one of the the big 4.
In smaller shops it probably cost more than it's worth.

Thank you.

And you're completely right, it's not usually minimum wage, but they do generally pay as little as they can get away with.

So by the time you've had tax, NI, company uniform fee, pension etc taken out. It's not a great wage for the shit and abuse you have to put up with 🙈

Well it IS our money when all the prices go up to cover the shoplifting costs.

I don't agree. The vast majority of losses in retail aren't due to shoplifting, so if shoplifting stopped overnight, it would barely make a dint in how much shops lost overall, so the impact on prices would be practically non-existent.

When I worked in a supermarket, most of our losses occurred because of items being missed while doing date-checks and mark downs, or because of damages (either in transit, or due to things being dropped by staff or customers). The amount of profit lost because of theft was tiny in comparison.

In clothing retail, most damages were caused in transit, or by accident on the shop floor or in the stock room. We lost very little due to theft - mainly pocket-money items, and we never employed any form of security.

Except shoplifting isn't the reason for the vast, vast majority of price increases.

I didn't think 27k for doing not a great deal for 90% of the time was too bad .

Only tax,N.I and pension is taken out of my pay

Uniform and all training I'd provided by the company

Re self scanners - I'm sure I read that shops on general make more from this than they lost. People afraid of being caught missing scanning an item and double scanning outnumbering those who for whatever reason do not scan an item.

Self scanners will reduce the number of employees too, one staff member monitoring several units. Ironically I recall a thread on here critisizing a man for objecting to using a scanner as it would make the employee he was speaking to redundant. The employee who was black was figured (here ) to be racial abused because of this (wtaf?).

Shoplifters are savvy enough and probably know the law better than most security guards. I've been involved in some shop lifting detentions and it's such a pain in the arse and usually for little return because not only do you employ the security guard, but you then need a member of staff to stay with the thief until the police come, the stories you hear are dire, some people are in such a bad position. I once saw a shoplifter abandon her child- he didn't run fast enough and got left behind (police came quickly that time) and I've seen a false arrest (on camera not in person) the police arrived and they produced all the receipts. I've also seen kids being sent in with the shopping list.

Anyone who's robbing enough to make it worth getting a security guard will also have enough sense to have a decoy, be subtle, or know enough of the law to not agree to stay until the police come.

Also the majority of our theft was from staff, so cameras were somewhat a deterrent. But I imagine that's an unsung advantage of self scanners.

I agree that most theft is from staff.

So many people lost their jobs because they got caught stealing when I worked for ASDA, lol. Some ran a scam through the checkouts and they figured they'd stolen well into the thousands between them over the years.

Your daughter's an idiot, injuring herself and getting all upset over a bottle of alcohol the supermarket will never miss!

Gosh what a silly little jobsworth! If God forbid she gets more badly injured doing something similar and can't work guess who will be out of a job and on benefits before she can say " how high?"

Why on earth do employees on minimum wage take this sort of thing personally? You're just tools to your employer, infinitely replaceable, why do you think they're putting in so many self service machines!