If you work in retail (shop floor) have you personally witnessed an increase in thieving?

[SaturdayGiraffe]

Someone just told me there’s conspiracy theories that the shops are lying to raise prices.
I’ve seen one theft this year (as a shopper).
Suppose the AIBU is “To believe that theft has indeed increased.”

That is a bizarre conspiracy theory. Conspiracy Theories seem to be a growing mental illness. I know someone badly effected by conspiracy theories during COVID. Too much time to stay in and "do his research".

@throughgrittedteeth Absolutely, I agree! When you're struggling every day of your life, living in an area so rife with crime it's is a normalised source of income for some, you would not be getting upset at how much money Tesco had lost when you bought a tub of stolen lurpack half price.

realistically, food being sold around council estates at reduced prices are more likely to have come from food bank donations rather than shoplifting. On this estate, certainly

@crazyivy yes of course, the local food bank trolley is where people manage to steal 10+ tubs of lurpack and cathedral city.

Get real!

But this is a huge part of the problem. There clearly are longstanding cultural problems in some areas.

I’m not sure taking the view that it’s just part of the colourful tapestry of life and aren’t MNers silly and naive for thinking it’s bad is a good idea.

I am being real. On my estate, people go to food banks, get donations, then come door to door selling them - that happens constantly. The food items still have food back colour coded stickers on them

@NugatoryMatters I said in my previous post I don't necessarily agree with it, but in such areas shop lifting is at the bottom of the pile of issues police have to deal with and last on the list of what those living there care about.

It wasn't a justification for what's happening, just an explanation that the issue goes much deeper than someone buying stolen goods.

@crazyivy what are they selling? I volunteer at my local food bank and we never have lots of brand named products, most of what we have has little to no resale value.

lots of tinned stuff, jam, jars of pickles, breakfast cereal, eggs, bread, butter, cheese, fruit and veg, lots of stuff. I take in homeless people sometimes, and have seen what they bring home from foodbanks and sell on, and also what they buy as ( unwanted!) presents for me from foodbanks too

Always been lots of hidden poverty and 'dodgy blokes selling knock off' on the estates, but we used to have a good variety of shops. We lost more and more after the council created red routes, then made local parking expensive and rare.
The middle classes simply drove to better places to shop with parking facilities, removing their money out of the local economy and sealing the fate of the 2 fabric shops, pet shop, plant and flower shop, gift shop, stationary shop, post office, and dry cleaners. All prior to massive increase in visible grab and run.

Those shops got slowly replaced by shops that non car owning locals (aka lower income) might walk to. A large Poundland, a poundworld, 4 betting shops, an amusement arcade, a cash converter, 2 x pawn shops, 2x plastic tat shop, several fried chicken shops.
Council deprived of some parking revenue, reacted by increasing parking wardens and lowering street cleaning. At the same point grab and run was massively increasing, as were pigeons, and crows, more visible druggies, more urine, and more and more security.

Poundland, Poundworld, Cash converter, plastic tat shops and the amusement arcade soon gave up. So much is now boarded up. 'Rough pitches' (2nd hand goods on a blanket) sprung up outside. Some enterprising homeless also come to sell what they can find combined with begging.
Then the fences started turning up with upended bread tray pitches blatantly selling shoplifted goods at a couple of quid cheaper. This is a main thoroughfare with a police station on a turning off it.

Most (not all) of the buyers are visibly down on their luck. Out of date food from 2019 onward sells well in the market. Many are really struggling and it's reflected by what's being sold by fences. It used to be all named brand coffee, laundry gel, Ferrero Rocher etc, but it took hours to sell as most still couldn't afford it, and the fences don't like hanging around too long.

There's still luxury stuff but less, it's now it's mainly gravy granules, biscuits, pet food, tinned meat, fish, and veg, tea, long life milk, sanitary pads, J cloths.
The pitches are continuously restocked by lads on hire bikes while they're there.
Some still tut at it, but 'what can you do' is the main refrain.

I don't work in retail but I have noticed the staff seem a lot more jumpy so I figure something must be going on.

If I go through self check out with tagged alcohol, they only remove the tag when I've paid and they can see it on the screen. They used to just remove it as soon as the scanner beeped.

I also popped in the other day and admittedly looked like a right scruff! I'd been decorating and had jumped in the shower before popping out but went into shop with wet hair and paint on my joggers - security guard not so discretely followed me round the shop. The guy has got a job to do and I defo wasn't stealing, but that's not something I've encountered before!

Even local small Boots has moved all their No 7 to locked cabinets.

I also wonder if shoplifters have been emboldened by the many videos on social media of different groups walking into Walmart and Target and just waltzing out with whatever they fancy while the security guards look on? I've seen quite a few of these videos floating about and if you were a dishonest person, I can see how you might be tempted to give it a go.

At the risk of sounding like an old fart (and I'm actually not even that old, ha!!) some people now carry such an air of entitlement they might have actually convinced themselves that it's ok.

My uni (better area) now gets regularly steamed by gangs for computers and other tec. Police know, but don't get involved as the uni won't report it. They've systematically lowered security, opting to shut facilities to students more often, as cost saving. That's lead to even less security and more vandalism, and emboldened the gangs. They're now openly dealing drugs, selling shoplifted goods, publicly telling security to "do one." No ones allowed to complain.
Students complaining about situations are advised to take responsibility for their own security by only being around in main working hours. This has lead to reduced staff in library etc. Student union has no external funding so 'focusses on positivity' and students who speak out are warned about 'bringing the university into disrepute' when they get too loud about it all. 'Broken social contracts' aren't just at the bottom of society.

The people justifying buying stolen goods are the first to complain about the rise in prices, lack of staff, stores closing and rise in insurance premiums!

This is what happens when inequality becomes ridiculously high. Crime goes up and mental health goes down. It’s been studied. Mental health for all suffers, not just those with the least.

I work in retail and haven't noticed more shoplifters but im gullible and trust everyone if they look ok

Charity shops near me are more expensive than buying new

I don't work in retail but have witnessed it myself when in the high street. I've also seen an increase in people not paying transport fares.

Charity shops near me are more expensive than buying new

Appreciate that Vinted is a recent thing, but there's been decently priced second hand clothes on eBay for years. Or you borrow something off a friend.

Whether or not you're doing the stealing, it's still theft and someone has to pay for the loss.

No idea if it's increased or not, but 30 years ago I worked in British Home Stores (large department store for those not as ancient as me), and we would regularly have grab and run of whole racks of stuff - usually nice silk nighties, underwear, that sort of thing, obviously just to be sold on. Store also had a full-time security guard walking around and staff all had a system for alerting the guard to suspected shoplifters (3 short rings of the bell). So it wasn't exactly the good old days when this didn't happen! Oh and the post-xmas returns were unbelievable - so many clothes worn once but claiming they hadn't - customers bringing back ripped/dirty children's clothes claiming they were faulty/ripped when bought but had to let kids wear them for the day but still wanted and got refunded.

@Findingmypast good post, that's really eye opening.

Lol funny cos she don't know my name and I don't know hers. I'm hardly the cause of all shoplifting because a woman once offered me a coat half price and I bought it. She offered it me I never asked and she would clearly still be shoplifting weather I took her up on her offer or not. None of you stuck up mumsnetters can ever make me feel guilty so you are wasting your time. Apart from that I pay for all my stuff but if an opportunity arises why would I turn it down. I'm looking out for my children. The half of the money I saved on the coat can go towards some extra food or presents for my children so as long as they are all happy I could care less what some random stuck up people on the Internet think

Unless the police think it is worth policing, they will continue. Its effectively decriminalised.

They wouldn't get away with it if it was a burglary of someone's home

Its a mix, but also apparently its common that in some big store names its classed as stock shrinkage, as its said that it's also down to staff too. How accurate that it, I'm not sure.