… to think shoplifting is really bad?

[Queenofswords88]

I’m not talking about someone stealing essentials due to severe financial hardship, or someone stealing to fund an addiction or due to other mental health issues - those situations make stealing more understandable.

I’ve encountered a few things recently that have made me start to think others may not see shoplifting in general as that big a deal, or maybe even consider it typical when people are teenagers. AIBU to think most people have never shoplifted and would agree that, other than in the circumstances I’ve mentioned, there are generally no excuses?

Though shalt not steal.
It is never okay to steal.
It’s theft. End of.

Most shoplifting is done for profit. Very few people steal to survive. It's wrong.

I disagree that funding addiction is an acceptable reason for someone shoplifting. Maybe it's understandable if someone genuinely needs something to survive but seriously, what percentage of shoplifting do you think is done by people stealing the bare minimum they need to live, that is to say if they didn't steal it they would die? And of those few cases, do they make sure they steal the cheapest items?

Looking at the court results in our local newspaper or online, it's rare you see prosecutions for very low value items. The shoplifters seem to have expensive tastes. Nobody needs to steal a joint of beef worth £15 and a bottle of Prosecco worth £12.99. The value of items is low but they are not essentials. Alcohol isn't essential, if you're an alcoholic you can get treatment. I can't afford to spend £15 on a joint of beef and I work fulltime.

Most shoplifting in my area is done to order anyway. One of the neighbours openly operates a steal-to-order business to support their drug-dealing income. Tell them what you want and they'll get it for you at half the shop price. I'm not exaggerating, they often do it while the customer waits.

I didn’t say any of the examples I gave were acceptable reasons for shoplifting, just that the circumstances would make shoplifting understandable. I wanted to exclude those situations from this poll because I was thinking more of the sort of situations you’re talking about, where people just want something, maybe of relatively low value, and don’t want to pay for it.

Your neighbour’s steal-to-order business is shocking!

It’s not something I care about at all, if I’m honest.

When I was a teen it was seen as “normal”, if slightly rebellious. When I was around 13 I stole pens from WH Smith, makeup from Superdrug. I’m not proud but I did a lot of things as a teen I’m not proud of. Mostly through peer pressure, hormones, etc.

Would find it very odd if I knew an adult who shoplifts now, especially if they admitted it. But I know some get a rush from it just like drugs or gambling.

Of course shoplifting is awful, scumbag behaviour which inflates the cost of products and makes shopping unpleasant for everyone else who must endure more suspicion and the inconvenience of anti-theft measures taken by stores.

You'll get posters coming on here to tell you it's no big deal and that they themselves are habitual shoplifters.

Yes, and you also get some thieves who will deliberately present as vulnerable so that, if caught, they can turn on the waterworks about being a single mum on benefits needing formula for their baby - even though they've already had a dozen cartons of formula that week to sell on, that they haven't been caught with.

You'd have to have a very hard heart to throw the book at a genuinely very poor person stealing the basics in order not to starve; but just like with people begging on the streets, a lot of bad people who are not at all in need have seen their opportunity and decided they want in as well - if anything learning to act more convincing than the genuine ones, as the latter may feel a sense of shame and indignity at needing to do it, whereas the former are happily giving it their all for maximum profit.

It's all very well when it happens to somebody else, but when an habitual thief is on their way home from Tesco with their haul and passes your house, and they spot your kid's new bike leaning against the fence and figure why not just help themselves again... then you might care.

Shop lifting isnt acceptable. Imagine if we all did it, the shelves would be ransacked.

M&S are piloting a new route to get shoplifters prosecuted. I think i read the guy they got and paid for court actually got sentenced, after the sentencing it came out he had loads of slap on the wrists but kept doing it as its low level crime. This time he got sentenced.

Most theft of nappies and baby formula is to sell it, rather than a parent stealing out of desperation.

My brother works in retail insurance and said that some of it is insurance scamming. The shops can get paid out for stock that wouldn't sell.

I think what find most difficult to forgive is when a right thinking lucid mp to remember(with staff) fails to remember to registrar business interests ..

Yes, it's somehow seen by many as 'a bit naughty' rather than as a crime - a bit like stealing work supplies for your own personal use at home.

I wonder how it came to be known as shoplifting, rather than just plain old shop theft?

That’s interesting

My son in law works in a large local supermarket and the manager has just lost his job because of the amount of theft over the last 12 months. He said that the most stolen items are clothing from changing rooms, and then meat /alcohol. And because the Police won't even come out unless it's over £200 worth of goods, they know that they can get away with it. Most don't even conceal.

There is never an excuse for it. The costs are felt all the way down to the supplier.

When I was late twenties my pal and i went shopping. We paid for a load of clothes and then my friend remembered she'd wanted to get lipstick but couldn't be bothered to queue so just put it into the shopping bag.

I remember her being really blasé about it, saying she'd spent a fortune so no one could care, but I was so scared walking out through the door past the security guard. Of course she wasn't caught, and I have to wonder if it was something she often did.

My point I was going to make was I think it's really bad, but lots of people have this mentality that the shop can afford to lose it.

Has anyone seen the videos from America where people just go in and clear the shelves? It's quite shocking to see.

Deliberate, organise shoplifting is theft. It’s not a victimless crime. I pity the staff dealing with it.

Teenagers stealing pocket money items for their own use is a different thing.

As a young teen, a friend and I attempted to take a Make up item each from a supermarket. This was in the days when pocket money was £2 a week, and a lipstick or eyeliner cost all that, or maybe double.

We were caught. Told off. My mother called. Never did it again.

I'm not sure I'm 100% happy with it from a personal privacy point of view, but I suppose shoplifting is one of those crimes that will be a thing of the past once all shops introduce the 'full contactless' system - whereby the cameras scan and recognise you as you enter, along with your registered payment method, and then every item that leaves with you will automatically be charged to your account.

Honest customers who aren't concerned about potential personal privacy infringements will no doubt love the fact that they can just take whatever they want to buy and walk straight out with it, rather than having to queue up and wait to pay.

That said, I bet there will be a load of criminals who slip small, expensive goods into unsuspecting customers' bags and coat pockets in the store and then, after they've been charged for them, distract and or mug them to get the items once outside.

My MIL works in a high street shop that is really struggling with shoplifting. She said first thing in the morning it's alcoholics, then the drug addicts, then after school you get the ones doing it just to fund a lifestyle. They sell essentials but it's always luxury goods stolen, so not done through need. Literally people openly fill bags with goods and walk out knowing the staff can't do anything, and mum's are getting their kids to steal, especially if under 10. They now wear bodycams due to the aggression shown if they offer these people a basket or to take items to the till for them.
Knowing all this,and our fears for MIL (who is 69 and tiny) I still have a friend who brags about stealing from Tesco and all the scams he's pulled. I've made it clear I find his behaviour disgusting.

Yes, and stores where normal products, like shampoo and toothpaste, are locked behind glass cabinets.

Has anyone seen the videos from America where people just go in and clear the shelves? It's quite shocking to see.

A video popped up on Twitter where a thief was in a shop - small family-run store, rather than a big chain - with a large plastic dustbin (I don't know if he'd taken it in with him or found it in the shop) and he was just merrily filling it with hundreds of packets of cigarettes.

The two brothers who owned/ran the shop set about him and beat him very hard and repeatedly with a broom handle, until he staggered off empty-handed and with a frightened, pained look on his face.

I deplore violence and am in no way trying to excuse it (not a fan of cigarettes either), but they must have been desperate just seeing him literally helping himself to their families' livelihoods.

Just scum, aren't they?

It's like seagulls acting on instinct, who eye up your chips and swoop to take them - but done by humans who should know much, much better.