… 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?

Honestly? I don’t particularly care about that, either.

People also steal by swapping tags and bar codes so they buy something but much cheaper.

i have shoplifted baby teats and milk out of absolute necessity so those saying shoplifters are scumbags are short sighted.

Not that they should have to, but if they know the regulars, can't they just refuse them entry when they see them approach?

You might struggle to stop them from walking out with unpaid goods, but if you can prevent them from getting close to your goods in the first place?

They can hardly threaten to call the police on you for refusing them entry, when you can just remind them that you have (or may have) CCTV that the police might also like to see. I had a relative with a number of mental health problems who, at various times, was banned from several of her local shops - not for shoplifting, but just because she would 'cause a scene' every time.

Several of us have expressed sympathy with desperate people stealing basic essential supplies.

Nevertheless, if you're (not necessarily you personally) a massively struggling single mum on UC and somebody stole your purse from your handbag... would you feel compassionate towards them because they may have been even poorer than you are? It's exactly the same in principle: the goods on the shelves of the shops belong to (and have been paid for by) somebody; they aren't abstract things that just appear and have no value until they are bought by a customer.

But the majority of people who shoplift do so because they wish to gain goods and/or money dishonestly and know they can get away with it. If this were not so, then shops that only sell luxury items would never have to worry about theft at all.

The people who regularly 'case' your shop and wait for you to put goods for which you have had to pay on the shelves, just so they can come and immediately take them away - often having had the audacity to take 'orders' from 'customers' to buy the items from them at a knockdown price, before they have even stolen them - and then maybe preventing your honest customers from being able to buy them from you and contribute towards your livelihood...

Yep, absolute scum.

i disagree completely. i worked for many years for a high street store and chemist and experienced every side of the epidemic of shoplifting. I worked in loss prevention and until you have experienced that, you won't understand that most loss (historically) is does to poor operations and management, not to mention waste and damage!

Until you have experienced domestic violence and abuse, you won't ever understand how scummy it is to call those people scummy.

But the existence of something worse in the world doesn't magically stop a bad thing from being bad.

You could just as well say that it's unfair to call people who are 'only' guilty of abuse and DV scummy, when there are serial killers out there.

abusing human beings in any degree is completely different to small theft from capitalist constructs. Ugh

We agree that all the brand new with tags stuff on vinted is nicked, right?

Me neither. I don't care if people are stealing from Tesco or M&S. I think it's a symptom of something much bigger that's gone wrong in our society and politics. I don't feel that way about independent shops though.

There were mums who stood outside school at Christmas taking ‘orders’ for items. My friend worked in town and said they were regulars.
The lack of prosecutions made things very hard. Occasionally the very worst would be banned from town. I’m sure that’s why shops prefer to be out of town, it’s much harder to run off on foot anywhere.

Bless the people in that shop. Poor boy, what a horrendous stress to live in/with.

No one I mean no one has the right to judge the behaviour of another UNLESS you've walked in their shoes!! This its wrong! Addiction is no excuse, where are you from in most cases these "addicts" also suffer from mental health, self harm, no family or love, maybe the gov could tax the proceeds of crime from big players and put them back into the communities the real crooks flooded (usually estates and poor areas) with drugs. Note to self stop reading any posts that require a deeper understanding. God help any friend or family goes on a path and needs your support.

Gosh I just uploaded a pile of stuff to Vinted today, including lots of things still with tags on!! Do I look dodgy now 🤣🤣

That’s reassuring!