People openly stealing in Greggs

[Xraytime]

Whilst I was in the queue for a coffee, 4 different people came in and took several sandwiches, doughnuts and drinks.

They were not together.

I feel like Greg’s need to put every behind the counter, I can’t see how it’s sustainable long term.

I see this at different Greggs aswell but there will normally be just one person. Today was shocking.

The survey suggested that 93% of prople agreed with the OP that open srealing was wrong. But nearly 10 % (ok actually 7) suggested it’s ok. 1 in 10 think criminal activity is ok. Yes the nation is screwed.

There is wider opportunity now than there has ever been. Universities give contextual offers. Employers fall over themselves with their DEI schemes.

They could actually put some work into studying and then get a job. And work. Like the rest of us do.

There has been a safety net for a long time in this country. It seems not everyone is caught in the net. Labour have been in government for 7 months, as opposed to the previous government's 14 years.

Would you prefer the government cut care, education, NHS and increase the police presence in butty shops? It's not you or I not paying tax, it's the multi nationals and the very wealthy. So the government should target them.

Some people prefer to steal rather than do anything constructive/creative. I just don't buy the excuse that they are persecuted into it unless they are a single mum with no job then I can see why they might need to. Men are generally more time rich so imo have no excuse for not making an honest living tbh

Rubbish. You are giving a licence to steal at will by dignifying this with some sort of higher order meaning. I’ve worked in shops and the professional shoplifters and repeat offenders were not stealing for their next meal. I can guarantee that some of those Greggs shoplifters simply can’t be arsed queuing and/or think the normal rules apply to other people, not them.

They take it because they can. If you could get free petrol/gas/electricity with little chance of getting caught I think a lot of us would. I cba stealing a Greggs sandwich/pie but we know there are people filling trollies and walking out of stores. They aren't all poor

Thanks. It was the point I was making in a previous post. CFs who believe they can take what they want

Stealing generally has got really bad round where I am (Hampshire, but a fairly rough town). The local shop workers do an above and beyond job trying to stop them. It's very very blatant and unfortunately a lot of the culprits are drug addicts / alcoholics. It's mainly meat you see them stealing.

Many of them are stealing things to sell on. So not poverty but greed. It 's like those phone and internet scammers. Why they can't get a proper job I don't know. I guess because it's lucrative to rip people off.

@GiveDogBone

The only solution is what New York did in the 1980s, a massive investment in law and order and don’t write any crime off as insignificant (todays shoplifter is tomorrows phone snatcher, etc). Arrest and prosecute them all.

I agree, we're very close to end game and the only way to reverse it is a zero-tolerance policy and a 3 strikes and you're out rule sending the offenders to prison after 3 offences - not the ridiculous situation where people can have 20-30-40 offences and still not be imprisoned. We need to be bold.

Shop lifting is rampant and blatant now.

We all pay for it by the retailers increasing their prices for the people who do pay.

I think it needs to be tackled not tolerated for the good of society.

The rich aren't as mobile as you've been led to believe (by the rich). Their markets, infrastructure and income flow are stuck here. They can't move a chain of dealerships, for example, to the Cayman Islands - there's no customers. No matter where they base themselves, they need to transfer wealth out of the country. Doing that without being fairly taxed is only a matter of political will.

There's an overall disrespect for social order, laws and authority now. I've just been watching on the news a report about yet another murderer who refused to attend court for his trial. That was unheard of only a couple of years ago, but now it seems commonplace. People don't think the rules apply to them, and seem to get away with it.

Complete rubbish. Low level crime is out of control and it's nothing to do with poverty etc - it's sheer greed, just like con artists and internet scammers. If taxes are to be increased, I'd rather the money spent on huge increases in police officers, council wardens, courts and prisons. We need to reverse the massive deterioration in law and order otherwise we're going to turn into some African/Indian slum.

Yes but who is going to physically block them?
They can be on a banned list but they can still just walk in if there's no one to stop them.
In the shopping centre where I used to work a notorious shoplifter was banned. She was only allowed in to collect prescriptions from Boots and she was meant to be escorted by security for that.
But it was a shopping centre with a dozen different entrances and they didn't all have a security guard stationed there.
Who was meant to stop her.

I recently saw a good answer to that question on why taxes are high but public services are poor.

Consider two different people, person A and person B. Person A buys a decent house by taking out a mortgage on it. His monthly expenditure consists of paying the mortgage, the bills, food, and because the house is in good condition, a minimal amount on maintenance. At the end of each month he has some disposable income to spend on luxuries such as a new car or to put it towards home improvements.

Person B buys a house with the same size mortgage that is in need of improvement, in other words there are problems with the roof, rotting window frames, the plaster is coming off the walls, there are damp problems, and the electrics need rewiring. His monthly expenditure consists of paying the mortgage, the bills, food, and trying to save every last penny to hire contractors to gradually fix the problems, step by step. Fixing these issues consumes all of his remaining monthly income after the essentials have been paid for and he has none left over to make other improvements or for luxuries.

Person B is an analogy of the incoming Labour government and their house is an analogy of the UK after the previous conservative government. Once it was apparent they were getting kicked out at the election they ran public services into the ground and built up a £20 bn debt, knowing that the incoming Labour government would have a huge mountain to climb to sort it out, and would not be able to do so without raising taxes. Once Labour have raised taxes, they can sit there in opposition and say "Look, Labour have raised taxes as soon as they got in, you can't trust them, we didn't raise taxes, vote for us next time, we can run the economy better".

I honestly couldn’t think an employee having to challenge it. If I were one of them, I wouldn’t do it anyway. You wouldn’t want any of them to get in harm way as these incidents can derail sometimes. You just don’t want to be « this bad time ».

If they were hungry…well…it still not good but then again…if they were hungry…

So what do you intend to do about the gross inequality then? Continue to get richer while sneering at those who work all day and have nothing to show for it? Run away to somewhere like Dubai where you live in a privileged compound with people who are little more than slaves waiting on you hand and foot? Sooner or later you are going to run out of places to run to. You will always be surrounded by hostility. Eventually “Let them eat cake” brought on the Revolution, as it has many times through history and as it will do again.

All the impoverishment comes back to neoliberal ideas and particularly the mobility of wealth and land prices rising beyond the capacity of people to work for them. Too many have sucked too much wealth out without working for it. It needed to stop before it got started, 20 years ago, when some of us first pressed the warning buzzers. Lawlessness is the direct consequence of ignoring it.

@WaryCrow

Lawlessness is the direct consequence of ignoring it.

No, lawlessness is the direct consequence of not punishing lawless people properly.

This 100%, sick of it.

You clearly have no idea about the effects of social corrosion and what it’s like being born into a country where you were sold years before your birth.

I actually agree we need law and order. But that’s not just about punishing the poor for being poor and having no hope.

Whoever it said go to uni and get a job: get a £70k debt - lifelong, with interest - for a £25k - £30k job that may well not even let you through the door anyway if there’s someone else who’s daddy they went to school with? Do you want intelligent people doing jobs or just idiots born to money, like the Royal Fart in America?

The greggs near me has a security guard and homeless people aren't allowed in!! Not sure if i agree with that but🤔

I don't think it helps when stealing from shops often become items on the News . It no doubt encourages people to try it who would never have thought you could get away with it so easily .

Depressing isn’t it? Broken window theory - like no one cares any more - litter, dog shite, boarded up shops, potholes, weeds - general senseless aggression- what a time we are living in 😔

I've seen shoplifting in Greggs. Inadvertently opened the door from the outside and let them out when the staff was shouting. I was with a toddler so not going to do anything. Depressingly everyone around pretended not to notice. This was a teenager, definitely not a homeless addict, just being a teenager and testing boundaries... with no consequences. And there's 2 local food banks.