To wonder why shoplifters are so thick and selfish?

[girlfriend44]

Pharmacies have today revealed they are suffering from increased shoplifting too.
Where us this all going to end

If people keep stealing there won't be any ships left will there?
Have they ever tried running a business?
What would they do if people kept stealing?
How low as well stealing from an independent pharmacy. It's hard enough for them as it is.

They are there for people in the community as well to help them?
Makes no sense.
People are thick and selfish.
Are they trying to ose everyone down?

🙄😪

One way to stop it, but it will never happen, cut their hand off.
😱

Well, if there are no consequences then people think (rightly) they can get away with it. It used to be considered a crime and the police would, rightly, respond and the CPS would prosecute. Now the police can't be bothered, even where a shop has CCTV of the incident and the criminal (because that's what a shoplifter is) has been apprehended, nothing happens. Shop staff have, rightly, been told not to intervene because they may be injured or worse.

I predict the major retailers will respond at some point and will implement measures to reduce this. I'm not sure what but it'll be better than what's there now, which is nothing. A friend who works in a supermarket says people regularly come in and fill a trolley with no intention of paying. The staff don't do anything, the police don't either so they get away with it.

It's theft and it's wrong but this is where we are.

You are unhinged.
That is something that used to be done as a punishment for stealing. Do you think it lessened thievery? Have a look at the actual statistics. Read a bloody book.
Crime was far far higher in the days when punishments like that were dished out.
But I guess ghouls like you felt entertained and vindicated so that's all right then.

I think it was a flippant tongue in cheek comment

Of course! I know its not going to really happen.. it's still an unhinged thing to say. It's not funny. Kids used to get their hands chopped off for stealing bread when they were starving. It's grim. As is the attitude towards shoplifters. Ghoulish and not really addressing any of the underlying issues.
Yeah sit there and wang on about corporal punishment and how these people are just filth, born evil or whatever.. then call anyone who wants to seriously talk about the causes 'a bleeding heart' or a 'woketard'..... but what good does any of that do? None. It's just smug.

Minor crimes like shoplifting are caused by grinding poverty,
There are housing, health, food, energy, crises that have been worsening year on year for 15 years at least.
More and more child poverty
More and more homeless

There is no epidemic causing people to be thick or selfish.
They’re poor and desperate.

You can get kids paracetamol free from your GP on prescription.

An increasing number of people don’t seem to care about anything anymore it seems. No common decency anymore.

No you can’t. The NHS cut OTCs off the list, along with many things that used to be on prescription only for common, minor ailments like eye infections.

That’s a simplification. Lots of criminals - by which I assume you mean anyone convicted of any crime - are completely normal people who made a mistake.

Some are people who were dealt a horrible hand in life and couldn’t see a different route to take.

Some are extremely intelligent but thought they could get away with it.

I know it's not the main point, and this might be a dim question; but if people (presumably addicts) want alcohol without paying for it, why do they steal other stuff which they then have to sell and use the money to buy alcohol?

Why don't they just steal the alcohol? It's only hard to get e.g. if you're underaged/no ID if you go to the bother of trying to actually pay for it; if you're a thief, you can just grab it off the shelves and run off with it, can't you?

Obviously it's 100% wrong to steal anything from a shop, but I'm just wondering why a habitual alcoholic shoplifter would go to the effort of paying for alcohol?!

I agree with you, OP, inasmuch as it's rather stupid and short-sighted to just assume that you can go on shoplifting forever and ever.

If lots of people are shoplifting, and then they're fencing the goods to lots of other dishonest people, who then spend far less in the shops, there has to come a tipping point when it's simply not sustainable for the shops to stay open.

What will the thieves - and sadly also the rest of us - do when previously easily-available goods are no longer obtainable, just because too many people believed that the idea of actually paying for stuff they want was beneath them?

Even the mighty supermarkets only get rich on very high volume of sales, rather than huge profit margins per item. I'm sure I read that they make in the region of 3-5% overall profit on every item they sell - so if one thief steals one item, that means there have to be 30 or more honest shoppers to come along and buy that same item for the shop just to break even on it.

As PP said, shops could go down the Argos route and keep all of their stock behind a counter, only handing it over once it's been paid for. However, that naturally increases risk significantly for the employees, as the determined thieves will see them as just another obstacle to overpower and/or threaten to get the goods, now they can't just help themselves whilst the employees can at least look on from a safe distance. Maybe they'll do away with human assistants and just use tough lockers instead, which can't be opened and the goods taken until payment has been made.

In reality, before long, I think most shops will be following the new high-tech model whereby you're automatically identified as you walk in - and your payment details validated before you're physically able to gain entry - and then every item that leaves with you will also be automatically identified and charged to your account.

Even this will be easy to defraud, though - but it will be ordinary members of the public who are stolen from and put in great danger rather than the shops and their employees. I'm certain it will become commonplace for thieves to slip expensive items into other people's shopping - probably deliberately choosing elderly or otherwise vulnerable shoppers - and then following them and demanding it from them as soon as they step outside the store, having unwittingly paid for it for them.

Well generally it’s for illegal drugs. But if it’s alcohol, a lot of alcohol has extra security on it.

One of my children has had tonsillitis a few times over the last couple of years requiring antibiotics from the GP.

When we go to the pharmacy to collect it, the pharmacist always asked if we need liquid paracetamol and ibuprofen and they give you bottles of it with the prescription if you need it.

Maybe it’s still area dependent (and I’ve only ever been asked if I want any pain meds with a child’s free prescription).

Thick or desperate? I will never forget the time my (now) ex thought he'd have to steal nappies. We were on benefits, had one nappy and didn't get paid until the next day. Luckily he had enough money and nectar points to buy them.
If he hasn't then what? It was 16 years ago and no help available. Thankfully things have never been that bad again but I wouldn't necessarily judge.
If a baby is screaming in pain and you need Calpol but can't afford it what then? I'm sure some people would have no choice.

Most shoplifting is committed by addicts. The government could do a lot more to address the drug problem in this country and the aquisitive crime that supports it by decriminalising users and treating addiction as a medical problem rather than a criminal justice problem. International drug dealing gangs are the real villians.

How would decriminalising drug users help to prevent shoplifting?

Is that an actual real statistic? At my daughters ‘mini’ supermarket they have people almost every day clearing the shelves of wine/meat/fish/cheese. Always men. One had a knife. The staff have been told to stop trying to be heroes, running after/accosting the theives. It’s awful.

I wouldn’t have tried to be a hero anyway.

When you see comments of people saying, “why don’t staff do anything?”, why would anyone risk harm to themselves for a job in a shop? I wouldn’t be putting myself at risk for Tesco.

All the shoplifting done where I am (and it’s a huge problem, it’s a shit hole), is done mainly by Romanian gangs. There’s a also lot stolen to order on the estates round me too and sold for knock down prices, it’s a big thing around Christmas/Easter, people don’t exactly hide it, I’ve been asked at school drop off if I need any “help” with toys for Christmas.

Lots of time when I walk my dog in the park, I’ve been asked by someone if I want to buy some sort of perfume/make up from them.

The odd bit is done by drug addicts, but they seem to be a bit useless at it. It’s mainly organised.

The percentage of single mums who have just lost their jobs, no support, stealing formula for their tiny babies must be vanishingly small.

Sorry, can't get exercised about petty theft like this. If so many of the rich didn't go to great lengths to avoid/minimise their tax bill, their wouldn't be so much poverty and need to promote shoplifting in the first place. They are the selfish ones in my opinion. (Not sure how being thick comes into it, unless it's just a random insult we are hurling at people who behave in ways we dislike).

I can’t understand the heroism either, but they feel very proud of their store. It’s a lovely community.
ps a previous post of mine got deleted and I got told off my mn about mentioning what the Roma community got up to in my neck of the woods 🙄

If they’re stealing from a pharmacy then it’s not designer gear or iPads they’re nicking. I would assume they’re doing it because they don’t have enough money.

its more American inheritance imo.

Yes and like “sex with a fifteen year old girl” when it is actually rape.

Yes I shared the research back in the thread