Shoplifting Epidemic - we are a lawless society.

[SilverGlitterBaubles]

I have a witnessed a few instances of shoplifting over the past few weeks. This is not shoplifting in a covert way but people just blatantly walking into shops taking what they want and walking out unchallenged. We are not talking someone stealing to feed their hungry children, this is groups of teens taking booze and whatever else they fancy. Shops don’t challenge for fear of staff safety, which completely understandable. It’s so bad some stores don’t even have stock on the shelves, they just have empty shelves and a picture so you have to ask at the till for it. Where does it all stop? It feels like we are a lawless society.

Price we pay for the Tories spending money on useless Police and Crime Commissioners and not on real policing.

Yes it is a pretty lawless society right now!

I work in a charity shop and have to deal with shoplifters most days!

However, I've young kids at home so don't like to challenge too much as if they have a knife (or worse!) It doesn't bare thinking about....

No idea what the answer is

Nothing to do with the upbringing of the shoplifters then?

It's been like this for years. I live in Cornwall and shoplifting in some towns is pretty normalised. So many are so poor and there's barely any police around. Nothing (and I mean nothing!) for teens to do. They can't get jobs because there are no jobs to have. Swathes of redundancies all around in every sector.

Here in Cornwall it was bad in the 90s, got better in the 00s and 10s and worsened around 2021. I don't recall 2020 but 2019 was a lovely year, everyone was optimistic and happy! The troubled 90s were far behind us in history. Then all of a sudden it feels like we returned to 1990 with a bump!

Really sad times. Unbearable at times.

The breakdown of our high trust society.

I was waiting at a bus stop yesterday and watched a woman wandering around a charity shop stuffing stuff into a bag (the shop staff were also aware of her btw but didn’t challenge her) . She had so much in her bag that she had to hold her last “purchase” under her coat. She walked out and set off down the road. Two minutes later she walked past me again so I said quite loudly “ Are you coming back to pay for the stuff you have just stolen from here?”

Got told to fuck off.

I have just seen a couple of druggies staggering out of a local shop with a bottle of champagne!! So blatant!

Yes I notice it too, teens in supermarkets stealing alcohol and sweets and then sitting outside consuming them!
Adults in town just walking out from shops with things under their arms etc
We get some annual visitors to our commmon the shops and pub just close the week they are here such is the theft!

Of course not!! How dare you suggest that the shoplifter or their upbringing has any influence on their actions! Don’t you know that is tantamount to bringing back the work house?!! People should never be expected to have personal responsibility, it’s ALWAYS someone else’s fault!!!

Much of this organised crime rather than a quick fix for the individual where the shoplifters are not directly profiting themselves and security guards are advised not to tackle them in case they pull a weapon. There was one I witnessed at Savers, who would dash in while till staff were serving and grab a bottle of alcohol, a regular under the Influence. They now lock alcohol and perfume away.

Teens have practically no income if they can't get a job. They can't claim any benefits (with a few exceptions). They are on a journey with no hope and this is how some get into being drugs couriers and crime.
Not that I condone the shoplifting! I'm not sure what the answer is. It's a vicious circle.

No store/shop employee gets paid enough to stop shoplifters. They might be carrying a knife or will assault them some other way.
Its safer for staff to just let them go. We were taught to just observe and not to intervene when I worked in supermarkets.

Calling the police does nothing. They don't turn up. Until the governement funds an actual crackdown, it will stay this way.

@NancyBellaDonna I don’t remember teens doing that before and having such a sense of entitlement?

So what changed?

I wonder which governments this timeline aligns with 🧐

I worked in retail 1978 to 2000 it was the same then.

I can vividly remember teens at my secondary school doing exactly this in the local Tesco in 1997. It was so rife they had to employ a security guard!

They'd also walk straight out of school mid class (often with a teacher chasing them!).

Lack of police and not giving a shit about low level crime.

Hell try getting the police to actually come out for say criminal damage to your car or an attempted break in to your house. Pointless.

Seems the police these days just give you a crime ref to give to your insurance.

Shit parents then raise criminal feral children who know under 12 the police cannot do anything and over 12 odds are they still won’t be arsed.

Oh I don't know, I didn't really pay attention to politics when I was young and naive!

Two brazen thieves in the garage last Sunday . Helped themselves to booze and legged it . There’s no deterrent to anything these days .

Every time I go into Tesco when it’s lunchtime at a very good secondary school. I see at least two teenagers eating the sandwiches/crisps/pop then leaving the rubbish on a shelf!
I was also on the bus last week and the people behind me, one just got out of prison!! Talking very loudly about selling steak and laundry pods around the doors! They had also just been for their methadone but as had some money were going to buy something!!
They were right behind me, I didn’t dare look behind me. Who the hell is buying steak that has probably been out of fridge for hours!!!
And laundry pods are ridiculously expensive so I buy powder so it’s not people who can afford stuff!

Are you under the impression that there’s only one type of person who shoplifts? Those who are a bit rough? Addicts, shaven headed, vaping teens on scooters and women who keep their money in their bra? 😂

It has been a while since I’ve worked in retail but DH does currently. Some of you middle class mums and professionals swipe more than the Artful Dodger. The only difference between you and the people whose bags you’d expect to be lined with tinfoil is that you lot get absolutely outraged if anyone has the nerve to ask you to pay for what you’ve stolen. It’s a mistake, it’s obviously the shop’s equipment that hasn’t scanned it properly, why would you shoplift? You earn more in a day than the shop assistant earns in a month etc.

Upbringing my arse.

Tbh I’ve stopped offering to buy the homeless food because I realised how easily they can steal it. I see it often in pret, wasabi etc. I’ll still buy a coffee if they ask me because it’s a hot drink in this weather.

I was referring to the OP saying it was a bunch of teenagers.

I'm aware that all types of people shoplift. The 'middle class mums' the 'butter wouldn't melt in your mouth old ladies' and the 'want it, so I'll have it' kind of person.

I taught my child not to steal and have respect for everyone. It wasn't hard.

You seem to have the assumption that I think vaping teens, addicts and shaven headed people are shoplifters ... that's quite a stereotypical range of people. Your words not mine.

By the way, I earn minimum wage in retail, and not as you have assumed 'some of you middle aged mums'

Don't people have free will? Do you still do what your parents told/tell you?