Shops are becoming quite scary

[ithinkilikethislittlelife]

I am starting to become quite nervous in shops, primarily shops that sell food stuffs. Just yesterday I saw two men go through a fire door in my local supermarket that takes them straight into the car park armed with baskets of stolen items. The one basket had steak/meats and the other looked like it was all bottles of vodka. The poor staff trying to wrestle the baskets back and stop the two men from leaving was quite upsetting to witness. This was yesterday. Saturday in my local co op a chap was loitering by the alcohol section while I was shopping. Getting into our car outside I noticed him sprinting past us clutching bottles of alcohol. Me and dh see it all the time now. It’s an epidemic. And it usually seems to be men. And I’m not having it that they are stealing milk for babies or bread for their children. I always see them take alcohol. I don’t know what the answer is but yesterday I was frightened for the staff member who intervened as the one chap raised a bottle of alcohol at her and she then backed off but I totally understood her rage at trying to stop the thieves taking from her place of work. I don’t want my children to witness these thieving people and I don’t want to feel anxious just trying to go about my day and buy food!

Don't want to live where you live. Where?

Unfortunately mink behaviour is more wide spread now.
The skint pensioner or struggling mum I could turn a blind eye too but the don't give a fuck mob and the mass hoisters and the ones that threaten staff definitely not.
It should be enforced community orders and not just sign in and fuck off home again because that does go on.

Which "random act of violence" exactly?

All you've admitted is that they were aggressive and had the potential to escalate

They can only steal it to sell if someone is prepared to buy it.

We have a local lidl and as we were shopping one night my Dh noticed security following a young man. He didn't have anything expensive, white bread, some dog food, milk and a packet of biscuits . We paid and came out. Dh said watch and the lad tried ro leg it and was literally rugby tackled to the floor. They took his bag but didn't detain him. He took off .
The thing is id have happily paid for his shopping he was taking basics which I believe was for himself.
We had a local programme about shoplifting and things like branded cheese and meat was literally dropped into a large bag and then they'd run. They would then sell it on at fraction if the cost, literally £3-£4 pound purely to buy drugs. No remorse , not bothered because drugs were all that mattered.

It is rife and you're right, it's not people stealing to feed their children, it's gangs stealing to order.

However, I'm not sure why it's scary to you? Staff shouldn't be wrestling anyone, they're instructed not to intervene.

DS1 has a management position with one of the large supermarkets and since the current government announced that this known issue would finally be taken seriously, has been working on a taskforce with police to address the situation. They are now seeing action taken in many more cases, where previously crime reports were logged and then never heard of again. So, hopefully things will start to improve.

High or extremely high housing costs disproportionately affect the poorer half of the population , but better off and households with two incomes would likely never realise or understand that . It is likely that some people spend well over half their income on accommodation / rent / mortgage . It is also extremely expensive to be single in today's world - heating our dreadful housing stock / running a car / council tax / insurance / meals /leisure / holidaying ( etc ad infinitum ) can be much more expensive for one person on their own than for two . Getting a job has never been more difficult and we are now experiencing a huge increase in poverty on the poorer rung of British society. State pensions here are amongst the lowest in Northern Europe and death due to hypothermia related causes are off the scale compared to most northern countries ( including places like the Baltic States and Russia ! ! ! )

I disagree with this.

I have seen really awful stuff in life. I also have an expectation that shop staff aren't attacked at work and customers intimidated.

I think this is a fairly low bar in terms of expectations.

Surely food is everyone's priority including the poor. Even heating, water usage would be lower priorities. (Use less)

There are food banks and churches offer heavily reduced food. A tin of soup in a budget supermarket is 50p to 60p. Sliced bread is also cheap. Throw in whatever fruit or veg is on promotion. Even if you only spend £1 a day you wouldn't starve and you would be slim (no need for fat jabs).

Anyone who thinks stealing food is acceptable needs to give their heads a wobble.

Those on a decent wage might want a steak and a good red wine but with the cost of living that is not possible. There is an old saying "cut your cloth accordingly"

Stealing is not aabout overty but a lack of a moral compass and decency. Too many low level people have caused the UK to collapse into degradation.

Bollocks

The answer is for the police to prosecute shop lifting.
The majority of shop lifting is organised gangs not an individual who is struggling.

I worked for one for 17 years. I saw it all of the time. Most shoplifting is done to fuel drug use. It’s not cost of living. As that would be stealing a typical shop - at least one item per aisle.

We did stop putting out loads of posh face creams, nicotine replacement products, steaks, legs of lamb, manuka honey, plug in air fresheners refills. As these have been cleaned off the shelves by shoplifters.

My friend walked past a One Stop. A man came up to them trying to flog steaks. Stolen from the shop and about 15 steps from entrance. They went inside the store and saw the empty steak section.

They heard he was put into prison for two years about two months later.

Drugs or alcohol can be the only priority for an addict. People don't necessarily steal the things they need.

The verbal violence and the tugging of the basket. Then the second fellow coming up also shouting. The whole scenario felt violent.

I stress that I don't live in a bad area. It's not an area of high poverty. The kids around here have money. Some of the stuff going on locally isn't about just shoplifting. It's actively about being antisocial dickheads and getting a kick out of it.

There's been an issue for years on Friday nights with kids getting bored. There's no where to go and nothing to do. Even the local building that was originally a youth centre (and technically gets funded on this basis) won't run somewhere for the kids to go on Fridays because of the associated trouble. Fridays are notably the worst day.

I believe the local PSCOs at one point did speak to the kids and they did say they would like somewhere to hang out and just do something like play pool. Nothing fancy. But no one will facilitate or pay for it because it would need proper supervision. It was looked into.

Instead it seems that gang and drug issues are now slowly creeping in to fill this void, in a way that didn't previously exist. That's the scary part for me. It's a shift. There is an intention as part of the shoplifting to intimidate and frighten as that's all part of the experience. What happens when they take it just that little bit too far? All it will take is pushing one of the old ladies over as they race outside the shop or to be confronted and it to escalate into something much more.

There's already been an incident now that's more serious than previously.

It's not a question of living a sheltered life. It's a question of understanding what I'm seeing is gang related and there not seeming to be anything done to reverse that. I'm always very aware that if it's this bad here, it will be a lot worse elsewhere.

Bad parenting.

FFS
really? So people stealing bottles of vodka because they can’t afford to buy food. Ok then. That justifies it 🙄

Of course YANBU OP, who are the 25% who think you are? People have become emboldened to act this way since Covid, and the authorities are underfunded and don’t have the resources to deal with it.

It happens at my mum's workplace all the time. The store security stopped someone who was stealing and the police were called. They let him go as didn't have the time to do the paperwork. The guy laughed as he left the store only to come back and do the same the next week.

So that makes it ok to stroll into a shop and take a basketful of steak and alcohol. Are you really trying to justify that?

Onlu on MN someone seeing theft and staff intervention and being shaken a bit can be called sheltered😂 fucking hell.
I saw worse and I was still shocked when I saw these things and yes, it doesn't make you feel safe.
Look at how quickly this brazen thieving became accepted by many many people....
If someone is laughing when running out with stuff, when does the line of acceptability move to laughing while making me take off my bracelet. And no one doing anything.
Sheltered. Ffs.

She should wear a thick jumper and holidays are not essential!!!

Both my DC had recent jobs in high street stores. Both witnessed a lot of stealing. Both were told not to intervene personally before they started and many times while they worked. They were told to report it instead over their headsets straightaway, which they did. Staff wrestling with criminals didn't go on, in the shops they worked in anyway.

Oh for goodness sake.

you probably don’t witness murders either @Happiestonabeach where you live, but it is so hard to believe there are places in the UK where that happens too?

do you have to have everywhere named for you so you can cross check that the OP isn’t telling fiction?

we need to stop belittling people for sharing their lived realities on here. We need to stop this today.

It is not bollocks. This was in 2018-2020. I was housed by the council in a ground floor maisonette. Next door to me was a man with substance abuse issues and MH issues who got cuckooed. My ex ended up becoming a crack addict due to being befriended by the people who inhabited what became like a doss flat. I got to know a lot of addicts.

They all had the same type of traumatic backgrounds, including my ex. Childhood trauma - raised partly or wholly in care, introduced to drugs young by adults, end up getting abused further by people in the care system etc. They turn to substances to cope. I don't blame them.

Our local co-op, which was the nearest shop they could walk to, banned some of them because they shop lifted so often. They'd still try and go in and grab stuff. They used to ask me for food when I was cooking dinner because they were hungry and had no money left as it had gone on drugs, drinks, tobacco or cigarettes. They would also ask me for teabags, rizlas, toilet roll, washing up liquid...

I fed them, I gave them things, I listened to their stories and tried to help them... I have been in some of their homes and seen how they live and how little real food they had. I've seen them with stolen alcohol and meat and other items.

I don't know why you think it is bollocks.