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!

I don't get worried in shops at all.
I have been in a mini supermarket recently where a man came alongside me and was packing his basket with chicken pieces. Several dozen packs. It was obvious to me that he was planning to nick them, especially since the meat fridges were right in front of the door. (What??!!)
Sure enough, he bolted with his basket out of the door. Out of interest, I looked down the other aisles and there were 3 staff sheltering there. They must have known what was going on and I don't blame them for not tackling him or his mates that were bound to follow him.
This i think is because ,1 the police don't charge shoplifters 2 shops are stupid about where they position their high value goods and 3 high value stuff is not kept in locked cabinets.
I don't think this is about people feeding their hungry families. It's an organised crime grab that is costing the rest of us money

I agree with this.
We have security guards in our supermarkets too. They greet every customer coming into the shop, acknowledge them leaving too, if they're around, they make the customer aware of their presence, and as far as I can determine, they're basically there to act as a deterrent, as their powers of intervention are fairly limited.
Supermarket staff are NOT to intervene or engage with a shop lifter, they're not insured for injuries due to getting in the way of a thief.
Cashiers, managers, security wear body cams.
This is the world we live in now.

As someone who has been in retail management for majority of my adult life, this is nothing new at all.

A friend works in a supermarket and more and more of the expensive things are in them plastic boxes. Plus sometimes only one item and the shop has a sign saying ask for more.
It’s the people who buy the stolen steak/alcohol and laundry pods and expensive Kendamil baby milk that I also blame. Who the hell buys baby milk from the drug addict shoplifters! And the meat that hasn’t seen the fridge for hours.

Happens in my local farm shop, they (always men) pay for something cheap then help themselves to other things on their way out, always the most expensive stuff so definitely selling on and not feeding children. The staff find is frustrating because they know exactly who they are but can’t do anything about it

Yeah, because bottles of vodka are definitely essentials.

I have noticed most shoplifters have a 'uniform'. Based on what I have seen in the flesh at my previous job and when shopping myself and CCTV footage:
. Black/charcoal hoodie with hood up. Usually wearing a baseball cap
. Black/charcoal tracky bottoms - usually a size or two bigger so can ram more stuff down there
. Empty or hardly anything in there - bag

Even when in the summer when its 28c+ when everyone else wears shorts, t-shirts - the shoplifters still wear the dark tracksuits. They stand out like a sore thumb.

Anyone who buys stuff from people that come up to you in the street or pub asking you to buy stuff - are funding these shoplifters' drug/gambling/other vice habit.

If you get approached yourself - don't be tempted - even they saying £5 for a leg of lamb.

Our local Co-op has just closed down because of shoplifting.

Who the hell buys baby milk from the drug addict shoplifters!

People who need it and are struggling to pay shop prices, and could do with putting that saving elsewhere. People keep shooting down the poster who said it’s linked to the cost of living crisis, but it absolutely is. More deprivation = more shoplifting and theft. The person stealing it might not be in desperate need themselves but as costs go up they will have a growing customer base.

I work in retail and we're told not to approach, just witness and report

My partner worked in a food shop for two months and was attacked 4 times, there was a fight between rival gangs, windows would get smashed etc.

Half the time people were stealing absolute shite too; packets of sweets that were only 50p. Like a hobby or a sport.

Agree. I often spot them and I am proved right 🤷🏻‍♀️

we actually get a meat lady in our local pub selling marksies meat, she’s in there every week- people put in orders!! It’s blatantly stolen

This is so upsetting! Small businesses suffer much more than large supermarkets. I used to live in a not so nice area in London and at some point they started to put security tags on shopping baskets! Who steals a shopping basket?? Clearly many. I’m so glad I don’t live there anymore.

I still wouldn’t buy baby formula from the local drug addicts! I would go to a food bank. It’s amazing that it’s the cost of living but the shoplifter are stealing premium brands, to buy drugs.
The price of the premium brands from the shoplifters you could buy SMA baby formula. Same for washing powder or liquid . The stealing of alcohol is destroying small local shops. Especially as police won’t come if under £200.
But who cares as long as it’s Tesco etc, eh.
Shoplifting costs us all and the anti social behaviour it creates.

Have you told the buyers

I’m sure that if the poster has figured it out, then the people buying the meat have too.

This. Absolutely this.

The issue I find harder isn't so much the shoplifters (I mean actually yes they are the biggest damn issue but there is literally fuck all as retail staff I can actually do bar log it and report it), but the damn customers who genuinely have a huge massive go at me for not doing anything (which I always find ironic as THEY never bloody confront them but think I, as female retail worker on nmw with zero goddamn security training somehow should??!). It frustrates me just as much as customers believe me.

And yeah people will say" oh but it doesn't affect you personally".

Actually it does.

Apart from the actual threats, abusive and threatening behaviours, death threats and anti social behaviour gues what...we are not making as much money..which guess what, means my already meagre hours are being cut to the bone (for the poster who commented about the cost of living? Does that mean I'm now justified in stealing whatever I want?! 🤨🙄) , and slightly separately the staff shares I had ended up basically worthless and I'm not gonna get a decent amount of bonus also...so yeah does affect me financially!

But tbh above all I just no longer feels safe. I've done this job for 14 years and honestly yes shoplifters were always about but it's changed. It used to be someone concealing maybe one thing cos they genuinely needed to eat, it's not now. Certainly in my area it is organised crime by the exact same group of beggars/etc tant are targeting us. It's walking in and clearing the goddamn shelves...not because they NEED to buy because they simply CAN.

Tbh as soon as I can get out of this job, I am going to. Because it's getting to the point where I'm going to and from work and not sure if I'm going to actually live. I don't feel safe. And I don't want to die doing this job.

Indeed. I can spot a shoplifter 9/10 just by what they're wearing / their appearance and how they walk as they enter the shop. The trouble is they peek around the windows waiting for aisles to be empty and then dip in and out before you've even seen them.

They're almost always are white men (woman do shoplift but aren't as obvious and so do minorities but it's way less than people think in my own experience). They tend to look like junkies, carrying some kind of bag for life, wearing trackies, big coat despite the weather etc.

Also be weary of anyone wearing a hi-viz jacket, a large backpack or anyone under the age of 60 pulling a granny trolley.

Harder to spot are school kids but they are pretty big offenders too and we've caught a number over the years. They'll fill a backpack or a handbag small confec or age restricted Redbulls or Monsters. If they're stupid to enough to shoplift while wearing their school uniform, we contact the school and someone like the DSL will come down and view the CCTV and identify them for us. In those situations we'd rather go through the school than contact the police. Thankfully none of the kids we've caught have re-offended.

Paintball them.

In commenting on the cost of living no one is saying ‘it’s fine stop complaining, we’re in a cost of living crisis’ - just that there is cause and effect. More poverty = more stealing, a simple causal link. A PP noticed it’s changed and become more organised over the years. The ongoing impact of the financial crisis and austerity across that same period are not unrelated.

Poverty is the root of so many things - poor mental and physical health, anti-social behaviour, and criminality. Black markets have always existed where scarcity through either cost or supply has been created, and that’s what we see: an industry created out of stealing from shops to sell on. It’s not about saying let the poor loves off and let them enjoy their stolen vodka, it’s saying it’s not going to change until the root cause does.

The only way to stop crime now is to build more prisons and lock them all up for a long time. People don’t fear the law now. It’s a slap on the wrist, rinse and repeat.

Not sure why they don’t just concede defeat and build loads of prisons for the repeat offenders, just remove them from the society they have no regard for - nothing fancy, just get some shipping containers, kit them out with the basics and just shove them all in there. I know we are supposed to say, oh no, we have to try and rehabilitate them, but it has gone beyond that. Imagine how much nicer if all the low level (as well as high level) crime disappeared from our neighbourhoods. Life would be so much sweeter. Vote winner for me.

@ithinkilikethislittlelife I’m interested in which part of the u.k you are, I’ve never seen anything like this and for context I live in the city of culture and shop in the co-op, Lidl & Aldi