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 was stalked round the Tesco Express in York a few years ago by the over zealous security guard (built like a brick shit house vs. 5ft2 tiny me). Must have heard our Scottish accents and decided we were going to be stealing all the Irn Bru, Mars Bars and Whisky. Literally stalking 4 paces behind me up and down every aisle.

He totally pissed me off....after following me all the way to the till and watching me put everything on the conveyor belt I took great pleasure in pulling my Tesco colleague card out (basically staff discount card) and wafted it under his nose saying better luck next time buddy, I'm one of you but would love to hear what shoplifter profile you applied to me?

That had him spluttering and scurrying off pretty quick 😂.

Not sure what the answer is to stop shoplifting though short of building a couple of prisons with 20,000 beds ready to go.

You have to catch them first.

I said it wouldn't faze me, not that I think that it's okay.
Just because something doesn't 'scare' me does not mean that I think it's acceptable.

Funnily enough, I saw a female shoplifter being chased down by a female member of staff today in Tesco. There was a real skirmish. It didn’t scare me but my young children were frightened (especially as the shoplifter was clearly on drugs).
I think it was madness for the staff member to chase her down. She could have had a knife.

I have seen a woman bellowing aggressively at a shop assistant in an obvious attempt to frighten and intimidate her so she could get away.

Sounds exactly like what my brother wears and he doesnt shop lift. In fact, just sounds like what most young people wear....

Ms Reactionary starve-the-poor Tebbit ...You do not know what you are talking about ... several million people would love to get a job and can't get one ... this gets even worse after age 50 , as very few places will recruit old people over young fresh model .

There is enough space ... As you rightly say - UK is heavily urban and crammed in . It would be very possible to build several million homes , yet there is no political will to salve the homelessness crisis , overcrowding and hidden homelessness . False , entitled / elitist DM propaganda insists that UK is drowning under concrete development - ABSOLUTELY not true .. ( ....as you rightly imply )

Exactly my DW works in Asda yes there's older workers but in the branch she's in it's all been younger starts 25 and under.
I applied for hundreds of jobs after being made redundant at 54 I can confirm ageism is alive and well.

Not scary this time but the norm. Went into my local Co op to buy something and stood behind a chap (dressed like he worked in construction) Watched him scan through sandwiches, crisps and a drink and go. Then I approach the scanner and yes, it’s all there scanned but not paid for. So I call the staff over and she just sighed and said “all the time”. It must be so demoralising.

This wouldn't happen if they had staff supervising all the time. My friend used to work in Sainsbury's and caught so many people doing this. On her shifts, she was on Smart Shop and someone else was on self scan, but on her days off it was one person doing both. Now she's left it's one person doing both.

Same in our co-op. I once self scanned by stuff but had my disabled youngest with me and must have got distracted, I got to the car and realised my payment had been declined. I went back in to pay and the woman at the checkout said ‘most people don’t bother coming back, or even paying in the first place’.

Agreed, but that’s not the poor staff members’ fault.

Our local Tesco now has two tills for you to self scan a large trolley shop!
I hate self scan and hate myself for using but normally there is only one/two manned tills. So you are sort of forced to use if you only have a couple of items.
The local school children are a nightmare walking around eating the meal deal then leaving. I bet their parents wouldn’t believe it. But the amount of empty Costa/cans etc around the shop is ridiculous.

I know, I didn't say it was. It's store managers being restricted on how many staff they can have working at the same time. High labour. I work in fast food and we have the same problem.

In our Sainsbury’s and LIDL there are barriers after the self scan tills and you have to scan your receipt to get out

There are in my Sainsbury's but they're never on, there aren't at the one my friend used to work at.

There was a staff member on the manned till directly next to the self serve but bless them they are too busy to watch everything and concentrate on the job at hand.

I worked in a shop at Uni, and we had people stealing stuff all the time. I was about 7 stone at the time and expected to challenge 6’+ groups of hard as fuck men.
reader, I didn’t challenge them. Not for £3.20 an hour

Exactly, there should be someone actually supervising the self checkouts. Head office are too tight to pay enough staff, just like where I work in fast food.

I’m not going to lie, I did think that this is getting silly and who is the dumb one? The chap who sauntered out with free food and no consequences for not paying or me paying for my food?

Most of this type of “shoplifting” is by gangs - it’s not someone with 50p in their pocket trying to make it to pay day/benefit day.

It’s primarily young men, stealing high value goods to sell on. They are menacing and potentially violent with no regard or fear of the law.

Stealing from shops has always gone on but it’s the brazenness and violence that is off the scale now.

I don’t know what the answer is but the breakdown of law and order in relation to this is very worrying.

Yep, I saw someone steal a sandwich from a Greggs and a guy in the line chased the person all the way down the street and scuffled with them bringing the item back to the shop! I think he was trying to impress the woman serving TBH, what a total dangerous waste of time to do that?

There are consequences, he has no self-esteem if he really digs down and admits it, you have acknowledged that other productive humans are involved in the chain that brings the food to you in the shop and in a decent society money has to change hands for the input of labour.

They’re always in at my Sainsbury’s 🤷🏼‍♀️