Robbing from Tesco with impunity *edited by MNHQ*

That's the thing, I'm guessing from the the flip side part of stock shrinkage is built into their company model. I wonder how much theft would be from staff themselves at the Various stores / warehouses etc.

You have to ask for a basket now in our local One Stop.

I originally asked why there were none and the manager said because they've all been stolen. I said huh? What by kids, running in a nicking a basket?
He said no by adults coming in, filling the basket and walking out.

I was genuinely shocked, it takes a lot to shock me!

I went in at 7am opening, witnessed a man filling up a rucksack with booze and walking out. They do call the police, but we all saw him off on his bike and round the corner.

I can do and say and have seen many a shocking thing, but nothing so brazen, leaving the 'kids' working there frightened and helpless.

And there's me off to the food bank.

My local Tesco locks shoplifters in the store until they give back the items stolen.

Is it a larger store with many members of staff?
I witnessed a female worker (very Friday Night Dinner) stop a couple with a young baby in a pram and asked to search their bags. They were having none of it so security came and 'guided' them behind doors so they could go the receipt and items privately.

My One Stop which is a subsidiary of Tesco often only has 2 members of staff. Both usually female and both 20 years old or younger.

It's the size of the store I imagine. They're not to put themselves in danger. And why should they. No security guard, morning or night 🤷

Yep, my daughter works in a big fashion store. At the end of each day they pick up tonnes of labels people have cut off of clothes. Even if they see someone steal something they aren’t allowed to challenge them. There is no security guard and no staff on the changing room. One guy goes around the industrial park going into all the big stores with a ski bag and fills it up.

That helps to explain the prices rises! Not that I think your daughter should have to tackle thieves...

This is common everywhere, not helped by the ‘they are stealing to feed their kids’ nonsense. A friend worked for a small Co-Op a few years ago, the usual suspects came in and just took joints of meat. Up the road to the pub and sold them for drug money, the shop knew, the police knew. No one was bothered.

if this happens too much shops will shut, people will lose their jobs and law abiding people will be forced to travel to find another food shop.

have you seen the videos of the teenagers rampaging in Oxford Street, attempting to loot JD Sports. Or the teenagers in California looting the Louis Vuitton shop?

Up the road to the pub and sold them for drug money, the shop knew, the police knew. No one was bothered.

This kind of society depends on law abiding citizens who don't get angry and just keep paying their taxes and ever increasing prices. It's incredible, but I wonder how long it can last.

I've witnessed this several times at my local Lidl when I pop down late in the evening.
Once a guy ran out of the entrance with a trolley full of middle aisle electronics and legged it across the car park. Another time same thing but with steaks. Once I saw someone shoving packs of batteries into his jacket and walk out. I told the staff about that one and he just said he happens all the time. The staff aren't going to risk their safety by stopping them and the company obviously don't want to stump up for a security guard.

They physically lock the door to stop a shoplifter from escaping? What happens to all the other shoppers who happen to also be in there, they've prevented from leaving too? Is that not false imprisonment?

Is that not false imprisonment?

The bar is set somewhat higher than being inconvenienced by a shop door being locked for a few minutes, however inconvenient it may be.

And what if it is more than "a few minutes" if the shoplifter refuses to give any goods back, and given that the police might not turn up at all? They just keep it locked indefinitely?

And is locking people inside a shop adhering to fire safety regulations?

So do you want me to say the staff/manager should go to prison?

Because 'false imprisonment' carries a sentence of 1 to 12 years in the UK.

Not quite sure why you're getting so defensive?

You also haven't answered the questions I asked about how reasonable or legal it would be for any company to lock a group of innocent shoppers (including potentially children) inside a building for any length of time, never mind if a shoplifter who might become more aggressive/violent is trapped inside the same building, putting other's safety at risk unnecessarily.

My other half works for a large retail chain. They try to have a member of staff by the door, to keep an eye out for shoplifters. They have a few regular "known bodies" who work in teams and distract staff whilst the others lift high value goods. A few months ago when OH was across the store serving a customer, two guys took a valuable item - OH realised what had happened, gave chase across the carpark, and ultimately was dragged some yards by the arm, by the thieves in their car. Very luckily he was fine apart from some cuts and bruises, and knew he should have left them to it.
The company's stance is "if they get it out of the store, it's theirs". The store are insured, and it's far better to lose an item they can be compensated for, than deal with the aftermath of confrontation and staff injury.
It's very common in all retail. Doesn't make it right though.... 😔

They all should do that

Erm she's not paid to challenge them 🤣 but the security is actually paid to challenge people. What a stupid comment!

What's the point in security guards then?

What's the point in security guards then?

To make people more wary of stealing

Or we'll go back to COVID times , counting people in & out and limiting numbers or shops will just choose to move out of certain areas

We had a group steal approx £100 worth of detergent yesterday. I wasn't there but my OH tried to stop them and they fought with her and her colleague. Fully brazen, walk in, load up a basket and walk out. Ever since the police said they won't come out for under £200 it's been heading this way. Luckily no one was hurt. When we reported it to the police (a formality for record keeping) they asked why we don't have security. The people that need to complain about this are the members of the general public. The government and the police have abdicated their responsibilities when it comes to policing the types of crimes that blight everyone's every day life. Walking home last night and at London bridge station there were 8 police dealing with a passive homeless person, mostly just standing round chatting and laughing, meanwhile all round them genuine fucking specimens continue plaguing the lives of normal people. About 20 feet further up saw some bloke blatantly handing off drugs and money to a woman.

In our shop we've been assaulted during robberies and the police don't come, we've been burgled eleventy million times, even on consecutive nights, by the same bloke, who's previously been locked up for being a serial burglar. We've got the video footage showing its clearly the same person in both sets of burglaries but the police aren't even investigating this time. Last time we got burgled the police did turn up but wouldn't wait while the building was cleared, they told us to give them a call if we find anyone inside and left a man in his 80s to go and find that out himself. We fully fortified the route they were using to break in and then they started smashing the massive front windows instead, which is virtually impossible but requires us to replace them at a cost of 5k+ each time

We're now thinking we're going to go the co-op route and not keep anything on shelves and people will have to ask for stuff and we'll keep as much stuff as we can at the counter. It will effect sales of those items though.

This happened at a coop we used to live near, in a rough area. It wasn't up to the staff to get into physical altercations with those people, they had been told not to. It was not the staff's fault, I can't blame them for not wanting to get involved. Write to tesco HQ if you have an issue, don't threaten to steal yourself.

The coop in South Croydon is like a "pay what you feel like" shop.

I’m so sorry it’s like this for you @OneTC

In a way it reminds me of when I was at school and they removed corporal punishment. Now at no point am I saying that hitting children in school was correct but I remember clearly when it was banned and the attitude of some children was that they will do what they want because no one will stop them now.

There's aa new M&S just opened in my city. It's all self-service. You could have hundreds of pounds worth of clothes in your basket and presumably it's all done on trust because there are hardly any staff visible.

Could also have RFID tags in the labels so they know what's been brought to the check out, and can tell if something hasn't been scanned.

In decathlon for a few years now they've had self serve checkouts where you don't even need to scan anything, you just put your basket in the cubby hole on the counter and it detects the RFID tags and tells you instantly how much your basket is worth