United Kingdom

Our local big Sainsbury's supermarket has installed airport-style barriers everywhere and you now have to queue and scan your receipt to get out.

As a kid, I always wanted to live in some science fiction futuristic society. I never thought that I'd actually grow up to live somewhere where I had to scan to get out a supermarket only to be under threat of attack by ravaging killer dogs.

Not really a surprise when you consider just how bad the cost of living crisis is to some people.

The fact that the article is mostly focused on stores selling food and essential items is telling (compared to things like USB cables, wrenches and succulent plants). Sure, there is a segment of young teens and pensioners that steal because nothing is as exhilarating. Decreased affordability, stagnant wages, more of the population left hungry or a paycheque away from being hungry encourages theft and illegal resale of essential goods.

If people were well-fed and prices were reasonable, there would be no need to steal these things and there'd be little demand for stolen food goods. To an extent, if jewelry cost £1 to buy then who would bother stealing it anyway?

Back to the main issue, what's a hungry person on the street supposed to do, if begging for spare change barely gets you anything? Pick berries? Hunt squirrels, pigeons, raccoons and cook them over a rubbish fire? Food bank lines are getting longer, while other supports (like health and mental health support, employment resources, disability payments) are difficult to navigate and sometimes impossible without access to technology nowadays.

What do you expect when so many people can’t even afford basic needs?

w crime

if shoplifting were really a problem, they would just shut the stores down. corpos always take fraud and theft into account before hand.

I worked out last night that the points program in my local pub means I have to buy 33 drinks if I want a free drink of equivalent price. That's daylight fuckin robbery mate

I was actually in my local co op last week (edit - time flies, no, it was a few weeks back now!) When a group rushed in, literally ransacked the place - openly filling up their bags, then brazenly quickly walked out. Absolute cunts.

Staff couldn't do anything. Said it's happened numerous times before. In this case it was a lot who were parked up on the local field before being evicted and moved on.

Steal more

Hey the guardian, you spelled "poverty" wrong.

When people steal the latest iPhone they should go to jail

When people steal a bread they should be given the help they need

I’ve definitely seen a lot more shoplifting over the past few months. From what I’ve seen, they don’t go to the big shops they go to the Tesco Extras, Sainsburys local etc.

One time I was stood a metre away from some guy openly just heaving stuff off shelves into a backpack.

He ran out of the shops and called one of the workers a cunt when she got in his way. She was obviously quite autistic and very distressed by the situation.

I swear everything about this country is getting worse.

Shop thefts have more than doubled in the past three years

wow, what a crazy point in time for something like this to begin

All a bit weird because it’s the same narrative in the US at the moment

This is the best summary I could come up with:

In recent months, David, the manager of a Leeds Co-op store, and his staff have been threatened with razors, knives, screwdrivers, needles and hammers by shoplifters who have become more brazen and aggressive.

Paul Gerrard, the chain’s director of public affairs and a former customs officer, described some of the shoplifting as “organised looting”, saying gangs would climb over kiosks and brazenly empty shelves into rucksacks, construction bags and even wheelie bins.

Earlier this week, Laurence Guinness, the chief executive of the Childhood Trust, told the Big Issue: “I have spoken to many children, some as young as seven, who have resorted to taking food from shops because they are hungry.”

In Cambridge, Ronnie, a convenience store owner, said in the last week alone shoplifters had stolen five £7.99 steaks, 15 packets of chicken and lamb, 25 chocolate bars and fruit chews, 15 cans of energy drink and six bottles of wine.

The company said it had been forced to spend more than £200m to counter criminal behaviour, with measures such as body-worn cameras and headsets for staff and “dummy” packaging for items such as £6 boxes of Ferrero Rocher chocolates and £6 jars of Kenco coffee to deter thieves from looting or “bulk-shoplifting”.

James Lowman, the chief executive of the ACS, described the levels of theft as “unprecedented” and said official crime figures “barely scratch the surface” due to underreporting.

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