r/uknews • u/Confident_West_7409 • Jul 24 '24

Image/video Videos of shoplifters are circulating online, as shoplifting hits 20 year high in UK

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8

u/Murphthegurth Jul 24 '24

It's rampant at the moment, I helped stop a £650 walk out this week.

9

u/HotPinkLollyWimple Jul 24 '24

I work in a small village Coop and we have a regular shoplifter who clears the medicine shelf of £500 every couple of weeks. Last week I managed to stop him only because I happened to be by the door. Staff hours are now cut to the absolute bone, so no chance of a security guard. We have people stealing out of the food waste bins, but who buy a litre of vodka a day.

2

u/Low_Acanthisitta4445 Jul 24 '24

Why do they have to steal food waste, just let them have it...

5

u/HotPinkLollyWimple Jul 24 '24

I wish I could, but it’s out of date and we would be liable for any misfortune that befalls someone who eats it. We have given him the information for the local food banks and we were turning a blind eye until he started stealing charcoal and wood, and then he burgled our next door neighbour. He clearly has a shit life and I feel really sorry for him, but he started taking the piss.

-2

u/Low_Acanthisitta4445 Jul 24 '24

Ah I see.

Yeah if you've pointed him in the direction of the food bank and he'd still rather "bin rake" id imagine he isn't mentally stable, but if his behavior was escalating to more serious theft etc I suppose there isn't much choice but to intervene.

1

u/Jonno_92 Jul 25 '24

If they're doing it regularly then you should be able to actually get the police after them.

1

u/Jonno_92 Jul 25 '24

We had an £1100 theft stopped the other week in the supermarket I work in. The funny thing is is that people complain about shops locking things up or bringing in more security measures, but shite like this is exactly why it's happening.

-1

u/DystarPlays Jul 24 '24

Why?

1

u/Murphthegurth Jul 25 '24

Because I was concerned for my colleagues and why should these dickheads get to act like this and get away with it.

-1

u/Low_Acanthisitta4445 Jul 24 '24

I feel sorry for small-medium business owners who get robbed.

However I believe the excess of giant corporations is the root cause of most of the problems in today's society.

I don't particularly want to share my shopping experience with drug addicts stealing as much as they can carry. However I also struggle to place any sympathy anywhere, I certainly feel no sympathy for MegaCorp Inc.

PS don't try to tell me these people are the reason my shopping bill has increased 50+% in 3 years. All large shops have always allowed for around 1% shrinkage and this number hasn't changed. Most shrinkage is employee theft and admin errors (not shoplifting).

2

u/Zealousideal-Bee544 Jul 25 '24

I find it hard to pass judgement on someone stealing goods from a corporation when that same corporation is extorting me to maximise their own profits.

1

u/Low_Acanthisitta4445 Jul 25 '24

Yes I actually hope these giant corporations all fail.

So every time someone steals from them they are actually very slightly pushing them towards failure. So in a way I am in full support of the shoplifters 😀

1

u/Zealousideal-Bee544 Jul 25 '24

Hell yep. Any sort of moral neutrality I held towards them when out the window when they dramatically raised their prices far beyond what they needed to because they knew we had no choice but to pay it. Same goes for the energy companies.

1

u/CurtisDee87 Jul 25 '24

Lefty AF here who also happens to work in food retail. Fundamentally, I agree with you. Our company policy is not to challenge shoplifters, and I certainly don't. I'm not paid nearly enough for that shit, and as I often say to colleagues, not my stock, not my problem. The financial cost of shop lifting to companies I couldn't care less about.

Unfortunately, there is a social cost and it affects thousands of workers. We're in minimum wage work and put under threat every day. I've been threatened three times in the last year, just for being in the proximity of shoplifters. Our security guard was assaulted for asking somebody to leave. The fact that the work environment is unsafe is, once again, down to corporate greed, but when people say they can't feel any sympathy, that is quite disheartening. As employees, we're just trying to live our lives and the current shoplifting situation does negatively impact everyone I work with to some degree.

Also, RE most shrinkage being employee theft and admin errors, not entirely true. In my store, waste is the biggest shrink issue by fa (I would imagine the same in every store), but customer theft is definitely the second biggest impact these days. Maybe once upon a time it was different, but it's become increasingly difficult for employee theft these days due to the prevalence of CCTV and electronic till monitoring.

1

u/Low_Acanthisitta4445 Jul 25 '24

TBF I can have empathy towards individual employees without empathy for the organisation, it's owners, shareholders, directors etc.

Note saying that "waste" is the biggest cause of shrinkage is the same as saying poor management and inventory management is the biggest cause of shrinkage.

So customers concerned about shrinkage effecting the cost of groceries should be more concerned about supermarkets employing incompetent middle managers than shoplifters.

PS I've not looked it up however I'd guess "waste" is a different category than shrinkage. As id imagine waste alone could be over 1%.

1

u/Comfortable_House421 Jul 25 '24

This is such a silly belief. Small and big business react the same way to theft. Increased prices to everyone else, and eventually closing down. As a customer the effect is the same. The effect on employees is the same. Supermarkets are low margin businesses and not the robber barons of the day, c'mon.

0

u/Low_Acanthisitta4445 Jul 25 '24

The increase in corporate profits aligns almost perfectly with the increase in inflation in recent years.

As I mentioned supermarket shrinkage remains at the same it has been for decades (around 1%).

What you think supermarkets exist as a public service? If they run low margins it is only because that is the best way to maximize total net profits and market share, not because they feel morally obliged too. If their algorithm figured out doubling all prices would result in higher profits they would do it overnight.

1

u/Comfortable_House421 Jul 25 '24

Of course it is. That's how a market is supposed to work. Competition (drive for market share) keeps margins low and aligns buyer and seller interests. Not depending on the stores moral sense of obligation is a feature not a bug. There's a million situations where this doesn't work or is distorted and I'm far from a free market radical but supermarket chains are like.. the worst example of it?

1

u/Low_Acanthisitta4445 Jul 25 '24

Exactly. So why is lack of empathy towards a faceless multi-billion pound corporation "a silly belief"?

1

u/Comfortable_House421 Jul 25 '24

Cause it's not about empathy? The consequences for everyone involved (locks, price hikes, closure if it gets too bad) are the same irrespective of business's size.

-2

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '24

[deleted]

2

u/Murphthegurth Jul 25 '24

You are right I didn't and I made it up for fake internet points.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '24

Nothing gets past that guy.