„Das wird nicht verschwinden“: Ladendiebstahl hat die Genossenschaft allein in diesem Jahr unglaubliche 40 Millionen Pfund gekostet

It’s not going to stop until the punishment is greater than the reward, either that or every shop locks up their stock/moves to an Argos type model.

Our local Co-op’s security guards are normally early twenties or late sixties, external SIA badge for hire who absolutely do not give a shit about stopping crime for the sake of their own health. They will attempt a sort of half jog, little meander side-step to deter criminals with arms full of Monster Munch but other than that, they are there for the paycheck and to make it home safely.

Remember that all of this £40m is then directly passed on to consumers through prices.

It’s cost who, sorry?

It’s cost the customers £40m

In my local Tesco, had to wait for someone to open the doors, about a minute (I’m a regular there but anyway…) and finally get in the shop, someone walks in behind me and starts hovering near the door. One of the managers (I think) is near the door sorting out a display. The other person goes to leave, so the doors get open again. Someone else walks in, walks straight over to some reduced beers, grabs them and pegs it. Manager takes off after him, retrieves the beers and walks back in. I said to him, “nicely done!” and he looks at me like I’m the shoplifter!

How people manage to do these otherwise thankless jobs (and blank a compliment) is beyond me. I’d have taken the shoplifter round the back and belted seven living kinds of crap out of him. Which is why I don’t work in retail anymore!

Seen it a few times in my local CoOp, scrotey kids on emotos robbing booze and sweets. 

Self scan tills makes it easier to nick stuff at the bigger supermarkets too.

I fully accept that we have a disenfranchised class of people, who through no fault of their own, have no investment in society.

This is why at any opportunity people will come to the streets and smash stuff, we’ve seen it because a gangster was killed by police, we’ve seen it because a black man in America was killed by police, we’ve seen it because some children might have been killed by a Muslim etc.

Any opportunity to burn this place to the ground, there is a section of society who will absolutely fucking jump at the chance.

That said, it doesn’t mean we should be lenient.

The reality is some of these people are feral, it sounds outrageous but they are, driving around on quad bikes with balaclavas on, sometimes just doing damage for the sake of it, smashing cars etc etc. this shoplifting is a symptom of the same problem, same apathetic mindset.

It’s only going to get worse unless something serious is done.

I was in Co-op yesterday at lunchtime, and the woman behind the counter was watching the self-service tills. Suddenly she gave a tired laugh and said, ‘that guy’s just stolen two pork pies. I’m not paid enough to go after him.’ Fair play to her, really – I’d feel the same way. A lack of willingness to pay on one side and a lack of motivation to confront on the other makes this very symptomatic of how weary society is as a whole.

I’ve investigated shoplifting for decades. It’s a problem, that needs dealing with. It certainly has got worse in some areas.  But let also not overlook the fact that most of this news recently is driven by the retail consortium and ACS, a organisation whose mission is to maximise profit and growth for the companies who are members, and they really are they on a mission to tell us about it at the moment. And it’s a nice easy prepackaged column filler for the MSM. And it’s understandable, as profit margins are getting tighter, this is a narrative they are pushing hard right now. I’m not saying they shouldn’t, but as most people see the world through the prism of the media, I do think there is an element of it appearing worse than it is. And that’s the narrative they prefer. This not only provides justification for increased prices, but they are trying to make this is a problem the public pay for protect companies from (policing is paid for by taxpayers) rather than invest in decent security. During the day, there is a handful of police officers on duty running around most towns. The police are vastly overstretched and can’t act as security guards for dozens of supermarkets and shops. If people think this is a problem that can be ‘policed’ away, they are very mistaken. Unless we we increase the number of officers 10 times over that is, but even then it won’t solve the root causes. Like most crime, the solution is much more nuanced and complicated, but the government also won’t admit that the root causes are largely they’re doing, and as well as being incredibly expensive and difficult to fix.   

Many of the supermarkets and shops aren’t helping themselves either. It’s very common for supermarkets and shops to ring the police at the end of the day, or even week, to report a batch of shoplifting incidents to get the crime numbers that auditors want. Then supply the Police with the worst CCTV you could imagine in 2024, If they even have CCTV at all, and expect the police to be able to find out who they were. Then, when an officer does try and take a statement, it’s very common for the company to not want to give a statement. Which is understanding to a degree when you think that a couple of hours giving a statement and processing CCTV etc probably going to cost more in paying their staff wages than what was stolen in the first place.  

Also, I would be interested to see the stats, but it would seem a large portion of the increase is down to self checkouts. Perhaps employing humans was a good idea after all. 

But I do agree that it’s a big problem that serial offenders and organised criminals do not get adequate punishment by the courts. But given they are releasing, or reluctant to jail in the first place, sex offenders and violent criminals I doubt anyone who steals a packet of mince is going to receive a punishment that acts any real deterrent.  

The group reported pre-tax profits of £58m for the first six months of 2024. So what they are saying is that theft is greater than their profits

It’s quite difficult to get a handle on whether this is a large number or not. Google says there are 2,500 stores, so that’s £16,000 per store stolen per year, which seems pretty high. £44 ish per store per day assuming 360 days open per year.

I guess that’s like 8 bottles of wine, or 8 steaks, or like 20 chocolate bars, and I suppose that’s quite a believable amount. Smaller stores might be half that and larger stores double.

I think this is what you call a “smell” in engineering – sort of a problem in itself but more importantly a sign that something important has gone quite wrong somewhere. Like a strong smell when driving your car, unpleasant but also likely going to be a symptom of something rather serious.

I was at a JD Sports store the other day, and two kids (max 14-16 years old) were caught trying to steal sneakers. The guards were taking them to the back presumably to call the police. I don’t know about you, but at 15 y/o I would be terrified, snotty crying and asking to call my mom if I got caught and it looked like shit was actually going down. These kids were laughing and relaxed like they were in an amusement park having a great day. This was definitely not their first time, they knew the drill. They were very well-dressed as well, probably trying to steal very expensive stuff.

Maybe there’s like 20% of desperate mothers stealing to feed their babies, but there’s a big 80% that doesn’t care and knows nothing will happen if they get caught.