Pathetic policing. Pathetic sentencing. Pathetic number of people even being charged after being caught on CCTV.
It’s no wonder lawlessness is setting in. Why work 8 hours for £100 when you can waltz in a shop, grab £100 of stuff and walk out in 5minutes?
High-Tom-Titty on
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.
Material85 on
One of the greatest psyops ever has been convincing the general public that the only people stealing are desperate single mothers taking baby food and nappies for their kids.
Thaiaaron on
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.
HauntedFurniture on
The Co-op near me had to install metal shutters on its windows earlier in the year after two smash-and-grab raids in the space of a month
BurdensomeCountV3 on
Remember that all of this £40m is then directly passed on to consumers through prices.
Wrong_Lever_1 on
One of the problems is its way too easy to just not scan stuff at self serve. When it was all human scanning I guarantee there was less shoplifting
Ambersfruityhobbies on
It’s cost who, sorry?
It’s cost the customers £40m
AbsoluteSocket88 on
Those single mothers sure are stealing lots of nappies and baby powders.
Shazalamadingdong on
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!
stinkyjim88 on
Stores prices go up to allow for the theft as well. So we are paying for people stealing shit
kurai-samurai on
Seen it a few times in my local CoOp, scrotey kids on emotos robbing booze and sweets.
Witty-Bus07 on
What’s the solution? Especially when running out of prison space, courts backlogged with cases etc.
AvatarIII on
Annual revenue is 11.3 billion.
40 million/11.3 billion = 0.35%
They are choosing to allow shoplifting to happen by not hiring security for every store.
There are 2500 co op stores in the UK, most are small so don’t need a lot of security but let’s say each store has an average of 5 security guards warning 30k a year
£30k x 5 x 2500 = £375 million, that’s almost 10x what they’re losing on shoplifting. It’s just not worth it.
So it’s better for them financially to allow shop lifting than do anything about it.
Charles-Petrescu on
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.
ljh013 on
Obviously not everyone shoplifting is a desperate starving parent, but the cost of living does impact shoplifting in other ways. When people come out with 50 joints of meat rammed in their coat, who do you think they’re selling it to? Because they’re certainly not going around nice middle class communities flogging it. They’re selling it to people who typically couldn’t afford it at full price.
We also know there is a relationship between poverty and addiction. If people are getting into debt for example, they may choose to turn to drugs as a coping mechanism. This costs them money they don’t have so they turn to shoplifting.
The relationship between the cost of living and shoplifting is and always has been more complicated than ‘single mother shoplifts starving child’s dinner’.
GoldBear79 on
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.
random-villager- on
I’ve investigated shoplifting for decades. It’s a problem, that needs dealing with. It certainly has got worse in some areas. But lets 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.
Edit – also a heinous crime, why does reddit keep stealing my line breaks?
Ochib on
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
DM_me_goth_tiddies on
What I’ve become really interested in is how security has become the face of most stores.
I no longer talk to cashiers, it’s all automated. I no longer speak to any of the staff at my local Tesco or Sainsburys. The churn is staff is high.
The longest interaction I’ve had is when I was scoldingly admonished by a security man for putting in five bananas instead of six when I was extraordinarily hung over.
I’m not sure fully how to articulate it, but all roles seem to have just boiled down to security. It makes a lot of shops seem like quite hostile environments.
armitage_shank on
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.
imp0ppable on
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.
XXLpeanuts on
Imagine how many security guards they could hire for that much in losses. I dunno if coop is being as bad as other super markets but basically Lidl no longer have security guards 50-70% of the time which means all shoplifting is done during those times and the staff are low key expected to physically fight with them to stop it (not official policy but they all do it and soon someone will get stabbed I’m sure of it).
Coop make it worse by having a cardboard cut out of a model pretending to be an 19th century bobby as if that will put people off.
fartbox-enjoyer on
Damn, I really do love living in the low trust shithole of 21st century Britain.
DJToffeebud on
Well maybe if the big supermarkets weren’t gouging us senseless since covid I’d have some sympathy…
25 Comments
Pathetic policing. Pathetic sentencing. Pathetic number of people even being charged after being caught on CCTV.
It’s no wonder lawlessness is setting in. Why work 8 hours for £100 when you can waltz in a shop, grab £100 of stuff and walk out in 5minutes?
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.
One of the greatest psyops ever has been convincing the general public that the only people stealing are desperate single mothers taking baby food and nappies for their kids.
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.
The Co-op near me had to install metal shutters on its windows earlier in the year after two smash-and-grab raids in the space of a month
Remember that all of this £40m is then directly passed on to consumers through prices.
One of the problems is its way too easy to just not scan stuff at self serve. When it was all human scanning I guarantee there was less shoplifting
It’s cost who, sorry?
It’s cost the customers £40m
Those single mothers sure are stealing lots of nappies and baby powders.
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!
Stores prices go up to allow for the theft as well. So we are paying for people stealing shit
Seen it a few times in my local CoOp, scrotey kids on emotos robbing booze and sweets.
What’s the solution? Especially when running out of prison space, courts backlogged with cases etc.
Annual revenue is 11.3 billion.
40 million/11.3 billion = 0.35%
They are choosing to allow shoplifting to happen by not hiring security for every store.
There are 2500 co op stores in the UK, most are small so don’t need a lot of security but let’s say each store has an average of 5 security guards warning 30k a year
£30k x 5 x 2500 = £375 million, that’s almost 10x what they’re losing on shoplifting. It’s just not worth it.
So it’s better for them financially to allow shop lifting than do anything about it.
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.
Obviously not everyone shoplifting is a desperate starving parent, but the cost of living does impact shoplifting in other ways. When people come out with 50 joints of meat rammed in their coat, who do you think they’re selling it to? Because they’re certainly not going around nice middle class communities flogging it. They’re selling it to people who typically couldn’t afford it at full price.
We also know there is a relationship between poverty and addiction. If people are getting into debt for example, they may choose to turn to drugs as a coping mechanism. This costs them money they don’t have so they turn to shoplifting.
The relationship between the cost of living and shoplifting is and always has been more complicated than ‘single mother shoplifts starving child’s dinner’.
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 lets 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.
Edit – also a heinous crime, why does reddit keep stealing my line breaks?
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
What I’ve become really interested in is how security has become the face of most stores.
I no longer talk to cashiers, it’s all automated. I no longer speak to any of the staff at my local Tesco or Sainsburys. The churn is staff is high.
The longest interaction I’ve had is when I was scoldingly admonished by a security man for putting in five bananas instead of six when I was extraordinarily hung over.
I’m not sure fully how to articulate it, but all roles seem to have just boiled down to security. It makes a lot of shops seem like quite hostile environments.
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.
Imagine how many security guards they could hire for that much in losses. I dunno if coop is being as bad as other super markets but basically Lidl no longer have security guards 50-70% of the time which means all shoplifting is done during those times and the staff are low key expected to physically fight with them to stop it (not official policy but they all do it and soon someone will get stabbed I’m sure of it).
Coop make it worse by having a cardboard cut out of a model pretending to be an 19th century bobby as if that will put people off.
Damn, I really do love living in the low trust shithole of 21st century Britain.
Well maybe if the big supermarkets weren’t gouging us senseless since covid I’d have some sympathy…