Friendly reminder that if you see someone shoplifting food, no you fucking didn’t.
and remember to steal from corporations, not people
I only steal from grocery chains, mom and pops don’t deserve it.
Posting my favourite Green Arrow moment again:
So you can just steal food?
Don’t break the law then😎
Translation: just starve to death
Ever heard of Food Stamps?
We’re in Britain, so no. We do have laws which are supposed to protect and provide for people who can’t provide for themselves, but if those laws aren’t working then can you blame the desperate for breaking other laws?
I mean we do have a benefits system and food banks here, people starving isn’t really a thing that happens though there is certainly poverty and privation
Way back in time I worked in a supermarket that first trialled self shopping. At the time this was done with special trolleys and boxes and hand scanners people took around the store to scan their own goods. The scheme survived about two years. The system was designed to gradually ramp up rescans by the checkout operators if prior scans had shown missing items. Certain people were clearly making a lot of mistakes (usually with expensive items like Whiskey) but many weren’t. The increased waits for rescans for the people who often made such “errors” destroyed the value for everyone else and they became increasingly angry on what should have been near instant checkouts.
Its notable I think that almost all supermarkets today use self scanning despite all those earlier experiments showing that some people would use it to hide theft. This goes very much against the image of the pocket and exit that people have in their head. That was actually very uncommon and being a person who often greeted on the door it was my job to spot them. Most of the theft occurred through items that were smuggled through the checkout in some way.
I don’t think self scanning is contributing to an increase in theft losses and the data shows its not. What I think it potentially contributes to is making it hard to identify the theft because there are less employees effectively as the security force. The decline in prosecutions is likely due to these changes that the supermarkets have adopted which they knew 25 years ago resulted in hidden theft.
If you see someone stealing food or baby stuff. It is a case of observational error, in reality you didn’t see shit.
Interesting analysis.
christ that is a badly written article. Oh wait its novara, the pound shop of journalism
I’ve just read that and can’t see anything badly written. Where was the bad writing? (Or is it just their views you don’t agree with?)
There’s pretty large evidence of a car theft epidemic tho tbh
That’d be personal theft. The police have already signaled they couldn’t give less of a shit about that.
This is for Hyundais an Kias mostly tho right? And it’s due to them refusing to fix a major flaw making theft trivially easy. Something like that, here’s a link I’m too lazy to read but looks related.
https://www.iihs.org/news/detail/hyundais-kias-are-easy-targets-amid-boom-in-vehicle-thefts
And it’s not in the UK, as the cars were sold with immobilisers here.
Ah
Is there? Genuinely asking as I’ve not heard of that
Yeah it’s been fairly bad in north London for the past couple of years. Seems to have been particularly bad these last few months tbh.
Questions for retailers (who probably won’t see this, but whatever):
- Do you have a security guard? Yes/No
a) If yes, and you’re still getting shoplifters, hire better security. Problem solved.
b) No? Get a security guard. Problem solved.- Still here? Are you complaining about having to pay for a security guard? Yes/No
a) If No, why are you still here? Go hire that competent guard.
b) If Yes:- What’s the cost of the shoplifting compared to having a security guard, taking wages, insurance and premiums into account? Less/More
a) If Less, stop complaining, you’re getting a bargain.
b) More? Looks like hiring a security guard might be worth it after all.Do I shoplift? Ha. I’m currently agoraphobic and don’t leave the house. My arms aren’t that long.
The last time I was in a physical store, I was of the opinion that as long as I can afford something I need, I’ll pay for it. For things I merely want and can’t justify the expense, I’ll do without. (Sounds a bit like 3a.)
And the last time I nicked something (calm down, put your monocle back on) it was probably a sweet from the pick & mix at Morrisons when I was 10 or something.
From what I recall, there are quite strict limits on the actions that a security guard can perform to actually detain someone, so actually a big factor is the police response time.
Telling a little family-run corner shop to get a security guard isn’t that helpful
D’oh. I had briefly forgotten that small shops still exist. Probably because the ones nearest me went out of business. Not because of shoplifting but because they were priced out by corporate stores.
