Lots of Thefts from Shops
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What’s the answer? I have been hearing lately of a lot of thieving shop goods and a lot of it going on. I have read not enough police to be priority enough and even security guards get in trouble for physically handling them. So thieves get away Scot free. I have also read snippets about turning blind eye if it’s baby formula or nappies but although I understand the need it’s still theft. Meanwhile the cost of goods for the rest of us goes sky high. There are food banks, baby banks and community fridges for people in need. It’s just going to continue.
Yes it's out of control, my mother in law works in a mini Sainsbury's store, they have to deal with shoplifters by themselves because the police don't come out to help, ridiculous
martinlufc5637 A brother in law is a supermarket manager and he chased a thief only for them to get away and ended up injuring his arm quite badly. I don’t know even if caught what would happen because no police and shops don’t want to pay for Court prosecutions! 
JLouM country is becoming lawless, she's had things thrown at her when these lifters have been approached
Out of control, I used to work in retail and its absolutely shocking. Management are threatened with knives, kids walk in and out and start being violent with start if approached. Bunch of girls came in once and jumped behind where the tills are and ran off with a load of smoking products worth about £200, we contacted security and nothing they could do after that as we didn't have cameras and it was our word against theirs.
It's madness see it all the time some people stealing there a pub near by and they go in there to sell what they have nicked to get cash for drugs me and my partner was in there once a guy came over to us trying to sell stuff that had been nicked we said no to buying anything with that he said is there anything you want nicked I can get anything you want we said no thank you a guy at the next table asked if he could get any Nike trainers the guy asked his size and said he be back with them in ABIT about 20mins later he returned with brand new Nike trainers and sold them to the guy for £10 they had come from sports direct shop
jdible That's just so bizarre.
If people are willing to steal items for others, why not just get an actual job and get paid for a day's work?! £10 won't get you much these days (and stealing is just wrong no matter what).
There are job agencies, UC, apply in person at supermarkets, etc surely they'd get the help they need.
JLouM Agreed, and I read about police auctions selling stolen goods... That doesn't seem right. It's somebody's property.
Theft from shops in some areas of the UK has become a culture of survival during the cost of living crisis which impacts most on those who have the least. Amongst those that do this there is confirmation of it's acceptance as 'ok' or even 'robin hood' theory. This obviously does not excuse the activity and the reduction in numbers of police in our country has certainly contributed. There is also the common knowledge of theft under £100 on first offence not being prosecuted. Rather than judging the sub cultured who commit these crimes I am grateful to consider 'there for the grace of god go I'.
Ultimately you have to up the punishment until the punishment is enough to deter criminals. The current system is far too soft. The soft approach ruins the lives of so many. We need to pity criminals and the punishment they endure and that way there would be far less criminals. The current system the criminals are winners sadly. You can't keep approaching such problems with an idealistic nonsense viewpoint. We need a national vote on crime and how we respond to it so there is a clear mandate from the people and it blocks the moronic idealistic views of a minority.
BonzoBanana You are entitled to this viewpoint however you need the law not only to be fit for purpose but the police to enforce it and the prisons to incarcerate. At the moment B, we don't appear to have any of these. There are at present only 4 spaces on average in any of the prisons and these are quickly taken up by harsher criminals. Btw have a great morning, the sunshine is beautiful today. 
EmmaWright762 We are becoming a much poorer country and poorer countries typically have more extreme punishments and less resourced legal systems. As we become poorer more and more people will be financially desperate etc and more likely to turn to crime. Ultimately we have to adjust our punishments to deter crime. It's pointless pretending we can afford an idealistic viewpoint on crime and punishment, there will be less and less resources in the future. The government is still borrowing and I think last years debt interest payment was something like £120 billion which is like £2,000 of debt interest for every single person in this country young or old. The overall debt is still rising so payments will increase. We need to get back to practical solutions to real problems rather than pretend solutions we can't afford.
There are a lot of thoughtless rogues out there but what i do think is sad is when you see someone stealing a sandwich. I once said but there are foodbanks - this guy was homeless so couldn’t cook anything from the foodbank and where i live there aren’t homeless shelters or what we used to call soup kitchens.
suevernon1968 That I do understand and it is sad for those in such a situation. I think more what I am referring to are gangs that steal bundles of products to order and sell on rather than such individuals. Most places do have some kind of charity food bank, community help etc. It’s unfortunate that your area does not.
JLouM i live in Stratford on avon. I think a lot of people presume people that live here have money - cos of Shakespeare. Dont get me wrong- there are a lot of houses worth well over a million- i live in a council house that i bought when my mum was alive. We have one foodbank- i think it’s open probably two days a week and you can get a cup of tea ! I have had to use the foodbank a couple of times and they are lovely people.
Some of the shoplifting that goes on is ‘to order’ and apparently meat is one of the things on the rise for being stolen!! Then it changes as Christmas gets closer to more gift things. Apparently the professionals say its better to shoplift from a list as its a guaranteed sale at a guaranteed price! I was amazed finding all this out !! But then with the price of a good joint of beef these days ! Whilst there are people willing to buy stolen goods there will always be thieves and so the wheel sadly turns x
suevernon1968 Yes it’s not right though. Prices are being ‘pushed up’ exactly because of stealing so it’s a perpetual vicious circle.
Well prices are bad on everything at the moment but shoplifting has always been a problem. I remember years ago reading in one of our free newspapers that a woman was such a prolific shoplifter - so many shops had her picture- that she used to have to drive about 40 minutes ‘to get to work!’ I was a part time barmaid for years so used to get offered ‘shopping on the cheap’. Its always been an odd world but its sadly getting very sad now.
I had half a crown pocket money when I was 9 .I once pinched some sweets and comics from the corner shop.My dad frog marched me back to the shop and stood over me menacingly.He said to the shop keeper "my daughter has something to say".I was made to apologise and all pocket monies were stopped for a fortnight.I knew a lady who was a millionaire who used to shoplift just for the challenge and the thrill of it!People always like the easy road out of things and prices are just so ridiculously expensive these days.It's oh so wrong but I kinda get it!
I remember once being in a store and watching a shop lifter leaving the store. The security informed us afterwards that they call talk to them but can’t physically touch them. This doesn’t seem right.
eyeballkerry This Jewish man was threatened with stalking and the police was listening to it, but did the police intervene? No, they actually sided with the protesters.
The government isn't Conservative, it has no conservative values at all and Reform would do no better. Tory, Reform, Labor... They're all the same.
Moreover, in the U.S. they've been closing stores where shoplifting is out of control and I don't blame them, it's the only solution they have left to avoid losing more money.
Anyway, yesterday I visited a Sainsbury's and bought a couple of items, did I use a self-checkout machine? No. One with a human employee and that's how it should be (unless they'd pay me to do their job).
Shoplifting has been an increasing problem for years and has gotten worse due to the cost of living crisis. Some people are stealing to survive, others to fund a drug habit and some are part of organised crime. There are even people who shoplift to order. I think they need to reduce the threshold for the monetary amount stolen for the police to be involved and consequences from the first time they are caught.
To be honest, I would turn a blind eye to someone stealing baby formula. The price has soared in recent years, shops can't offer deals or discount it, and it's not like it's something you can cut back on! I bought some when I was expecting my baby, and when I didn't need it I couldn't find anywhere to donate it - lots of foodbanks can't take it, I tried at children's centres, but they're not allowed to 'incentivise' formula feeding. I can't imagine how stressful it must be to have to steal to be able to feed your baby.
sulawesi Are there not specific baby banks now? Isn’t that what Princess Kate was highlighting before she got ill? Surely they would supply formula. Obviously you need to feed your baby but still don’t think stealing it is right. If they really are desperate I do understand though but then they should get proper help from somewhere.
JLouM There are some, but there weren't any near to me when I looked into it. I know most people who shoplift aren't doing it for baby milk, but the news of Co-op having to put formula behind the tills in some shops really shows how messed up it is that this country can have so much wealth overall, and at the same time so many people struggling to feed their families
sulawesi This country isn't wealthy there is about £150k of debts on every single person when you factor in all the types of debt. The GDP is not a real figure it represents how much money is swilling about in the economy but such a high GDP requires constant borrowing as such high wages means we can't export and have a terrible trading deficit. One thing we really need to accept is the true state of the economy. Surely there is no one who can't see the UK has had a huge decline in manufacturing and food production the industries that generated so much income in the past. You can't just rely on service industries and even retail now is in huge decline as people buy so much from foreign retailers like Amazon.
However shop crime issues are not unique to the UK we stupidly keep copying many of the policies of the US even though our economies are hugely different and they are ahead of us in the level of shop theft and idealistic moron politicians who are clueless to the realities of the world and follow a idealistic agenda that can never work. It is creating huge poverty for the honest poor who have seen shop prices skyrocket due to higher security costs and allowing for a huge level of shop thefts. They too are dealing with huge costs of immigration, spiralling debts and lack of resources for the police and other services.
BonzoBanana I get your point, I do understand growth, productivity etc are pretty wretched and the country's generally in decline. And if you consider purchasing power parity rather than GDP then the UK drops considerably down the list of wealthy countries. But I don't buy that we're so crippled as a country so as to excuse millions of malnutritioned children
sulawesi Just the interest payments alone on our debts is like £120 billion a year that is about £2000 from every single individual in this country or about £4000 from every working tax payer and that is servicing debt, the debt pile is still increasing. A huge percentage of food we buy is tax free with only unhealthy food having taxes applied to it. How the country is currently setup is fantastic for providing low cost food. I've bought reduced veg for peanuts from supermarkets and made extremely healthy soups which I add chili powder and curry power too to give it more flavour.
Yes it is super important to make sure children aren't malnourished but you have to look at the details of each case. The cost of food to me is nothing compared to the cost of energy, rent and mortgages or the cost of transport and travelling. Some people build up huge debts and then complain they don't have enough money for food but then when you look at how they built up debt you see they have become incredibly wasteful of money.
In some countries the government provides food stamps so they can only spend it on food to make sure the children are well fed but then they still sell those food stamps to others for less than the stated value so they can buy other goods sometimes alcohol or cigarettes or even drugs.
I guess my point is sometimes you have to understand children go malnourished due to the parents not the state. In fact a good parent would prioritise their child's nutrition.
The post you were replying to was about baby formula, the point being that you cannot get cheap baby formula. All the usual tips for low cost food do not apply. Anyway, gone a bit off topic now so I'll leave it there.
sulawesi The post I was replying too said malnourished children which can be various ages. I understand not every mother can breast feed their babies and take your point about baby formula and the cost there being more difficult. There are huge costs associated with having children, clothes, prams, day care etc. It's why in many developed countries many people have decided against having children because even though employed they aren't sure they will have the income to do so and their employment is not particularly stable. This is happening across the US, Japan, China, Korea, Europe etc. It's a huge financial responsibility. The UK is approaching 70 million on an island that really can only handle around 30-40 million people with regard feeding ourselves and providing a good ratio of farming land to housing. The UK will be shrinking in size too with global warming. I live in smallish town called Yeovil and sometime in the next few decades it could be a beach resort despite being nowhere near the coast at the moment because there is a lot of flatland vulnerable to rising sea levels to the north. As can be seen in the map below indicated by Sedgemoor. So the UK will be significantly shrinking with many un-usable homes so many people will have to migrate to other areas. Of course politicians have made no proper plans for this which could be upon us in 20 years although likely later than that.
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