When I got a job as a supermarket worker five years ago, I did not believe that shoplifting would be a problem. I am from west Africa, and I just couldn’t see how it would happen in Britain, where there is a benefits system, many opportunities and security guards in shops. But now, having witnessed and intervened in many shoplifting incidents, I understand the true scale of the problem.
Dame Sharon White, the chair of John Lewis Partnership, has this week called for a royal commission to look at the future of the British high street including the challenges of shoplifting, which she says is an “epidemic”. She is not wrong. My experience tells me the same, and so do the statistics: according to the British Retail Consortium, retail thefts across England and Wales rose by 26% in 2022.
I have seen shoplifting by people from a large cross-section of society. From those who turn up in good quality shoes and clothing, and calmly load their unpaid-for haul into their car boot; to people whose attire suggests they are living rough and are so starving they wolf down a sandwich taken from the fridge while they’re still in the store.
At the top of the shoplifting “hierarchy” are the professionals who look as though they make a good living from stealing. They wear big coats with roomy pockets that can conceal prime cuts of meat, and carry bags in which to stuff expensive bottles of alcohol. They know how to outwit the checkout scans, the security guards and anyone else standing in their way. This group are the most difficult to catch.
Then there are people with addiction problems who focus on stealing high value items they can sell to fund their habit. Their demeanour means they may be spotted by staff and security guards, and challenged.
At the bottom of the shoplifting pyramid are those who are living in dire poverty and are ravenously hungry. Their focus is less on stealing high-value items and more on urgently filling their empty stomachs. I spent a period street-homeless several years ago, so I know what it feels like to be hungry and have no means of getting a meal. Sometimes when someone is caught stealing a low-value item such as bread and are clearly hungry, another shopper who witnesses them being caught offers to pay for the stolen item.
I have never seen anyone prosecuted for shoplifting in all my time working in supermarkets. If we call the police they ask us if anyone has been stabbed. If the answer is no, they often don’t come, or come hours after the event. I have been pushed once by a shoplifter I challenged but thankfully wasn’t injured. I know some colleagues who have suffered worse attacks.
There was one occasion where I chased a shoplifter who stole some sausages. He begged to be able to keep them so he could take them home and have something to eat. He handed them back but I regretted chasing him and decided I would never do it again. I could see how desperate he was.
You get to see all of society in a supermarket, from the wealthiest who load their trolleys with food they can and do pay for, to the poorest who can’t even afford to buy a bread roll. I sometimes see old people stealing because their pension hasn’t stretched far enough; or people who can’t get work, or aren’t allowed to work for one reason or another, stealing to eat. My heart goes out to them because I can see how much they’re struggling.
No society has ever successfully eradicated stealing. It will always exist. The challenge is how to reduce it to the lowest possible level. White’s Project Pegasus initiative, where a group of 10 retailers are spending £600,000 to analyse CCTV footage and other data about shoplifting, will not eradicate the problem. Shops already analyse CCTV footage and a great deal is known about how shoplifters operate, the kinds of items they steal and the different methods they use.
Stealing can never be condoned. But shoplifting is often a symptom of an increasingly unequal society with a more and more threadbare safety net that is failing to catch the most vulnerable. That is the problem we must tackle above all else.
The writer is a supermarket worker based in south-east England
