Greggs to put sandwiches and drinks behind counter to tackle rise in shoplifting | ITV News

34 comments

1. It was nice to have grown up in a high trust society. I feel sad my kids won’t experience it. Learn and adapt I guess.

2. I know this will be a left-field idea for Greggs management but how about putting staff behind the counter at lunchtime.

3. The social contract has been slowly crumbling for a while, I suspect Tesco and Sainsbury’s and other popular chains will follow soon.

4. those seagulls are a real fuckin menace, i’ll give em that….

5. My local Greggs (well 1 of them as we have 3 lol) has already done this as school kids and other undesirables were stealing from the sandwich cupboard that faced out.
   Now they turned them around 180 and you have to ask them for a sandwich or drink. This was a few months ago though.

   One time I was in the queue and someone came up said excuse me, me and the lady in front of me parted to let them in thinking it was to just pick up a baguette or something. She did but she then walked out the shop with 2 of them. Lady in front told Greggs staff about what happened and they just shrugged and said it happens daily. Nothing they can do.

6. People do take the piss. Blatantly seen kids go in and take about £20 worth of stuff and just walk out. Mind you the staff don’t care, can’t blame them though. They don’t get paid much to run after them!

   EDIT: I used to work in Greggs and my colleagues told me to leave people alone when they took food. Wasn’t our problem to deal with.

7. If someone is nicking a sandwich because they have nothing to eat, fair enough, have at it.

   However, I have worked in ‘loss prevention tech’, which is basically anticipating what will be stolen and how to stop it programmatically

   The vast majority of theft is either by organised gangs, smack heads or people that just want the five finger discount.

8. Most places will just adopt the Screwfix model. You walk to the till, order what you want and the shop staff will go to the shelves to pick it up. It’s going to be the only way for a lot of these businesses to survive before long.

9. Not a bad idea, too many chancers in the world today, I swear since Covid restrictions ended people think they can get away with anything in public.

10. “The bakery chain said the changes are being introduced on a trial basis at a small number of branches across the country.”

    So a small selection of Greggs. Probably the ones highest at risk of shoplifters. But guess they accidently missed that out of the headline

11. We’re going to end up back at counter service like cornershops had in the 1940’s.

12. Clothes shops will be next. There will be display items on the floor, and of you want the item it will be like an Argos deal where someone brings it out. Clothes shops lose so much stock to shoplifters

13. Clothes shops will be next. There will be display items on the floor, and of you want the item it will be like an Argos deal where someone brings it out. Clothes shops lose so much stock to shoplifters

14. I wondered why one of our Greggs had a refit that the end result didn’t look that much different.

15. Meanwhile in Asia they have unmanned shops. It’s only going to get worse from here.

16. Tell me, are the sausage rolls as good as I’m told?

17. I’m not surprised. Society is getting desperate or selfish and will steal anything that isn’t locked down. Including the alarms and guards.

18. Good. I don’t care if I have to ask, thieves piss me off.

19. You know that I love about our society? It’s ability to always treat the symptoms and never *ever* the disease.

    Oh well, I’m sure if we cut what’s left of social care, wait until most of the local councils issue s114 notices and keep talking about trans immigrants stealing our boats it’ll all work itself out eventually.

20. I was in a Greggs when a bunch of cunts came in and cleaned the place out. About a dozen kids, around 16 years old, ran in and took armfuls of stuff and were in the fridges just filling their pockets.

    Myself and others told them to fuck off but that didn’t deter them. We just got spat at.

    The staff said it happens twice a week and they just stay behind the counter when it happens. They did offer us coffee for trying to help.

    All of it was just met with a collective shrug of the shoulders from most people. We are on a slippery slope, my friends.

21. I’ve seen it happen at Greggs, the lady at the counter said it happens all the time. Us law abiding citizens pay for the extra cost

22. Surprised they didn’t do this earlier. Its so common to see, especially when it’s busy. There’ll be a long queue to the till and you’ll see some smackhead saunter in, look at the hot food shelves, pick something up and walk straight out.

23. I was in a Greg’s in Manchester over the weekend and a man walked in as calm as you like, opened the fridge and took a sandwich and a coke and just walked right out the door.

24. The amount of times I’ve been in Greggs on Northumberland street and seen someone fill a bag then walk out. The self service aspect unfortunately needs to go.

25. Whitechapel, Peckham and Ilford, in case anyone was wondering. 

26. I witness a homeless person walk in, help themselves and leave nearly every single time I visit the Greggs in Bristol city centre. I’m not surprised.

27. Honestly society is getting worse.

    We watched a group of kids run into view and help themselves to pick and mix, not once, multiple times.
    Staff did nothing.
    We posted it on social media and got slated because “Kids are kids”

    Two days later kids broke into some bodies garden and stole toys, well now people are upset.

    Draw the line for the little things and maybe the larger things won’t happen.

28. Saw a little porky kid run in and grab a load of doughnuts from the centre isle. The staff ladies were all yelling saying they knew his mum. It was surreal. I guess they haven’t/wont learn consequences as nobody will investigate.

    Saw similar at Tesco express. I swear when I was growing up there wasn’t security. But even with security these teens ran out with cases of beer un opposed.

    I understand why this needs to be done, but I hate that we are here.

29. This is what happens when you have years of showing people that there’s no consequences to petty crime. Especially kids (who are then sent in to thieve by their parents).

    Physical restraint needs to be allowed, explicitly, for prevention or recovery of a crime, i.e. if you see someone nick things and start to walk out the security needs to be able to stop them, twist their arm and get them to give the things back. Calling the police is a complete waste of time, even if they come out they won’t be able to do anything as the thief will be long gone.

    It’s lovely to live in a high trust society where people respect rules and can be reasoned with, but there is always an underclass in any society that respects nothing but force and physicality, and if you aren’t prepared to deal with them, they will take the piss out of you like this. And these thefts are paid for by everyone else.

30. > Greggs says it will be removing all cold sandwiches and bottled drinks from its self-serve fridges and putting them behind the counter, in an effort to curb shoplifting.

    > The bakery chain said the changes are being introduced on a trial basis at a small number of branches across the country.

    Why not put a meal deal in a locked plastic container which if taken out of the exit, it would raise a hell of an alarm? When it is taken to the register and paid, staff can unlock the box and take the contents out for the customer to enjoy.

31. Someone pinching a sandwich because they’re starving and can’t afford it is fine to me. But they’re not the ones causing this. It’s people who are stealing high value items, or coming in to steal large amounts of stuff, so they can sell it on and make cash. that’s where most of the money is being lost.

32. Just like the very old days when everything was behind a till. 

33. Good, made me mad how many of those videos you would see, now I’m just worried some who have become accustomed to their free food and drink might try go behind the counter and threaten the workers there even more then they already do.

34. Saw a video of some ten year old in a balaclava stacking up stuff in greggs and just walked out. Didn’t even care he was being recorded by the Lad doing commentary.

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