I worked at Tesco a couple of years ago, not in a particularly rough area, and some of the people who came in were fucking horrible. I never cared that much about shoplifting, but it’s everything else that comes with it. I was threatened and had things thrown at me, but some of my colleaugues were punched, spat on and threatened with dirty needles – usually because they politely asked a shoplifter to leave. I hate to think what it’s like in rougher areas.
> Co-op Food managing director Matt Hood said retail crime was driven by “repeat and prolific offenders and, organised criminal gangs”. In the worst cases, he said it could even be described as “looting”.
Before the _”if you see someone shoplifting, you didn’t”_ folks start up. This isn’t a single mother smuggling out baby formula. These are organised and sometimes violent offenders.
By all means these supermarket chains are profiteering wankers, but this behaviour isn’t good for anybody. Not for the staff dealing with it, not for the customers having local shops shut down, and not for society that has to live alongside these criminals who are enabled by the lack of action by (understaffed) police.
We need more police, and resources to hold them accountable. Instead this conservative government has been gutting them for over a decade and trying to make up for it by giving the remaining forces ever encroaching powers.
I work in a small, rural village Coop. We work mostly with 2 people in the shop, so catching thieves is nigh on impossible. In the last 2 weeks we’ve lost £70 meat, £100 of baby milk and £160 of vapes. There are gangs of thieves hitting all the local Coops stealing meat and baby milk regularly. We only have one of each sort of baby milk on the shelves, but that’s still 10 different sort at £15 each. We limit meat on the shelves and have moved all the vapes off the shop floor.
On Saturday, I watched a probably 3 year old pick up a bucket of sunflowers and run off with it. Him and his 2 older siblings then tried to swap them for sweets in the other shop. They’d stolen ice creams the day before.
Folks from the camp in the village steal on a daily basis – bottles of pop, medications, vapes, meat, sweets…
We are very fortunate to have not had an armed robbery in the last 3 years, but it is happening to other stores weekly. If we are hit, we are on our own. I have a panic button to press, which triggers a phone call from our monitoring team within 10 minutes. That’s it, unless I’m able to call police. It’s frightening how at risk we are.
3 comments
I worked at Tesco a couple of years ago, not in a particularly rough area, and some of the people who came in were fucking horrible. I never cared that much about shoplifting, but it’s everything else that comes with it. I was threatened and had things thrown at me, but some of my colleaugues were punched, spat on and threatened with dirty needles – usually because they politely asked a shoplifter to leave. I hate to think what it’s like in rougher areas.
> Co-op Food managing director Matt Hood said retail crime was driven by “repeat and prolific offenders and, organised criminal gangs”. In the worst cases, he said it could even be described as “looting”.
Before the _”if you see someone shoplifting, you didn’t”_ folks start up. This isn’t a single mother smuggling out baby formula. These are organised and sometimes violent offenders.
By all means these supermarket chains are profiteering wankers, but this behaviour isn’t good for anybody. Not for the staff dealing with it, not for the customers having local shops shut down, and not for society that has to live alongside these criminals who are enabled by the lack of action by (understaffed) police.
We need more police, and resources to hold them accountable. Instead this conservative government has been gutting them for over a decade and trying to make up for it by giving the remaining forces ever encroaching powers.
I work in a small, rural village Coop. We work mostly with 2 people in the shop, so catching thieves is nigh on impossible. In the last 2 weeks we’ve lost £70 meat, £100 of baby milk and £160 of vapes. There are gangs of thieves hitting all the local Coops stealing meat and baby milk regularly. We only have one of each sort of baby milk on the shelves, but that’s still 10 different sort at £15 each. We limit meat on the shelves and have moved all the vapes off the shop floor.
On Saturday, I watched a probably 3 year old pick up a bucket of sunflowers and run off with it. Him and his 2 older siblings then tried to swap them for sweets in the other shop. They’d stolen ice creams the day before.
Folks from the camp in the village steal on a daily basis – bottles of pop, medications, vapes, meat, sweets…
We are very fortunate to have not had an armed robbery in the last 3 years, but it is happening to other stores weekly. If we are hit, we are on our own. I have a panic button to press, which triggers a phone call from our monitoring team within 10 minutes. That’s it, unless I’m able to call police. It’s frightening how at risk we are.