Shoplifting has traditionally been treated as a low level crime that doesn't really matter that much, something businesses can just sort of scuk-up and a low level crime with not much of an impact.
However the nature of the crime in the UK is changing - it's got to the stage now where shoplifting gangs can brazenly walk into stores and take armfuls of goods with the authorities seemingly powerless to stop them!
Who Really Pays for 'Petty' Theft?
Calling shoplifting a “victimless crime” is not particularly accurate.
While small shop owners are obviously immediate victims and we can really feel their plight, even with Big Supermarkets the costs are passed on to shoppers - not only in the form of higher prices but also in tighter security - more guards and more locked up products, making a worse shopping experience for consumers.
Then there are the people behind the counters. More and more, retail staff talk about being threatened or even attacked. What used to be the odd stolen item is now sometimes planned, brazen, and hostile. There has been a worrying increase in intimidation with shoplifting in recent years.
And at a more abstract level, this might just make us all a bit less trusting of others in our daily interactions, which makes life both less efficient and more unpleasant.
You see it already—essentials behind plastic, suspicious glances, everyday shopping feeling tense instead of ordinary.
Why the increase...?
Well possibly it's because there's hardly any chance of getting caught, let alone being prosecuted.
And Shoplifting is increasingly for thrill-seeking, not economic survival.
There's also the fact that people don't trust our public institutions any more and have no sense of commitment to anyone else outside of their immediate circle's.
A Society on Edge...?
Possibly this is a sign that Britain is getting too complacent with low-level disorder...? Maybe we're just not in a position to be able to chuck resources at it...?
Either way it's another signifier of the uK in decline!