Beware of frivolous middle class shoppers, warn retail bosses
The shoplifting epidemic is largely blamed on organized gangs, but some retail bosses also blame middle-class customers for fueling the wave of shoplifting.
According to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics, theft from shops in England and Wales rose by almost a third last year to its highest level in 20 years.
With prices soaring and household budgets under pressure, more than 402,000 shoplifting incidents were recorded in the year to September – up from 304,000 the year before.
Shoplifting epidemic: Some British retail bosses say middle-class shoppers are fueling a wave of shoplifting
The total cost of crime is almost £1 billion per year. Some leading retailers have resorted to paying police to upload the faces of convicted shoplifters to a national database. But some retail bosses believe self-service checkouts – introduced to cut costs – are tempting even well-heeled customers to tread lightly.
Lance Forman, of smoked salmon producer H Forman & Son, said some customers were stealing his company’s expensive delicacies. “I don’t think people always steal because they are desperate,” he said. “If it’s available to be stolen, they might be tempted. ‘If you leave your front door open, people will come and steal. It’s a sad fact of life. Retailers are responsible.”
His comments echo those of Marks & Spencer chairman Archie Norman, who told LBC radio: ‘With the reduced service you get in many stores, a lot of people think this hasn’t been scanned properly, or it’s very difficult to these scan things through and i shop here all the time. It is not my fault. I owe it.”
Asda chairman Lord Stuart Rose said he believes the problem is now so widespread that shoplifting has effectively been ‘decriminalised’.
Rose claims the rise in retail crime is due to affluent shoppers helping themselves to smaller, expensive items at self-service checkouts.
Police chiefs have come under fire for the apparent lack of action in tackling the looting that is destroying shops.
A spokesperson for the British Retail Consortium said: ‘Unfortunately, the lack of an effective police response has left many criminals – including organized crime gangs – feeling that they can shoplift with impunity.’