Retail theft is up 39 per cent in Victoria, a statistic experts are attributing to the cost of living crisis.
Well, yes, but also no.
Probably it is linked to the cost of living, but also it’s probably a manifestation that retail outlets have given up on trying to stop it.
Staff are told not to intervene when they see someone stealing, just ask the offender to leave if they feel safe.
And police almost never come to investigate shoplifting offences. I know someone who works in a supermarket, and she said they have never even rang the police in the four years she has been working there.
Certainly back in my day working in supermarkets in the 80s we knew even then not to bother ringing the police.
The best you could do was ban the offender from the store, and hope that the grapevine in a small country town would shame the offender to pull their head in.
And while clearly sometimes the person shoplifting was doing it tough, the worst offenders and repeat offenders were usually the people who didn’t need to shoplift at all. My friend who works in supermarkets now said that’s pretty much the same thing now.
Do you think there should be more action on shoplifting? Or more understanding?
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