Thieves… out of necessity – Europeans can’t afford the basics

Inflation causes product prices to rise and Europeans resort to thieves to buy necessities.

It wasn’t long ago that Spain made headlines for a young man working at a supermarket in San Sebastian in the north of the country, whose pockets were so full of food that he didn’t even have to cross the entrance before the cashier stopped him. And a security man.

In Germany, which has gone from being Europe’s steam engine to being patient again, steaks and fish in small supermarkets such as Lidl carry large yellow anti-theft stickers declaring them as “insured product”. He says that if until yesterday there was demand for salmon fillets from Norway and veal fillets from Uruguay, today “everything is being stolen, especially since prices have risen.” the world German supermarket employee.

Behind the cold numbers, small human tragedies

In Greece, just last month a significant deterioration in consumer confidence was recorded, with the relative index reaching -45.0 points, compared to -28.6 points in July, at a level slightly higher than last year (-51.2 points). But behind these cold numbers, there are small human tragedies, like the one suffered by a 70-year-old pensioner, who was arrested almost a year ago after also stealing from Lidl (not far away, here in Athens) meat and cheese worth 40 euros. .

It is noteworthy that the store had filed legal proceedings against her, but they were curbed due to public discontent and the climate of solidarity that protected her.

In Britain again, everyone wants a steak for dinner, but most people are happy to stay put. Because of its “hot” price and the increasing theft of its pieces from supermarket refrigerators, the authorities have packaged them in plastic containers equipped with GPS trackers, which can be taken out by a single cashier, for example in cooperative supermarkets, and not their other automatic boxes.

Baby formula and shampoo

Since there is no exaggeration in these descriptions of the consequences of rising costs of living on the daily lives of ordinary people, it should be noted that Economist In his recent article, “Why Shoplifting Has Increased in Britain,” he points out that the products that typically make wings are baby formula, shampoo and shaving gel. As Sharon White, head of supermarket chain John Lewis, commented: “This is a real pandemic.”

To be safe, more than 1.1 million theft incidents were recorded in 2022, up from 970,000 the previous year, reaching the highest level in a decade, according to a report by the Convenience Stores Association.

As if all this wasn’t enough, the drama involved in the above situations, with shop owners searching for responsibility, thieves being arrested out of necessity, the grief of bystanders and the common problem that leaves no one untouched, has taken a toll on the mental health of 80% of the employees of these stores, he writes. Another article on a similar topic Bloomberg.

Baby formula, shampoo, and shaving foam are the first things thieves order out of necessity

A real pandemic

The dimensions of the phenomenon are global, as the same thing happens in the United States of America, but also in distant Australia and New Zealand, where gold is not oil as in our country, but rather the fuel that comes out of gas stations in any form. It can be imagined. Experts say that these incidents reveal the great hardships that the world faces due to the high cost of living, which not only makes the same thieves, but also encourages gang crimes, which steal these much-needed products with an eye on the ready public, who will do so. He takes what anyone throws at him at a slightly better price.

“You see people stealing and they’ve never done it before, so they usually don’t get the outcome they want, because they’re doing it without any means,” says Reid Hayes, a criminologist and crime prevention scientist at the University of Florida. , Loss Prevention Research Council, whose clients include Walmart, Target, Home Depot and Gap.

He concludes his speech by saying: “Today they steal the necessities, which are bread and meat.”