It was about 8pm in Tesco Express and Katherine*, a shift manager in north-west England, was alone with her younger colleague when she noticed a man acting suspiciously in the aisle containing home goods.
The section – which stocked items such as laundry detergent and fabric softener – is behind plastic security barriers, so “he basically ripped it out the shelf, swept it into a duffel bag and walked out,” Katherine said.
The incident in 2023 is part of a trend Katherine has noticed in recent years working for the supermarket chain, of more common – and more flagrant – shoplifting. She said starting at Tesco 10 years ago, shoplifting was “absolutely nothing compared with what it is now”.
Her observations are backed up by the British Retail Consortium’s crime survey, which found retail theft increased 25% in 2023-24 on the year before to more than 20m incidents – the highest since records began in 2003. As well as the financial cost – companies lost about £2.2bn – the BRC spotlighted violence and abuse against retail workers, with incidents rising to more than 2,000 a day.
Thieves sweeping shelves of higher-priced goods, shoplifters verbally abusing staff, parents hiding items in prams, teenagers nonchalantly making off with sweets, people sweeping spirits into bags – these are just a handful of stories from dozens of people who responded to a Guardian callout about their experiences with shoplifting.
“It’s very brazen,” said Katherine, 26, adding that last year a group of teenagers targeted a display solely for hay fever tablets, saying the store calculated the thieves took hundreds of pounds’ worth.
She said that for retail workers, “the scary thing is you don’t know who’s carrying a knife, you don’t know what they’ve got on them.” She said it’s frustrating that Tesco head office grumbles when stock is lost but won’t invest in adequate team members or front-of-shop security in order to deter thieves.
“I absolutely feel let down by head office,” she said. “They’re passing the buck on to us.”
A Tesco spokesperson said the safety of customers and colleagues was its “absolute priority” and that the company had invested tens of millions of pounds in safety and security.
“Recent measures include installing protective screens, providing body-worn cameras and strengthening door entry systems,” they said. “We have also invested in developing our central security hub, which is an expert team dedicated to joining up evidence and supporting the police to tackle crime and shoplifting, helping to keep our colleagues and customers safe.”
Katherine said for her store, shoplifting contributed to about £3,000 of “shrinkage” (lost, damaged or missing stock) during the last six-month stock take, with common missing items including baby milk.
Paul, a team leader for a village grocery store in Perthshire, said his colleagues recently saw a woman load a suitcase with alcohol and walk out, which they suspected would be sold on the hidden market. He said stealing alcohol occurs about three times a week, even in his small community.
“It’s literally impossible to keep an eye on this level of theft,” he said. But Paul also said one of his duties is changing the store’s grocery prices each week, “and it’s very noticeable how much things have gone up in the past few years”.
The Guardian also spoke to small-scale shoplifters who said they had been forced to steal the odd item regularly to survive amid the cost of living crisis and spiralling prices in recent years.
In north-east England, 45-year-old George* said he had been driven to shoplifting because his welfare payments are not enough to live on. George, a former electrician who said he had been off work for seven years because of mental health struggles, gets £783.78 a month in universal credit.
But he said after covering rent (£475), electricity (about £170) and council tax (£20), he was left with less than £120 a month for groceries. George said he used a local food bank, but visits were limited to once every four weeks, and he shared custody of his 10-year-old daughter with her mother.
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Amid the cost of living crisis, “I’ve had to shoplift much more than I used to,” George said. “Only ever food, and only ever after my universal credit has run out … I hate doing it. It brings me no joy. I dread getting caught, but hunger is hunger.”
He’ll usually go to a big supermarket, pay for a basket of things but conceal a few items. “I’ve got a big coat with big pockets,” George said. “I don’t go mad, I only nick like a packet of sausages or a block of cheese, something like that.”
George used to feel bad, but no longer does. “Now I just feel like it’s something I’ve got to do,” he said. “Everything’s more expensive, like the price of a chocolate bar has doubled for my kid.”
However, others who admitted to occasional shoplifting said their motives were driven more by opportunity and convenience. Jaqueline*, a 57-year-old administrator in Surrey, said the first time she made off with an item was an accident after her M&S self-service kiosk failed to scan properly.
Jaqueline said she realised with self-checkouts how easy shoplifting of small items was – easier, she feels, than attracting the attention of an overworked staff member when it malfunctioned. “I haven’t paid for quite a few things in the past couple of years.”
She will sometimes take a lunchtime salad, vegetable or Boursin cheese – “I put it in my bag and walk away.” Jaqueline doesn’t feel guilty, partly because of recent cost rises. “They charge twice as much while giving us half the service,” she said.
But watching shoplifters target his local Co-op left Tommy Cooper, a 63-year-old in Doncaster, feeling “very unsettled” about society.
One morning at about 10.30am, a young man was browsing the aisles, picked up a pizza and crate of beer and “just sauntered out of the store without paying,” Cooper said. Cooper, a retired market trader, spoke to the cashier, but she told him the police probably won’t be interested.
“It’s the relaxed and carefree manner of the theft that is gnawing away at my mind,” Cooper said. “It seemed like a small act of anarchy – like watching society unravel.”
*Some names changed
