• According to the latest figures from the Home Office, shoplifting complaints increased by 17% between January and August 2022 compared to the same period last year.

  • Store managers do not systematically file a complaint, especially when the theft is of low value or when an amicable solution is found.

  • Despite the increase in these shoplifting, it is difficult to make a link with inflation. 

The first time Ludivine stole a few items from the local supermarket was on a whim, seven or eight months ago.

“I was at the automatic checkout, I scanned my purchases, the same as usual, and I saw the bill fly away.

It made me angry, I really felt like I was being robbed.

So, this mother of two simply left three or four items at the bottom of her little shopping cart.

"I had to save 15 bucks, but it was still that much," breathes the 30-year-old, yet on a permanent contract in a large company with an "honorable" salary.

From now on, she uses her “little stratagem” almost every week.

"To say that I'm not doing well financially would be lying, but it's harder, and when I see the prices soar, I tell myself that people are making fun of us.

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How not to see in it an effect of the economic situation?

According to the latest figures from the Home Office, shoplifting complaints increased by 17% between January and August 2022 compared to the same period last year.

If these data are imprecise - they do not make it possible to know what type of goods have been pilfered, food, clothing, objects of all kinds -, they nevertheless coincide with the wave of inflation, in particular food.

According to INSEE, food prices have increased by an average of 9.9% in one year

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but some products reach peaks: 17% more for vegetables, 20% for pasta, 16% for dairy products.

“Obviously, we are tempted to establish a correlation with the economic situation, but there is no objective element that allows us to say with certainty that inflation and the increase in shoplifting are linked”, warns a high-ranking police source.

An underestimated phenomenon

The phenomenon is indeed difficult to grasp.

First, because it is protean.

While some steal to eat their fill, others do so out of challenge, a taste for risk or a ripple effect.

Above all, the figures from the Ministry of the Interior are probably very much below reality: many store managers do not systematically file complaints, especially when the amount of the theft is low, the perpetrators are young or a solution amicably is found.

“There is no absolute rule, it depends on the policy of each brand.

But there is an economic question behind it: sending an agent to lodge a complaint takes time and costs money, so sometimes it is not interesting, ”notes Cédric Paulin, secretary general of the national union of security companies.

It is also because he is convinced that he will not go to prison that Louis regularly steals food.

"I have a small job but it's not enough for me, and it's even more true today," breathes the student from Bordeaux.

So regularly, he completes his shopping by stealing some fresh produce.

“Mostly meat and cheese.

A few weeks ago, he was caught red-handed by one of the security guards at the convenience store.

“He put a little pressure on me, but I apologized flatly, I explained that I couldn't do it.

It passed, he just asked me to pay what I had taken.

“Since then, Louis has changed his supermarket, but not his “habits”.

“There is more aggressiveness towards the agents”

Impossible, under these conditions, to apprehend the exact extent of the phenomenon.

Is it comparable to fuel theft which has doubled in one year?

Contacted, large groups – Leclerc, Casino or Carrefour – prefer not to communicate.

The federations of traders claim not to have had any feedback from their members.

Just like the national union of security companies.

The figures, however, show a clear increase in crimes against businesses.

Burglaries of industrial and commercial premises jumped 13% in the first eight months of the year compared to last year, as did armed robberies against commercial and industrial establishments.

Violent thefts against these same establishments have increased by 10%.

“What goes up quite significantly is more aggressiveness towards the agents”, underlines Cédric Paulin.

“The increase in violence against them has been very clear in recent months, abounds Cédric Ragani, head of the company Option Sécurité, which works with many supermarkets.

When people are arrested after stealing, it really feels like they are risking their lives.

And to cite the case of this man who jumped out of the window of the hypermarket to escape the police.

This summer, in the south of France, another stabbed two of its agents.

"These are things we didn't know before.

“, assures the security specialist.

A side effect of the rising cost of living? 

Miscellaneous facts

Béarn: Three men arrested for siphoning 2,000 liters of fuel from heavy goods vehicles

Company

Construction: Bungalows, machines, fire reserves… Offenders take construction sites for supermarkets

  • Miscellaneous facts

  • Inflation

  • Flight

  • Stores

  • Thief

  • Security

  • Company

  • Economy