Supermarket thefts reached record levels last year in the UK with 1.1 million incidents, the Association of British Convenience Stores (ACS) said on Thursday, attributing it to the economic crisis but mostly to criminals.
The most stolen items are “meat, alcohol and confectionery, high-value items that can be resold by people with alcohol or drug addiction problems, or by organized criminal groups,” the report added.
In supermarkets or convenience stores, consumers are getting used to seeing anti-theft stickers on staple foods, especially meat.
According to ACS, retailers spent more than £246m last year on preventative measures such as CCTV, security personnel and alarm systems.
In parapharmacies, it happens that sellers no longer put makeup on the shelves due to too frequent thefts.
While acknowledging that the cost-of-living crisis contributes to that, most of these robberies “do not come from people in distress but from organized crime gangs or people who steal to finance their drug or alcohol addictions. forward,” Lowman continues.
The persistent inflation in the United Kingdom, the highest of the G7 countries, which stood at 8.7% year-on-year in May, is causing a deep crisis in the cost of living in the country.
Source: BFM TV
