According to associations and retail companies in the United Kingdom and the United States, the number of thefts in stores is skyrocketing, so we are already beginning to see everything from cheeses and steaks packaged with security devices to coffee packages replaced by empty jars. And there is a possible explanation for this type of theft: the cost of living that many citizens face.
The chief financial officer of retail company Associated British Foods told the British tabloid The Sun that inflation and rising prices had given many people an excuse to steal whatever they wanted. The director of the British department store chain John Lewis even spoke to the BBC of a “theft epidemic.”
Does inflation drive theft?
Frank Horst of the EHI Retail Institute, a research center for retail companies in Germany, highlights that theft numbers have increased enormously in 2022, compared to the previous year. Every year, this institute compares the target state with the actual state in store inventories. And in 2022, he found that store inventory losses increased by 12 percent, while there was a 30 percent increase in reported thefts, compared to the previous year.
Does it follow that inflation currently not only drives prices, but also theft crimes? No, says Horst. Due to the measures imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a kind of artificial decrease in theft numbers in 2020 and 2021. So their interpretation of the increase in numbers in 2022 is related to “a return to normality “.
Of course, it is quite conceivable that persistent inflation will eventually drive more people to steal products, rather than buy them at higher prices. But that effect would be noted, rather, in next year’s study. For Horst, it is in 2023 when it will be possible to determine whether the frequency of theft in German stores has continued to increase.
There is no evidence of an increase in times of crisis
Horst, however, is skeptical after 20 years of observing store theft statistics and concludes that economically difficult times do not automatically lead to more thefts.
However, in Germany there are first signs that inflation does not necessarily influence the frequency of thefts, but rather a change in the behavior of thieves, says Horst.
“Currently, more products are stolen that were not so targeted before,” he points out, such as cheese, meat and sausages, but also butter. “It can be assumed that this also has something to do with inflation and rising prices.”
UK and US supermarkets are already responding
The situation in the United Kingdom and the United States cannot be compared with that in Germany. In the US, for example, there is a big problem with drug-related crime: organized gangs rob entire pharmacies to get hold of this merchandise.
That is why supermarkets and shops in these two countries now want to modernize: more video surveillance, free coffee for police and law enforcement officers, body cameras and security checks. Of course, all this costs companies a lot of money. And, in the end, it could make products even more expensive for customers.
(yy/rml)