'It's very brazen' Retailers and shoplifters on rising theft in cost of living crisis

It was about 8pm in Tesco Express when Katherine*, a shift manager in north-west England, noticed a man acting suspiciously in the aisle containing home goods.

- Jem Bartholomew

It was about 8pm in Tesco Express when Katherine*, a shift manager in north-west England, 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 of 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, of more common - and more flagrant - shoplifting. She said that when she started 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 22% 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 flagged up 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.