Views on SHOPLIFTING

Picture: Perhaps if people were less invisible in their crimes, they’d think again!

In my opinion whatever way you look at shoplifting, its theft and a crime. However I don’t view shoplifting in the same way I would burglary of a house or theft of a car or a mugging incident. I think when people shoplift there are often many things between them and the person they’re stealing from. For example if you steal from a supermarket:

there are usually lots of the item on the shelf and because there’s so many “no-one will notice its gone”
it might be easy to steal it so discreetly that no-one will notice and if this is the case, you may not feel like it matters
If you stole from a supermarket the person who owns the chain of stores probably isn’t even in the shop. Again, this may remove you from any guilt.

Also, people may have personal reasons that remove them from any guilt such as “they’re overpriced” and “the people who work here/who make the products are underpaid”. All of these things seem to remove the shoplifter from any guilt and is probably why it’s such a common crime (i.e. some people shoplift for the thrill- they don’t feel like they’re hurting anyone). If you rob a house or a bank, you’re directly having an effect on someone – even if they’re not home, the thought that someone has gone through they’re belongings is bad enough.

Therefore I think shoplifting is unacceptable like any other type of theft. It wouldn’t rate the same as robbing the owner of the shop at gunpoint or robbing a house, on a ‘scale’ of theft, because there’s usually nobody directly involved. It also depends how serious the offence is (e.g. was it a chocolate bar stolen or a TV?!)

This link leads to a news story on what people choose to shoplift. One person suggests its “cool” to shoplift whereas others suggest “Too many people think that stealing from a business is somehow less selfish, mean or reprehensible than stealing from an individual. What they forget is that shops are people's livelihoods, major chains are by-and-large owned by investment companies (and therefore people pensions and mortgage endowments) and that the profits companies make are directly proportional to the number of staff they employ. If you value it, buy it”. I think this person’s right in that people feel removed from the situation, but that this doesn’t mean you’re not having an effect on a person’s livelihood somewhere.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4477596.stm