I work for a sports retailer and theft in our store is a daily battle. Tagging items doesn’t even cover it when thieves are using foil lined bags and hand held de-tagging devices that are widely available on the Internet. The annoying thing is that it is next to impossible to actually catch a shoplifter in the act unless you literally, first hand, see them taking goods and don’t take your eyes of them until they leave the store. Blink for a second and they have passed the goods to someone else and you accusing them leads to a court case and you losing your job. The law protects these people and irrespective of how much they have stolen or tried to steal the implications are minimal. The government definitely needs to get behind this and give retailers and gardai more control over shoplifters. People who steal from their workplace should be blacklisted and only allowed back to the workforce for a probationary period. People should be made aware if what they have done and they should have to fill out daily reports on their work. Disincentivise theft for everyone.

The costs of this get passed on to us all.

So set up a scheme with a wall of shame in participating stores, ban anyone shoplifting (maybe tax evading too) from all shops in the scheme and put up a wall showing photos and names of those so affected.

If you choose to break society’s rules you shouldn’t get to participate.

Harsh maybe, but some people need the jackboot of firm governance.

My friend had a shop and paid a security officer to keep an eye on things, be seen as a deterrent etc.
The security officer was caught stealing thousands of cigarettes from stock.

Having worked in a supermarket and seen people shoplifting and attempting to pay less than they should for some items( salads which people weigh with a little bit in the container before filling it) , i can say thats its not always those on social welfare who do it. In fact the people who shoplift are quite often not stealing to feed their family.

“More proactive and collaborative approach…” stop that bs…gardai know who most of the local thieves are…go, get them, put them in jail, strip them from their benefits. Nothing will change until people at all levels are held accountable for what they do.

Where is the moral leadership of Irish society.
The elite, banksters, developers, etc, steal millions and walk away without suffering any consequences.

I’m not condoning stealing at all but it’s heartbreaking to know that it’s not just thief’s out to steal items with a resale value such as cosmetics/electrical but there’s a sharp rise in people stealing basic essential items for their families such as food/medicine.

Lately I have been growing my hair and that coupled with wearing wellies and an oul’ jacket when I go to penneys or Dunne stores means I get followed round by security guards non stop . Sometimes to wind them up I take several clothes items off the racks and put 1 item under each arm and hold another item up to the light and squint for a few secs then I swing round and look at the nearest security guard and stare at them for a second like Hannibal lector in that movie when he was at the opera a few seats in front of that Italian detective.., then I scratch the seat of my pants with both hands causing the stuff under my arms to fall to the floor which I retrieve and hold aloft like i won the Olympics then turn around till I can see the confused look on the security guards face …. hours of harmless fun.

The problem with shoplifting is we’re all penalised. The price or cost of shoplifting is added on or built into the cost of an item. If you see someone shoplifting, inform management or security in the store. As a Security Guard I go by the ASCONE motto but co-operation from customers is always appreciated.
The other issue with shoplifting is that there are those that will disguise shoplifting in an attempt to be defamed; I.e. thus they can bring a case against the store for, for example wrongful defamation.

Robbing to order is the new way.
They bring the list with them into the shops,rob and deliver to your door for payment.

Any fool who thinks for one second that if all shoplifting stopped in the morning that prices would go down is living in a fools paradise. The retailers are dab hands at stealing themselves advertising articles for “sale” when they put the prices up two weeks before hand and then reduce them to normal price [for them] and then claim they are articles on sale. The truth is that the retailers make a damned good profit out of whinging about shoplifting.

what about all the billions anglo irish stole from people by lying about the rate they should have been charging on the dibor rate. anyway at half a billion stolen every year that would have to be around 1.3 million worth of goods stollen every day??? maybe retail ireland are skewing the figures or just making that crap up on the spot.

I wonder how this story found its way into the Journal editing que…a press release or aggregation from another source? Any help with that, Ms Wade?

Why the whinging? I didn’t hear the retailers doing much whinging when the cursed Euro was brought in, they were putting 10c on this and 10c on that every day for months until eventually the stupid Irish sheeple caught on. They are well insured against such losses and as to that the biggest thieves in the world are the Insurance companies themselves, they could give lessons in how to steal the pennies off a dead mans eyes.