Foodstuffs boss says crime hitting supermarkets is ‘not acceptable’ amid spike in thefts
Foodstuffs’ boss says the spike in retail crime, which has seen brazen offenders assaulting staff members, is “not acceptable” and is calling for change.
Data collected from New World, PAK’nSAVE and Four Square stores, released on Wednesday, found a 38.2 percent increase in retail crime between February and April this year – an average of 37 crimes a day.
Foodstuffs North Island chief executive Chris Quin said store owners have “never seen retail crime at these levels”.
“It’s an extremely concerning trend and it’s unacceptable.”
The Supermarkets who are price gouging Kiwis and driving up the cost of living inflation, have the audacity to complain about the shoplifting crime wave that is now hitting them!
It’s like a Drug Cartel complaining about a lack of courtesy!
I am not going to get angry at hungry desperate people stealing from Supermarkets!
These very same Supermarkets who have used their market duopoly position to make obscene profit margins!
These very same Supermarkets who are so manipulative and cruel with their unchecked power that they can screw over producers of food!
These very same Supermarkets who constantly lie and cheat customers!
Look, I’m not defending nor justifying any violence towards Staff members at Supermarkets but these thefts are not occurring in a vacuum eh?
The highest food inflation prices for 30 years alongside the desperation caused by the unequal sacrifice of Covid has left an enormous amount of Kiwis behind and that is why we are seeing a spike in Supermarket thefts.
We need urgent reform of the Supermarket duopoly to brings prices down.
We do not need to militarise our Supermarkets!
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Someone has to pay the mega millions for the extra security costs and stolen product somehow.
Perhaps their Shareholders.
That’s not an excuse for corrupt regulators allowing a duopoly. Why were Woolworths’ allowed to gobble up Coles (Foodtown), Franklin’s (Price Chopper/Big Fresh) and I.G.A. (incl. SuperValue)?
No it’s not an excuse, just your typical everyday right wing response to an issue that requires more than a bottom of the cliff solution by the right. Lock em up, call security!
Of course it is not an excuse, there are none bar the Govts level of incompetence. My comment is just stating a fact.
They’ve got every right to complain about the crime wave, it’s an obscenity.
And their workers, (that is working people, Labour), get shit on by these criminals. The clip on the AM show with these entitled pricks assuaulting staff was horrendous.
I intervened in a theft on the weekend when the thieft helped herself to soft drinks and walked out and couldn’t give a fuck. She told me to call police knowing full well they won’t do a thing! That is learnt entitlement. That is our current state of law and order. No hungry desperate person there.
Plus they’re stealing to order, international orders, no less!
It’s good old fashioned crime. The criminals are not the victims and WE all end paying for these losers! Fuck them!
No they don’t, the crime wave is being driven by the cost of living which they contribute to
Also imagine putting yourself in harm’s way for supermarket chain that wouldn’t piss on you if you were on fire
Well by that measure, Grant Robertson’s massive spending and money printing is the major contributor. So is it yet another Labour Party iwn goal for crime. No, it’s not!
Blaming supermarkets for crime is totally wrong.
Are you telling us that Grant Robertson’s work has created the worldwide inflation problems that exist? What ideas did you suggest instead & how would they have supported NZ through a worldwide pandemic so that we had a minimum of covid deaths & has the economy & employment at satisfactory levels considering the problems around the world?
While I am not a fan of Grant at least he has proved that he knows what he is doing in his job, it’s a pity the party did not have a few more MPs with the same reliability.
Domestic inflation is a major contributor Bonnie.
We’re sitting at 49th for COVID deaths. You have an incredibly low bar.
“Plus they’re stealing to order, international orders, no less!”
Evidence of this please?
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/491533/supermarket-thefts-increase-evidence-shoplifters-exporting-meat-abroad-police-unit
Thanks Jim
What’s am I, your supermarket lacky? Do your own research!
One must must ask and define truth from fiction xray. The days are long gone where trust is a given. And I’m not so taken by your supermarket lacky comment given they are essential workers.
The advertised specials at my local Countdown often differ from the price charged at the checkout. Maybe I should report this fraud to the police?
Here we go again picking who can commit crime against and saying they deserve it. Next you will promote bank robbery . lt is the staff who get hurt do they deserve it .
I doubt if those stealing are the hungry ones they are the criminal ones who drink use drugs and do not want to work.
The supermarket is a business in the job to make money which pays the wages rent and taxes .We are a small country spread out into relatively small units .The product runs are small in comparison so prices need to be more to give people choice which we demand .
If the market was that good why have the big players overseas not moved in ..It is all down to size of the market
Who do you think owns countdown? Look at the logo.. It’s the Woolworths logo, ain’t it? Isn’t that a multinational corporation now? And there’s only one competitor..
One wonders at the golden opportunity that gives them to work hand in glove to push profits as high as they can, which is what is happening now.. Considering that the bulk of the inflation hitting the world now was driven mainly by the excessive profit taking by those in positions to hold us to ransom… What the duopoly is doing is simply exacerbating the situation.
BTW, once the pressure on people to simply eat becomes great enough, a certain lack of respect for those who had a part in making it so can be expected.. As adults, it behooves us to respond like such, and leave the emotive reaction to those who have nothing more..
Behoves.
$1 an Egg bitches!
What does the chicken get?
Well these days it’s barley, corn, a nice barn and a paddock to roam in, free as a bird! “Thanks Greens” said the little brown hen.
A policy started under National, really need to look into such things first eh
Yep Denny Tane/Him/They/Them/It/Alphabet People Must Watch Dave Chapelle!
Eggs. Another fucking “Must Have” Green Policy that makes it even harder for the less fortunate to afford decent basic meals, like a bunch of scrambled eggs for breakfast. Nobody ever died from cage eggs. A few chickens maybe, but that’s life. So do Canada Geese when they hit aircraft engines. Or cows that feed the champagne socialists when they eat their steak & cheese pie, or savor their Beef Wellington as they dab the corner of their mouth with expensive serviettes.
Head chopped off.
Although its bad (shoplifting) I think it is really just a sign of the times. Have we done any research on what happens after a Pandemic or Epidemic. As bad as shoplifting is, it isn’t as bad as murder, and I read somewhere Canada has its highest rate of murder ever. Ram raids are bad too but is locking up large number of people particularly young people really the best solution we can come up with, cause eventually those people have to be released back into society.
The super market War Lord’s are very good at suppling cheap grog though. Let’s give them credit for that.
its funny the govt went hardcore to prevent children coming into contact with cannabis with the regulations they created but booze is in supermarkets. Alcohol, a drug that causes 3 times more harm and the govt has zero problem with that being displayed openly in supermarkets.
Corruption to the max
they are seperate issues conflating the 2 is silly.
and no marie they won’t do anything, in NZ uniquely a price is an ‘offer’ whereas in civilised countries the shelf price is the price,,,indeed in some countries you can insist on the lower price…just another way kiwis are treated like compliant sheep
“Separate.” gagarin.
ohhhhh bob the lefty did I post a typo wow sorry how can I apologise, well spank my bum and call me bob..
Newshub source and paraphrasing ;
When quizzed on the retail crime unit staff numbers (we’ve established – quote Ginny Anderson), Andrew Coster said “about 8”. That’s not 800, not even 80, but a whole 8 (eight) or “about 8”.
Since its inception, over a year ago, they’ve “laid about 1242 charges against” either “195 people” (Anderson) or “200 people to 1200 chrages” (Coster).
From the Herald 12/03/23, there are nearly 300 reported retail thefts every day that could easily translate into thousands of offences per day. And we all know most retailers do not report most thefts. Going by the police’s response, why would they?
So the above admission of such a failure of policing of retail crime is an absolute indictment against this government. No one can have any faith Labour take crime seriously!
The headline seems to justify breaking the law – this I do not agree with. Why desensitize law breaking?
Martyn do you think shoplifting only happens in Countdown and PaknSave?
Yes he does. Clearly.
“I am not going to get angry at hungry desperate people stealing from Supermarkets!”
It’s not a question of who gets angry at hungry people or supermarkets who rort us though, is it. It’s more a shock realisation that we have no political representation to reflect our dissatisfaction at the way our societies are exploding, imploding and expiring.
Reading your Post @ MB should remind us all that it is our politicians who are failing us, not supermarkets or desperately hungry people stealing from them so much. It’s our politicians who’re letting everyone down and like it or not but our politics and our politicians are still neo-liberal so we’re all a bit fucked, really.
With hideous ACT hanging on to roger douglas’s withered old tits and the natzo’s sniffing seymour’s undies in return and Labour in free fall because * ” Brawndo! Makes Plants Grow Dumbasses ” it can be written with confidence that we’re all fucked. Our politicians are theirs, not ours, and until that changes immediately and graphically we’re, as I’ve written, fucked.
Pro Action? Write to your politicians! Go on. Give it a go. Start local then escalate to a national level. Strike, protest and mass taxation non-payments. Best of all, bring farmers over and in from out in the cold. They earn our money and they’re getting just as fucked as you are.
* Idioracy. Film.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387808/
Prison
Definition: A place where all the big criminals put all the little criminals
Talking about North Korea.
Govt bought and paid for by corporations, its why this country is so rich person orientated.
Politicians are beyond corrupt here and there isnt a bloody thing we can do about it.
Doesnt matter who you vote in this election they all are corrupted by the corporations.
Govt limp wristed review and lame results just signaled to supermarkets they can get away with anything they try and here we are….