Shoplifting up driven by rising cost of living - Coles responding with employee body cams

Remember folks, if you see someone shoplifting food, no you didn’t.

I work for coles and I always give them a nod of approval then walk off like nothing happend when I see people stealing, fuck coles, they profited over a billion dollars last year off of ripping of customers and workers.
Yeah, of you feel guilty, buy them something.
People taking fruit, cereal, milk… sure. But taking premium steaks, beer/wine/spirits, or anything else they can resell - no, that’s just theft.
- Theft from billion dollar companies is a cool thing to do 😎
- Got me fucked up if you think in gonna report it though
- I feel like you assume they’re reselling for a business. They could be buying baby shoes, or a gift for that nephew for his birthday, to make him forget how bad life is.
- I understand your point...but at the same time depending on the shop/company owing the store, if they make millions and pay shitty wages or whatever bad, fuck then
- We're all stolen from every day. The difference is that we're told that it's OK when it happens to us but that it's wrong when it happens to the company stealing from us.
- No, they'll sell it cheaper than the store

Alternate headline : "Supermarkets have jacked the prices so high, making record profits in tough times, that people have resorted to stealing in order to live".

I saw a shitty looking steak at coles the other day, over $60 a KG. It had bloody RFID sensors on it. What a world.

That's more an issue of the limits that earth has to make unsustainable foods

Pay people more so theft goes down? Fucking never!

Give body cameras to staff. Sounds perfect

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In Australia Woolies and Coles are artificially jacking prices up, this isn't about wages but about corporate greed using inflation as a disguise to rip off literally everyone. Instead they should be forced to lower prices.
- What if I told you all inflation was just corporate greed.
Would Coles paying their staff more prevent non employees from stealing?
I mean, people should get payed more, but what do you expect a single (relatively) small grocery chain to do? Also this is more about protecting staff as they have to be the ones to turn them on when an incident occurs rather than an always-on thing
- In the context of the country this is taking place in, Coles cannot be considered small by any stretch of the imagination
- This is not a small grocery chain. This is one of the two largest supermarket chains in Australia.
- People can't afford to shop at those small stores. When I was making $100k I exclusively shopped at locally owned stores. But after being laid off, I can only afford to shop at Walmart and Amazon.

Considering how much shit I see retail workers go through, this... honestly seems like a rational response. I'm sure it will immediately turn into middle managers using it to abuse employees of course though.

Sure, a rational response in a dystopian country

My life has gotten so fucked I'm starting to think about shoplifting just to feed myself.

Yeah, that’s about where our society is pushing people. I hope you find better work - I know that sound like a platitude, but try reaching out to people you know and hope for luck. You deserve a living wage and respect.
That sounds like a horrible situation you're in and I hope your life picks up soon. You should have a look at your local council website for food rescue/food bank initiatives in the area as they are definitely a safer avenue for you than theft. I have a relative who volunteers for one of these services who spends a few hours each week driving around to the local Colesworths/Bakers Delights etc. picking up food (ie. bakery/deli/produce goods etc. - not sure about actual packaged stock) that is near its use-by/best before date (and would have been thrown out otherwise) and brings it to a market where absolutely anyone can go and take it. All for free.

Don't like the increasing surveillance but this seems like a pro worker move actually. You don't have to turn them on to be a snitch, you just have to turn them on if you're being harassed. I got fired after being harassed by a customer and my employer took their side. If I had footage of it and audio then things might have been different

2 employees in the store

riiiiiiiiight

I’m 99% sure we’re gonna start seeing an uptick in employees “accidentally” obscuring and/or destroying these body cams

The cameras aren't on at all times. Employees are supposed to turn on the cameras to record abusive behavior by scumbags because the company found that people who were stealing were also abusive towards staff in 1 in 4 incidents. It's so employees have a record of the interaction. This also means when the thieving piece of shit makes fake complaints its even easier to ignore because the employee has proof.
- Having said all that, if you see someone stealing food, no you didn't.
but retail employees will get fired, unlike police
They're not police, they actually have accountability.

The comments about poor independent grocer Coles is doing my head in.

In the USA shoplifting is up because most states no longer prosecute. Which is also the reason a lot of retailers have or are in the process of closing stores in big cities. Had a friend that worked at Riteaid, once a week several women would come in with trash bags and empty the makeup section. Even with them on video nothing came on it.

Well, the police have to do work and find the people. You can't expect the police to actually do anything. That's asking way to much. Ask anyone who's ever needed the police to do their jobs (aside from beating or shooting folks who don't pass the patented brown paper bag text of course).
- I’m sorry, but that is just not accurate (they also shoot your dog, when they try to enter the wrong house)
You're wrong.

You're wrong in video format.

Shoplifting is up by a very, very inconsequential amount, stores aren't closing from it
- He is right when it comes to the UK though: Article today: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-66819837 Earlier this week, referencing violence towards shop keepers too. Coop having a very rough time with it: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66784250
- I'm not trusting the paper owned by Bezos on anything. Sorry.
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This is the best summary I could come up with:

The supermarket recently announced a $1.1 billion annual profit, but it also reported a spike in shoplifting and attacks directed at staff.

Theft is costing Australian grocery giants hundreds of millions of dollars annually, with Coles reporting a 20 per cent jump in stock loss.

"The use of these cameras has seen a substantial reduction in the amount of abuse and physical incidents our teams have faced," a Woolworths spokesperson said.

Retail theft is up across the board, driven by the rising cost of living, according to the Shop, Distributive & Allied Employees' Association.

Mr Peak says while the association welcomes the use of cameras, it believes they should only be used for deterring or filming threats towards staff, rather than "asset protection" for supermarkets.

"We don't want any suggestion that workers are some kind of mobile security camera – that's where we can absolutely see this actually [causing] violence and abuse."

The original article contains 333 words, the summary contains 151 words. Saved 55%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

They shouldn't have to switch on the cameras - there should be signage posted at the entrances explaining body camera filming is taking place and that by entering the establishment the customer agrees to being filmed.

There is no reason for the employee to have to on/off the device - which may lead to further confrontation.

Imagine I sell a product that everyone needs to buy in order to live, but I'm a massive creep and like to take photos of people without their consent. But I put a sign up so now it's ok. Cool and normal.

Or you know, maybe just don't profiteer during inflation.