Are soaring food prices translating into increased thefts from stores? To the point of pushing certain brands to put locks even on the trays of minced steaks? If the Ministry of the Interior reports a 14.77% increase in shoplifting in 2022 compared to the previous year, the testimonies collected on the ground are much less categorical.
Preferring to remain anonymous, “because the store I run belongs to a large group”the director of a Toulon supermarket is cautious on the subject. “There have always been thefts. And I’m not convinced that there are more of them because prices are rising. In any case, the inventories carried out recently have not revealed anything significant”.
Lately, the thefts observed in his store have rather concerned chocolates and would be “the work of adapting networks” depending on the schedule. We are far from larceny committed for lack of being able to buy food. “In twenty years in the business, if I caught two people who told me to bite to eat, it’s the end of the world”testifies the trader.
The most expensive products targeted
There is no reason under these conditions to strengthen the measures to combat thefts which remain anecdotal. “For now, no action plan has been put in place”.
In truth, “anti-theft systems on food products have been around for a long time, even on meat. We have had to do it, from time to time, on high-end brands. A well-known brand of aniseed alcohol does it at the source, inside its bottles”.
Still in Toulon, but in a Franprix store this time, the discourse is somewhat different. “We are waiting to do the inventory to confirm it, quantify it, but we have the feeling that thefts are on the rise”, says Dorian, the manager. But there is no evidence that it is the work of people who do not have the means to feed themselves.
“Thefts concern both coffee capsules and hygiene products. Not only food products, therefore. But there is one consistency: thieves, whether young or old, tend to steal products most expensive”Dorian points out.
To fight once morest thefts, the franchise store has decided to put the means. “In addition to an increase in the number of hours of security guards and the installation of a security gate and new surveillance cameras, anti-theft magnetic barcodes have been added to around a hundred products, including meat trays, among the approximately 3,000 references of the store”.
