Face coverings another tactic for shoplifters?

I’ve not long got back from my Sainsbury’s Local. There were a few people in the store - all men - and the two that were wearing masks (me and a paramedic from the ambulance office next door) were outnumbered by those that were not.

I suppose the one positive that could be taken from that is they were unlikely to be there to commit theft, otherwise no doubt they would have been only too ready to ensure their faces were covered before they entered the store.

A few years ago, the authorities at Bluewater shopping centre banned the wearing of hoodies as they were suspected of being used by individuals to conceal their identity because they were intent on stealing. Now though, they can cover their faces and it’s all perfectly legal.

Going back not quite as far, the introduction of charging for plastic bags has had the unintended consequence of an alarming increase in shoplifting, because people can now walk out openly carrying goods in their hands or their arms and if challenged they can claim they hadn’t brought a bag with them and didn’t want to pay for one.

That problem has been further exacerbated by the fact they don’t even have to produce a receipt to show they purchased the goods legitimately as they can claim they went through the self-checkout and when asked by the pop-up on the screen if they wanted a receipt they pressed ‘No’. The result is that unless they have been seen to select the goods and then seek to leave the store without paying for them, they cannot be successfully challenged.

There is also the issue of people taking the store’s bags and going around selecting what they want and putting it into the bags.

In former days store detectives would have been on to such activity like a shot.

Now though, it could be perfectly legitimate and the store detective could follow them around, or they could be followed on cameras, only for it all to come to nought as the customer goes to the checkout and proceeds to empty the bags onto the belt.

Not wishing to appear cynical by apparently seeing potential thieving in all of this, I will not advance any opinion on so-called ‘smart shopping’.

Christopher Hudson-Gool