“Poverty makes thieves like love makes poets”. This Indian proverb seems to apply perfectly to the reality of recent months. With the health, ecological and geopolitical crisis that France is currently going through, households have seen the cost of living drastically increase in recent months, while their purchasing power has decreased.
In this heavy atmosphere of permanent inflation where it is becoming more and more difficult for many people to meet their basic needs, theft has emerged as an alternative solution. According to figures released by the Ministry of the Interior, a 14% increase in shoplifting was observed in 2022.
“To live, I have to bite”, testified Coralie, customer of a supermarket in Ile-de-France, to RMC. The profiles of thieves are of all types, young people, mothers, elderly people… And lately, it is on food products that theft has increased a lot, as evidenced by a security guard in a supermarket with our colleagues. “Even pasta, I didn’t believe I was living that in France. When I catch it, they tell me to be discreet with them: people know each other in the neighborhood, they are ashamed,” he explains.
Faced with this situation, some large retailers have decided to take measures and add locks to products that did not have them until now. “We didn’t do it two, three years ago. We see thefts which, when they are made, are on significant values. It may be 8, 9 euros. So we don’t have the choice, we equip ourselves. We have also reviewed the planning of the vigils to have more important presences, “thus revealed Thierry Cotillard, president of the Mousquetaires, at the microphone of RMC.
Discover in our slideshow the products that are now equipped with locks in some supermarkets.
