Grocers Tagging Gourmet Food
Amongst numerous reports of consumers changing the way they shop, cook and eat are tales of middle-income people finding themselves unemployed and/or dealing with debt to an unprecedented level. Alongside these now come reports that some are turning to theft in order to maintain their previous lifestyle.
The progression apparently goes as follows: some middle-income shoppers like gourmet food; some middle-income shoppers have less to spend on food now than they have in the past; some middle-income shoppers have taken to thieving because they can't afford the same food as usual but don't want to change their ways. Rather than buying - or stealing - essentials, they are trying to maintain their preferred diet by taking what they want without paying.
Several British supermarkets have decided to take action against gourmet shrinkage, however. According to a report in The Times, "Sainsbury's, Marks & Spencer and Tesco are putting electronic tags on lobster, parmesan cheese and prime cuts of steak to deter light-fingered foodies." Last week one branch of Sainsbury's was selling parmesan cheese costing £2.30 inside plastic security boxes normally reserved for DVDs.
Up until recently, electronic tags were more commonly used on non-food products such as DVDs, razor blades and perfume that could be sold for cash. Now, however, Richard Dodd of the British Retail Consortium believes that people are picking up things for themselves. He told The Times, "Shoplifting is usually driven by people stealing in an organized way but as we have headed into this recession we have seen more people stealing a bigger range of items including food to actually use themselves rather than sell."
Discussion questions: What do you think of grocers using surveillance tags and other security measures to prevent the theft of food? Have they gone too far? Is this an inevitable, unforeseen consequence, of the recession?