Where a former shoplifter advises businesses
More and more Britons are living in poverty, with baby food and bread being stolen from grocery stores. Farah McNutt used to steal as a teenager – now she advises store owners who want to protect themselves against theft. Britons are struggling financially like never before. Years of harsh austerity policies by various Tory governments, combined with Brexit and high inflation, are pushing more and more Britons into poverty. In its recent study, the renowned Joseph Rowntree Foundation concluded that 3.8 million Britons are living in “destitution,” enduring persistent poverty without any prospect, including one million children. These numbers have more than doubled since 2017.
The middle class is also feeling the impact. The real household income of Britons has on average fallen by 3.5 percent since 2019 – the most dramatic decline in the general national standard of living since calculations began in the 1950s.
A symptom of the current British poly-crisis is the alarming increase in shoplifting, which has reached record levels since last year. This is based on the recent crime statistics of the United Kingdom, which reported over 400,000 cases of shoplifting in England and Wales in the twelve months leading up to September 2023 – the highest since records began.
And the reported cases are likely only a small fraction of the actual thefts, as store owners rarely bother to call the police. The police force itself is affected by the crisis of public services, being chronically underfunded and often unable to respond in time.
Former shoplifter, now a startup founder
Therefore, more and more Britons are taking matters into their own hands. Farah McNutt is one of them. She founded a startup to help increasingly desperate store owners. Her company, “Catch a Thief,” offers advice, particularly to smaller stores, on how to better secure their employees, which video surveillance methods work, and which are admissible in court if needed.
McNutt knows all the tricks, having stolen as a youth on behalf of the older ones in her group. The idea to switch sides and turn it into a business came later when she saw many stores having to close down because of it. “Elderly people need these small stores, they can’t just go somewhere else to buy their milk. I never thought about that back then. You just think they can just report it to their insurance. But that is simply not true.”
Because what is mainly being stolen now is bread, milk, and baby food, where reporting to insurance is not worth it. McNutt understands the plight of these people; however, she believes that even mothers stealing baby food must be apprehended. “There is help available for people in poverty, and only when they are not let off the hook can they find and take advantage of these support services.”
“We will soon be building workhouses again”
But it’s not that simple. Across England, cities and municipalities are going bankrupt as the government in London increasingly cuts funding for communities and public services. This means that social safety nets are already becoming more and more porous. In many places, only socially committed individuals are saving people from utter neglect. People like Helen. Her brightly purple-painted store in Sheffield, which at first glance looks just like a thrift store, is much more. It is a place for the homeless, providing food for those in need. Those with little money can buy a jacket here for a few pounds. Helen helps everyone discreetly and with great respect, but some days she is also desperate herself.
“But I cannot truly give anyone hope that it will get better someday, that would not be honest either. Because we have never seen poverty like this before. When I watch series from the Victorian era now, with emaciated children in tattered shoes, I think, yes, that’s where we are now. We will soon be building workhouses again.”
The United Kingdom is one of the wealthiest countries in the world. Yet, the deep-seated social inequality that traditionally existed here has dramatically intensified in recent years, with more and more Britons seemingly on the path back to the darker times of Britain history.