Shoplifting has reached record levels according to a Millicent supermarket manager.
Dave Foster has worked in the family business for around 20 years and said the current level of thefts from the Kentish Place business was unprecedented.
Mr Foster is in regular and close contact with the management of the two other Millicent supermarkets and is certain the situation is similar at their premises.
“When I began working in the family business, we would only have one or two examples of shoplifting each month,” Mr Foster said.
“Nowadays we are having shoplifters each day at Foster’s Foodland.
“We have 21 monitored CCTV security cameras recording vision around the clock.
“There are also other ways that we know there have been thefts of more expensive items like batteries and light bulbs.
“We will find empty boxes and packets which the thieves have obviously opened and then discarded. They have obviously put the batteries and globes into their pockets.
“We had another example of thefts from three-packs of Bonds underwear. Someone had opened each packet and stole one pair of underwear and left the other two. This happened with a number of packets and they became unsaleable.”
Mr Foster said cost of living pressures from skyrocketing power bills and petrol prices were only part of the resasons contributing to the soaring shoplifting rates.
The third-generation independent retailer said he felt the thieves may have had a sense of entitlement.
“They might think we are making a lot of money in our shop and so we can afford it if they decide to steal a chocolate bar,” Mr Foster said.
“I know our local customers and some of the shoplifters are people who can afford to pay for their groceries.”
Mr Foster has made Millicent police aware of the thefts from the store which opened 53 years ago.
The business had been founded at Rendelsham in 1947 by his late grandfather Bob Foster and now staff numbers exceed 30.
According to Mr Foster, there was another aspect to the shoplifting rate which also had the potential of hurting the profitability of his store.
“If I challenged some of these local shoplifters, they would become so embarrassed they would never shop with us ever again,” he said.
“They may have stolen an item of relatively low value but I run the risk of losing a customer who might spend $200 a week in my shop.”
The shoplifting “epidemic” is not confined to Millicent with one Mount Gambier supermarket manager posting screenshots of suspected thieves in his store.
The screenshots are sourced from CCTV surveillance cameras and their display is dubbed the “wall of shame”.
Elsewhere, the capital city press has reported on one major supermarket chain which has reported a 236% rise in shoplifting at a cost of $10m in the past year.
