There should be some distinction between a reward paid to employees, which is more like a commission; and one that is paid to customers or the general public, which is more like vigilantism.
one further distinction exists in that there are people poor and desperate enough to commit crimes in the hopes of bieng jailed and there by housed and fed, though as they are such meager crimes,are then released, so the 1£ reward they might try and claim would be a significant incentive.
it might be easy to dismiss my conjecture, but it is the sort of thing people in compromised situations think up, as they struggle to survive in a world where the logic is very different and in many ways diametricaly opposite.....nothing to loose + something to gain= <
We used to call them Blockwart (block warden), and then the GDR took em over, just renamed them to Abschnittsbevollmächtigter, but also Hausbuchführer or just AKP (Auskunftsperson).
Everything else aside, it just does not seem like an economic use of my time to find an employee, alert them to shoplifting, and stick around long enough to get the measly £1 credit on a loyalty card.
Also the social penalty for being a grass, the risk of major embarrassment if you’re mistaken or if it can’t be proved, the risk of running into the accused person later outside. It doesn’t make any sense.
On top of that, if this was in the US, nearly 99% of major retailers have a whole policy and procedure on what constitutes being able to even make a stop on a person suspected of shoplifting.
If visual contact is lost for even a moment, you’ve lost the case instantly, and it takes the correct management to be able to make the observation to qualify for a stop in the first place.
I'm not sure I understand your point. The savings from comparison shopping will surely be greater than 1 GBP per shopping trip. And practicing that is a skill which you get better at and expend less effort doing over time -- reporting a shoplifter, not so much.
I might be out of the loop here, but isn’t £1 a bit on the cheap side? Like… How common is shoplifting in these supermarkets then? Would I be able to, like, spot ten shopliftings while doing my grocery shopping?
Iceland is already one of the cheapest supermarkets in the UK, if someone is shoplifting food from Iceland they're probably both hungry and trapped in poverty. Anyone reporting them for £1 is a piece of shit.
I remember my dad talking about a couple of his coworkers that would go shoplifting during their lunch break. Both employed as well as their partners. Neither could be described as hungry or in poverty.
IDK about Iceland, but in the supermarkets I know, people rarely nick food out of hunger. They are mostly targeting more expensive merchandise to sell/exchange for drugs.
Where I am it's kind of in between the two I think. People are not normally shoplifting nutritional staples, which are fairly cheap as far as it goes. It is more like "treats," often for their children, things like name brand cereal, pop tarts, cake mix. And then things that are excluded from SNAP like rotisserie chicken, alcohol, pet food, vitamins, dish & laundry detergent. And of course baby formula when possible. But that has been locked up for decades now.
Related, "Currently Ryanair employees are paid around €1.50 for every oversized cabin bag that they identify" https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2025/0721/1524508-ryanair-ba...
so should we coin a new term for this? Maybe snitchnomics?
There should be some distinction between a reward paid to employees, which is more like a commission; and one that is paid to customers or the general public, which is more like vigilantism.
one further distinction exists in that there are people poor and desperate enough to commit crimes in the hopes of bieng jailed and there by housed and fed, though as they are such meager crimes,are then released, so the 1£ reward they might try and claim would be a significant incentive. it might be easy to dismiss my conjecture, but it is the sort of thing people in compromised situations think up, as they struggle to survive in a world where the logic is very different and in many ways diametricaly opposite.....nothing to loose + something to gain= <
We used to call them Blockwart (block warden), and then the GDR took em over, just renamed them to Abschnittsbevollmächtigter, but also Hausbuchführer or just AKP (Auskunftsperson).
Everything else aside, it just does not seem like an economic use of my time to find an employee, alert them to shoplifting, and stick around long enough to get the measly £1 credit on a loyalty card.
Also the social penalty for being a grass, the risk of major embarrassment if you’re mistaken or if it can’t be proved, the risk of running into the accused person later outside. It doesn’t make any sense.
On top of that, if this was in the US, nearly 99% of major retailers have a whole policy and procedure on what constitutes being able to even make a stop on a person suspected of shoplifting.
If visual contact is lost for even a moment, you’ve lost the case instantly, and it takes the correct management to be able to make the observation to qualify for a stop in the first place.
Do you also not find it an economic use of your time to, say, comparison shop for groceries?
I'm not sure I understand your point. The savings from comparison shopping will surely be greater than 1 GBP per shopping trip. And practicing that is a skill which you get better at and expend less effort doing over time -- reporting a shoplifter, not so much.
Reporting a shoplifter is something you can do opportunistically, and which will likely take quite little time if you happen to notice one.
Sure, but - again, ignoring all other ethical considerations - I have to stick around long enough to get that pound credit, too.
Reporting a crime out of a sense of civic duty is a wholly different proposition to doing it for a buck.
If it doesn't net me more than a dollar savings, no.
Much like I don't drive an extra 10 minutes to a gas station that costs two cents less per gallon.
I might be out of the loop here, but isn’t £1 a bit on the cheap side? Like… How common is shoplifting in these supermarkets then? Would I be able to, like, spot ten shopliftings while doing my grocery shopping?
Genuine question, as I'm not British.
And here I was thinking this was about a supermarket in Iceland.
Yeah, I thought this was going to be the delightful Bonus chain, which has the absolute best mascot I've ever seen: https://bonus.is/english/
Iceland is already one of the cheapest supermarkets in the UK, if someone is shoplifting food from Iceland they're probably both hungry and trapped in poverty. Anyone reporting them for £1 is a piece of shit.
I remember my dad talking about a couple of his coworkers that would go shoplifting during their lunch break. Both employed as well as their partners. Neither could be described as hungry or in poverty.
Which is why the reward is £1 - because the demographic of their customers consider it worth their time.
In ASDA it might be £2
In Tescos it might be £4
In Waitrose it might be £10
I know HN comments are generally terrible now, but endorsing theft is a new low.
IDK about Iceland, but in the supermarkets I know, people rarely nick food out of hunger. They are mostly targeting more expensive merchandise to sell/exchange for drugs.
There is no expensive merchandise in Iceland.
Where I am it's kind of in between the two I think. People are not normally shoplifting nutritional staples, which are fairly cheap as far as it goes. It is more like "treats," often for their children, things like name brand cereal, pop tarts, cake mix. And then things that are excluded from SNAP like rotisserie chicken, alcohol, pet food, vitamins, dish & laundry detergent. And of course baby formula when possible. But that has been locked up for decades now.
Remember: if you saw someone shoplifting food, no, you didn't.
With prices and profits at an all-time high, and wages at an all time low, if you think you saw someone shoplifting something essential no you didn’t.