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Comment by drcongo | Hacker News Reader

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.

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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.

There is no expensive merchandise in Iceland.

I know HN comments are generally terrible now, but endorsing theft is a new low.

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

Remember: if you saw someone shoplifting food, no, you didn't.

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