Wednesday, 11 November 2009
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Middle-Class Soccer Moms: The New Class of Shoplifters?
A report out of the UK indicates that "Keeping Up with the Joneses" has risen to a whole new level. According to this article, shoplifting in Britain has risen 20% since last year. Within those statistics are specialty food shops where shoplifting has risen sharply this year. High-quality meats, cheeses and fish are among the items being carted out of these stores.
The idea is that middle class shoppers, those being hard hit by the recession, have turned to theft to maintain their lifestyles. Or at least to keep up the appearance of their former lifestyles. These are amateur thieves stealing luxury goods for their own uses, rather than to sell. Security professionals are expressing astonishment at how much thieves are deviating from the traditional class of crook.
While this report is specifically about Britain, I wouldn't be surprised to learn of the same thing happening here in the U.S. After all, keeping up appearances of a high standard of living was a major driving factor for people pre-Recession, and many people are struggling to keep it up even when they don't have the money. So it doesn't seem like it would be outside the ream of possibilities for some to resort to any means they had to just to keep up appearances.
What do you think? Does it surprise you that people would resort to theft just to maintain their "high standard of living"?
Link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6910302.ece
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Comments (8)
this is like during the great depression, when carpet cleaning companies would rent out carpets to hard-hit families when they were expecting visitors and wanted to maintain appearances.
..sort of. not really. i don't get why soccer moms would be stealing luxuries, though. shouldn't it be more like... former upper/middle-class?
that's just ridiculous!
This reminds me of the movie, "Fun with Dick and Jane".
Most do it not just maintaining their life style, but for fun. My sister works at the GAP and says the middle class ppl, the one that just dropped $100 dollars on clothing will also slip in some more clothes for fun.
I definitely agree. I know many families who are so used to their standard of living that they continue to do so... even though both spouses have lost their jobs or are only on one income now instead of two...
I never presume to understand people who have money and don't know how to manage it.
It doesn't surprise me at all. In fact, I'm not really sure it hasn't been happening in the US for years. Most of the time if you catch someone shoplifting and it isn't a teenager, its someone whom you wouldn't think would do such a thing just to look at them, and often times someone you wouldn't think would need to. Even celebrities have gotten caught shoplifting. And, as at least one person before me has commented, a lot of people shoplift just for fun. Its a rush to them to do something like that and see if they can get away with it.
in shock!!!
my friend works at tj maxx and she says that they always catch middle-class moms stealing and trying to return things that they didn't buy