Desperate SA families are filling shopping trolleys and walking out of supermarkets to survive as the cost-of-living crisis hits

Parents are teaching their kids to steal food and supermarkets are battling daily with people who fill trolleys with food and just walk out the door, as the cost of living hits hard.

Desperate South Australian families are turning to shoplifting to put food on the table, with thieves walking out of supermarkets with trolleys full of groceries every day amid the cost-of-living crisis.

Hundreds of people are being caught stealing every week with SAPOL recording a 25 per cent increase in shop thefts in the past 12 months.

Interest rate hikes and cost-of-living pressures are being blamed for what has been labelled an industry-wide problem.

The brazen thefts have included shoppers walking out carrying hundreds of dollars worth of items with staff powerless to stop them.

Drakes Supermarkets director John-Paul Drake said he was “sick and tired” of people taking whatever they want.

“We see walk outs daily. They will fill up a trolley or a bag and walk out the door,” he said.

“I’ve seen family members coaching children as young as 10 years old about how to steal stuff out of supermarkets.”

He said resorting to crime should not be the answer for people struggling to make ends meet.

“I sympathise with them, but it’s tough for everyone,” he said.

“We’re not a charity, we’re a business, but we give millions of dollars to charities so people in need can actually get help,” he said.

One of those charities is Foodbank SA and chief executive Greg Pattinson said people were resorting to crime to be able to feed their families.

“It’s a symptom of what society as a whole is dealing with. People cannot afford to buy food,” he said.

With cost of living pressures, Foodbank SA chief executive Greg Pattinson said people were resorting to food theft to feed their families. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

“We’ve had a 57 per cent increase in families coming to our food hubs. Over 50 per cent of the people now have jobs, and over 30 per cent have mortgages,” he said.

He said there were many more families that were still too proud come forward and seek assistance.

“It does take a hit to the self-esteem, people feel that they’re failures … particularly if they haven’t been in that situation before,” he said.

“The challenge is how we can make that make them feel comfortable, but also feel welcomed.”

A Coles spokesman said they had hundreds of shoplifters every week and were ramping up their efforts to curb the problem.

“We have observed an increase in theft which is an issue affecting all retailers across Australia and internationally, and one that we will continue to address,” he said.

“Coles employs a large team of plainclothes loss prevention officers in our stores nationally who are catching hundreds of thieves every week.

“In South Australia, the partnership between retailers, SA Police and Crime Stoppers is going a long way to addressing the issue.”

People stealing a trolley full of food from Drakes Wayville. Picture: Drakes

People stealing a trolley full of food from Drakes Foodland. Picture: Drakes

The growing problem has even extended to other customers with one person on social media revealing she had delivered groceries taken from the front of her own home.

“We had a food delivery taken from my front porch this morning,” she posted.

“I can only hope it was someone in need because now my family needs to spend more money shopping for groceries this week.”

Deputy Police Commissioner Linda Williams said shop theft “is one of the areas of concern for police and has been for quite sometime”.

“We’re working with certain retailers partners on this and that’s been a really good project identifying repeat offenders,” Ms Williams said.

“We’ve made a significant number of arrests in that category.

“But it is of concern that it is on the rise. And as we identify, there might be multiple reasons for that.”

The police and retailers recently introduced a new program called Auror that records and document shop thefts in a historical database.

Woolworths Group declined to comment.

Foodland Supermarkets were contacted for comment.