A reporter went to the supermarket. She returned with a can of worms

Five minutes at a suburban supermarket is all you need to be convinced that cost-of-living pressures are fuelling petty crime and antisocial behaviour. So spare a thought for reporter Cassandra Morgan, who this week had the unenviable task of spending a full four hours at a supermarket in Prahran that Coles had nominated as one of its stores most plagued by crime and social issues.

During her visit, Morgan saw a desperate woman demanding that a child in the checkout queue pay for her snack. The frightened girl did what she was told. She saw a bleeding man, who said he had come straight from the hospital, swearing at a security guard and leaving the store with pockets full of stolen food. One patron with a shaved head and tattooed scalp opened a black forest cake, put a happy birthday candle on top, lit it, then ate part of the cake face-first. He left without paying.

Morgan also wrote this week about the very real threat of violence and assault with deadly weapons faced by retail workers, a third of whom are younger than 24. This article includes the chilling experience of Shefali Batta, who says she will never work in retail again after being attacked while working in 2023.

These pieces contain relatable yet confronting examples of antisocial behaviour and retail crime, which company bosses have complained is particularly rampant in Victoria. Coles, Woolworths and IGA have all singled out the state as the worst in the country on that score. Our police blame cost-of-living struggles for the problem and say the issue remains underreported. Some of the criminality is organised, with gangs stripping the shelves of high-value items and on-selling them.

Organised crime is a problem well documented by The Age in recent years.

Victoria’s suburban high streets are beginning to resemble pianos, where the black keys of scorched tobacconists linger as indicators of proprietors who refused to deal with gangsters – or who dealt with the wrong gangster. Many of those that remain open do so thanks to the bars and bollards that line the front of their stores.

The Age, in particular senior reporter Chris Vedelago, has been reporting on this problem for years now. Long after Vedelago began writing about it, the tobacco war claimed the life of an innocent 27-year-old.

On major government projects, paid for by Victorians, the criminality and corruption revealed by The Age’s Nick McKenzie and the Australian Financial Review’s David Marin-Guzman are so entrenched that former IBAC commissioner Robert Redlich has joined the state opposition in calling for a royal commission.

For its part, the Victorian government has sought to respond to community concerns about crime in this state.

It acted on concerns about knife crime with the introduction of the machete ban and an amnesty on handing in the weapons, following a terrifying confrontation at Northland Shopping Centre. About 1400 machetes had been handed over as of last week, but criminologist Brianna Chesser said people intending to use them for nefarious purposes would be unlikely to give them up.

A tobacco licensing scheme to help clamp down on the sale of illicit tobacco in Victoria was promised by the government in March 2024. Enforcement and compliance activities are not scheduled to begin until February 2026. A cynic might ask how many tobacco stores will be left standing by then.

Operation Hawk, a Victoria Police taskforce set up to tackle corruption in the building industry, has charged just one person, saying people don’t feel safe enough to come forward. The Age has written volumes about wrongdoing in the industry as part of its ongoing Building Bad investigation.

Though these stories sometimes make for grim reading, I’m immensely proud of The Age’s role in shining a light on the issues, which are of particular consequence in Victoria. Other states have similar problems, but the extent to which they have been allowed to flourish is particularly acute in this state.

A senior Victorian politician unhappy with the tenor of our reporting on the state’s finances once told me The Age should “get on team Victoria”.

It was an interesting suggestion. After 170 years of public interest journalism and a portfolio of some of the most compelling investigative reporting ever produced in this country, I thought this publication had earned a spot in the final line-up.

Rest assured, The Age is happy to celebrate Victoria’s successes (see my previous notes on major events, food, etc), but it will not become a cheerleader for anyone.

Our role in this state is to uncover the truth, however uncomfortable, without fear or favour. They are the qualities I want on my team.

John Silvester lifts the lid on Australia’s criminal underworld. Subscribers can sign up to receive his Naked City newsletter every Thursday.