“Should you Steal From Tesco?”

(In Defence of Petty Thieves)

Jan 27, 2025

The depressing image of the ‘bread-thief’ is supposed to be frozen in the darkness or cold of pre-Victorian England, complete with workhouses whose air was thick with the scent of coal, and on the outside, was host to rats scurrying past beggars in the street over cobbled stones. The petty thief, who required only basic necessities was the most common kind of criminal at a time like this, and yet could find himself unlucky enough to be made an example of should he get caught, amongst thousands of others who had also grown increasingly restless as they grew progressively hungrier. In response to increasing ‘criminal’ activity and acts of defiance by ‘grass thieves’ against landed gentry in the 18^th century, The Black Act was passed in 1723, as a way to combat the growing resistance by the poor against wealthy landowners and the government as an act that would call for the deaths of citizens for minor offenses like poaching, in addition to wood or food theft.

But of course the act did not solve the problem of rural crime, but led to widespread resentment and led to further social unrest. The death penalty for relatively minor offences whilst seen by us now as overly harsh, is far more reminiscent of reality than we choose to imagine. Of course, people aren’t being put to death for stealing from local supermarkets, but criminalising the desperation born out of poverty remains a longstanding practice in this country, as the UK continues to exhibit an intrinsically classist culture.

A few days ago I saw a video by a political commentator, (Ayo) on Tiktok that kindof teased the parts of my brain used to solving moral dilemmas in the former context of a philosophy seminar. The video, entitled ‘Should you Steal From Tesco?’ seemed like a kindof hypothetical question at first, but was far more literal than imagined.

Posters around North London made by the company read:

`‘It’s okay to shoplift if you’re broke’`

, disarming our expectations of a multi-billionaire corporation at such a time as now. But as Tesco sought to appeal to the general dissatisfaction growing amongst the general public, they simultaneously began to militarise the average shopping experience by investing in security tech, body cameras for employees, and android-like security measures. You could walk into any large Tesco and see butter in cages, as if our money was supposed to bail them out or something. The company has seen British news headlines a number of times regarding controversies related to their doubled profits in 2022 from 1.1bn to 2.2bn, in addition to legal action being taken against them due to an unwillingness to pay their production employees in countries like Thailand and India.

Image from a 2022 Business & Human Rights Resource Centre article entitled “Girl, 7, raped at Thai factory supplying clothes for Tesco while mother worked”.

A Thai clothing factory, VK Garment (VKG), which produced F&F jeans for Tesco between 2017 and 2020, is facing criminal charges over the mistreatment of workers, including fraud, forced overtime, and withholding workers' immigration documents. Initially, a rushed investigation by Thai police concluded no laws were broken, but after further interviews with 52 workers, charges were filed. Workers, primarily Burmese migrants, reported being forced to work 99-hour weeks for illegally low pay in poor conditions. Tesco, which has since distanced itself from the factory, faces a UK lawsuit from 130 former workers for negligence and unjust enrichment. The workers allege further abuses, including forced labor and wage theft. Despite claims from VKG's management that they provided safe conditions, Thai authorities are continuing their investigation, with the workers seeking justice for unpaid wages and mistreatment.

-The Guardian 2023.

In his video, Ayo points out that Tesco specifically is an entity that frequently targets the lower income population via their marketing strategies. ‘Helping you spend less every day’ read one campaign, where the newer signs around North London encouraging people to steal is an extreme in the same line of manipulation.

Tesco CEO earns an annual salary of around 10m, compared with the median average salary for all workers in the UK being under 30k, and in Thailand, home to Tesco’s exploitative production, sees an average of THB 259,203, per person equal to just £6.1k annually in the UK.

Where statistics like these exist, and in a way that is not isolated, but more so microcosmic in nature, the question, ‘Should you steal from Tesco’ is more of a question about our rights to wealth distribution than it is an ethical dilemma for the poor individual. But then, the average person would have to truly consider the ways in which wealth distribution was possible, instead of falling victim to ideas of an idefinite hopelessness under our current system, which is nearly impossible unless you’re told exactly how.

Since we know we can’t campaign our way into the hearts of corporations whose success depends on exploitation, boycotting has become particularly popular, given the effectiveness it has on gaining the attention of corporations, who typically only pay attention to avenues where they’re gaining or losing money.

‘Should you steal from Tesco?’

Yes, and in more ways than one.

Luckily, cleverer people have found ways for us to take money away from corporations like this, ‘stealing’ from them in a way that doesn’t require you to face any kind of legal punishment fit for ‘bread-thieves’.

(Personally, I’m partial to the latter, as advertised by the brand itself).

But where exploitation takes place, our refusal to fund these causes can feel a lot like ‘stealing’ for the indomitable ‘man’, and so we’re hurting them all the same when we choose any one of the following tactics:

Supporting local ethical businesses is one of the most popular tactics people often promote, where choosing to spend money at independent or locally-owned businesses rather than larger corporations helps to circulate wealth within local communities.

In a similar vein, practicing conscious consumerism is a habit that should be reprioritised for us all. But where we recognise that most large companies are all committed to exploitation of somekind, conscious consumerism can look and sound more like ‘how can I stop over-consuming?’ as opposed to asking ourselves ‘where can I safely overconsume from?’ Unlearning overconsumption is akin to overcoming a kind of compulsion. Pay attention to the ways you casually overconsume, that don’t necessarily constitute major shein hauls and for the men reading this, who are rarely the target for lectures on overconsumption, consider whether you need each and every fitness supplement or grooming product somehow inextricably tied to your self-concept.

Even if I’ve mentioned boycotting once already today, it’s worth emphasising that boycotting tech companies specifically will become increasingly important as we enter a Technocracy. Suspicious as the term sounds, we should have known that in the West we’ve long surpassed Oligarchical standards of living, because of how easily Biden admitted to it more recently, but perhaps a topic for another week.

The Technocracy, USA 1930s (Via ‘Lee Roy Brown’ on Pinterest)

But in the business of replacing the convenience that comes with local supermarkets and larger corporations in other industries, perhaps the most important effort is to support local community garden initiatives, similar to one based in London that I’ll link below. In this way, we begin to own the means of production in admittedly very small ways, but in ways that are antagonistic to exploitative production, nonetheless.

We know that the money stays where it always has done particularly in this country where class mobility has become almost mythic whilst a regency remains. As such, the families that have since been here have been forced to take the role of ‘thief’ in the dynamic between himself and those supposedly ‘above’ him. But by living in the UK, a country which founded it’s own methods of violent imperialism, appropriation, slavery and exploitation, we belong to a culture of thieves regardless of our individual choices.

Image property of CNN, Plaques that form part of the Benin Bronzes are displayed at The British Museum on November

So again, this begs the question, ‘Should You Steal From Tesco?’, or more appropriately,

‘Why Shouldn’t You?’

Asisa