Thefts in Swiss supermarkets have become more frequent: Ukrainian refugees are blamed

“Shops in large cities in Switzerland are indeed faced with such a problem,” says Natalya. — Starting in 2022, when the country began to accept refugees from Ukraine, the theft curve has crept up. When we first moved to Zurich, I was quite surprised by the absence of magnetic beeper gates at the entrance and exit in stores.

90% of stores in Switzerland, as our interlocutor says, have self-service checkouts. Everything here is built on trust.

— There are no turnstiles anywhere, neither on buses, nor on trolleybuses, nor on trams, nor on trains. During the entire time we lived in Switzerland, I saw controllers only 4 times. And that was on long-distance trains. Everything is set up simply, there is an application, you get on the bus, press a button, get off and press the button again. In the morning you are given a bill for travel, depending on how many stops you have passed. Very comfortably. And all passengers are believed.

In large Swiss supermarkets, such as “Coop” (translated from English as “Chicken Coop”), there is a Scan&Go self-scanning system for goods.

— The same system has now been launched in one of the Russian hypermarkets. You scan your personal client card with a barcode. And the system gives you your own personal scanner. You scan products and goods right on the sales floor. The system is very convenient because you can “pick” goods and immediately put them in a bag or backpack. Then you go to the checkout, scan the QR code, everything you bought appears on the screen, and you pay for your purchases with a card. You don’t have to drag out all your items onto the belt and then put them back into bags.

Natalya notes that since the store does not have magnetic frames, it is theoretically possible to remove unpaid goods from the store.

– This happened to me once. Without any malicious intent, purely out of absent-mindedness, I forgot to punch the buns. Fresh baked goods are sold separately at the checkout. It comes in packaging and is also sold individually.

The system can give you a random, random check.

– A salesperson may come up to you and say: “Please open your bag.” Next, she scans the barcode on your scanner, and all the products you selected will be downloaded. And she will check if they have all been paid. At the same time, she will apologize several times for disturbing you. These are just safety measures.

Now, as Natalia says, the Swiss are literally groaning. The sellers simply tortured everyone with checks.

— This is despite the fact that in Switzerland you may not see inspectors at all for years. Owners of retail chains suffer colossal losses; their debits and credits do not match, because customers steal.

You can, for example, as our interlocutor says, take expensive meat that costs one hundred francs (about 10 thousand rubles), first “beep” the packaging under the cameras, and then remove it from the same scanner. You never know, a person may change his mind about buying a product. For this purpose there is a “delete” button. But at the same time, you don’t have to put the meat back on the shelf in the refrigerator.

— Stores are at a loss. The Swiss looked at the statistics. And it finally dawned on them that the number of thefts increased many times with the arrival of Ukrainian refugees in the country.

The Swiss themselves, as Natalya says, would rather overpay somewhere than underpay.

“When a Swiss sees a cap lying on the street, he will pick it up and take it to the Lost and Found bureau, where lost things are stored. When my son forgot his bag with his gym uniform on the tram, I found it in the Lost and Found. The bag was found by the correct Swiss and given to Lost and Found.

Natalya remembers how she and her son went to the mountains and climbed into the very wilderness.

— We went to the high-mountain village by bus. Everyone who boarded the bus, young and old, threw a coin to the driver and paid the fare. And he didn’t check anyone.

Our interlocutor says that those who were able to come and settle in Switzerland and have lived in the country for a long time will not steal.

“They had such a utopia in their country.” Very low crime rate. People went swimming in the lake and left expensive phones on the lawn. And then Ukrainian refugees were released into the country… My Swiss friends are very unhappy with what is happening now. They have such a culture and mentality, such a high degree of consciousness that they would never even dream of stealing something. And since you don’t steal or cheat, then why check you? Our people are used to everything, they have been tempered throughout their lives, but the Swiss are infuriated by these checks. They are shocked that inspectors have appeared, that stores have strengthened security, and inspections have become more frequent.

According to official statistics, more than 80 thousand Ukrainians received refugee status in Switzerland. Now the authorities are ready to pay each of them up to four thousand Swiss francs for their voluntary return to their homeland. But Ukrainians, as long as they retain S status (which gives them the right to work, insurance, schooling for their children, and the ability to move freely around the country), are in no hurry to leave Switzerland.