Some may say shoplifting is a victimless crime, but Canberra's small business owners disagree.
They argue every dollar lost hurts, and the act feels like a violation of their property.
Nationally, it's estimated the growing problem of shoplifting costs the country's retailers about $9 billion every year.
While there's no exact figures available as to the cost of the problem in Canberra, data from ACT Policing shows the crime is on the rise.
The 2023 figure of more than 1,600 reports is the highest the number has been in five years.
At the family-run IGA in Ngunnawal, this has not come as a shock to owner Peter Neou.
Mr Neou said it was painful to see people coming into the shop and brazenly stealing everything from alcohol, to energy drinks and clothes.
"It's hard to trust anyone that walks through the shop," he said.
"How would you like it if I went into your house and started stealing things?"
With years of experience running a shop, he can often tell when people are hiding stock in their bag, pockets or pram and will confront them about what they have got.
Usually, they will put the goods they are attempting to steal down.
Oftentimes, Mr Neou thinks it can be simply opportunistic — a woman stealing a bottle of $80 champagne around New Year's Eve or a teenager stealing a lip balm for his girlfriend.
On other occasions, it's a more complicated story — a woman stealing dummies or a customer taking a beanie in the colder months.
Mr Neou does have cameras which he monitors as much as possible, but he acknowledges it's not cost-effective to have him watching them all day.
Likewise, hiring a full-time security guard would cost too.
Putting up prices to cover the losses is also problematic in the current environment.
"[Do you] put your prices up by 10 per cent?" he asked.
"Then it will look like you're too expensive as well. So yeah, I don't know. It's a fine line.
"What do you do?"
Struggling families stealing 'because they have to'
At Capital Chemist in Charnwood, owner and pharmacist Samantha Kourtis has also been dealing with an increase in shoplifting.
In her case, she said she thought it was due to the cost of living, rather than people being opportunistic.
The most common item walking off the shelves at the moment is children's Panadol.
"What's distressing is now I'm seeing people steal because they have to, because they need medicines, and they can't afford to pay for them," she said.
"I want them to come and talk to their community pharmacist about the situation they're in, rather than have to resort to stealing stock off the shelf so that their kids are OK."
Like Mr Neou, Ms Kourtis doesn't think it is worth calling the police over every incident of shoplifting.
"In my 10 years as an owner, we have only ever once or twice called the police," she said.
"We just have to watch it walk out the door."
Along with CCTV, Ms Kourtis said attentive customer service and keeping stock organised could help make shoplifting more obvious when it was happening.
"We have made it very clear to our staff to avoid conflict, we don't run after them. We don't accuse them," she said.
"What our staff are trained to do, is to keep an eye on our community and report anything to a senior member of staff."
Police response not even a 'slap on the wrist'
A third business owner, who spoke to the ABC on the condition of anonymity, said they were dealing with the rise in shoplifting by calling the police every time it happened.
This shop manager said they were regularly catching shoplifters in the act every day or second day and were sick of it.
But they said they were dissatisfied with the "lack of punishment" which they likened to less than a "slap on the wrist" and wanted stronger — or at least more rapid — action, whether that was an on-the-spot fine or something similar.
They said they had experienced many incidents where police had not charged a known offender due to them not having a fixed address.
In a statement, a spokesperson for ACT policing said it would depend on resourcing and whether the alleged offenders were on the premises when the report was made as to whether they would attend the scene.
The spokesperson said shoplifting was a "relatively straightforward matter to prosecute" given the fact most retail stores had quality CCTV footage but police discretion was used when deciding whether to proceed to charge.
"This is especially important if it is clear the offender's personal situation is such that they need support to feed themselves and their family. In these situations police will ensure the person is referred to support bodies that can assist them."
Not a victimless crime: Business Chamber
Canberra Business Chamber CEO Greg Harford reiterated the message that every incident of shoplifting should be reported to the police.
"The best advice we can offer anyone really is to go through your shop, make sure that you've got your shop laid out in the right way," he said.
"Make sure that you've got cameras in place, make sure that your teams are trained and how to deal with it, and most importantly, to report everything to the police."
Mr Harford said attentive customer service and asking politely if you could assist someone you suspected of shoplifting was ultimately better than confronting suspected offenders.
He said shoplifting was not a victimless crime when it came to small businesses, in particular.
"It's a significant issue and a massive cost on retailers and the community."
Larger supermarkets have bumped up security in response to the rise in shoplifting.
A spokesperson for Coles said the company employed a large team of plain-clothes loss-prevention officers who worked alongside police in a collaborative approach to reduce theft.
It said the supermarket giant also had measures like CCTV, electronic article surveillance and in some stores, new smart gate technology that automatically opens as customers make payment for their products.
"Additionally, trolley lock technology has been in place at a number of our stores in recent years and this technology uses sensors to prevent trolleys leaving the store if someone hasn't first paid at a register," the spokesperson said.
A spokesperson for Woolworths agreed it had a number of initiatives "covert and overt" to help reduce retail crime.
It said the level of theft across stores nationwide currently mirrored pre-pandemic levels.
But without the budget for similar measures, smaller operators said they were unsure where to turn next.