I see this same line of thinking in other comments. People shoplifting expensive items on a regular basis are usually trying to pay for illegal and frankly dangerous drugs, past or near future use. If it's past, it's entirely possible they are also prostituted and trapped in an endless debt cycle. If they get caught their "body guard" (pimp) may or not post bail, but either way, some sort of additional monetary charge will be added. I'm really not sure what the answer to this capitalist hell is beyond:

If it's a small amount of food occasionally, you saw nothing. Beyond that, whether or not intervention will break the cycle and have a positive effect for the individual is a craps shoot on too many unknown variables to predict.

So a apparently decades long black market for food doesn't alarm you... Doesn't tell you anything about society. More expensive items. I'm sure things that don't need to be refrigerated are a bigger problem.

But my point is the problem is in the system(s) that allows for things to get so bad people are stealing and buying stolen goods to get by. Even more so when there's more than enough to go around. No one was going to go hungry in the UK because food is being stolen. People are going hungry because of society has become pay to win.