High streets across the UK are struggling with an epidemic of stealing. What’s behind this sudden crime wave and can anything be done to stop it?

A man leaves a north London branch of Aldi carrying two bags of groceries that he did not pay for. He hadn’t planned to steal, but after becoming exasperated with the slowness of staff attending to the various glitches and alarms of the self-checkout system, and assuming it would go unnoticed, decides to just walk out the door.

He crosses the road and heads towards home. It’s a busy part of town and this kind of thing happens all the time. He doubts anyone in the store even noticed. But a voice calls after him, a security guard has given chase. The man, slightly panicked, doubles down and quickens his pace, pretending not to hear, but the guard keeps shouting, pleading for him to stop. In an attempt to lose his pursuer, the man ducks into a newsagent. The security guard enters, finds the man pretending to browse the fountain pens, and challenges him. “Sir, you didn’t pay for that shopping.”

The number of retailers offering special prices for members has soared. We asks if the price cuts are as good as they seem

Whether you are buying clothes, garden furniture or groceries this summer, it is hard to avoid getting caught up in the loyalty card fever sweeping the high street.

Do you want to pay the “member price” of £15.99 for some on-trend denim Bermuda shorts (or “jorts”) at H&M, or stump up £21.99?

From milk frothers to fizz stoppers, bicycle pumps to melon ballers, gizmos that make life that little bit easier – as chosen by readers

A window vac to beat condensation
Every morning I console myself about the lack of double glazing as my window-cleaning vacuum sucks up the condensation. It’s a gift that keeps on giving!
Jim Clay, Lewes

Pastry blender … your hummus
Comprising a curved set of four blunt blades with a straight handle, a pastry blender is great for quickly rubbing fat into flour for making crumble and pastry. But it’s also good for mashing tinned chickpeas to make hummus, or for any similar task. It’s cheap, takes up little space in a drawer and is easy to wash.
Rebecca Maddox, Shropshire

There's a reason why an estimated 180 million people in the US are Amazon Prime members—and it's not Prime Video's user interface, that's for sure. Even if you're not the biggest fan of the company's founder, business practices, or workplace culture, it's incredibly hard to resist the convenience of (usually) fast and free shipping.

It became even more difficult in 2022, when members could also get a one-year subscription to Grubhub+ at no additional cost, entitling them to even more opportunities for free delivery—albeit for a limited time. But that's no longer the case: Thanks to a recent upgrade, that perk is now permanent for Prime members.

But before you get free delivery on your pizza order, you'll need to activate the benefit. Here's what to know.

How to activate the Grubhub+ benefit on Amazon Prime

The free Grubhub+ membership isn't automatically applied to Amazon Prime members' accounts: You have to activate it in order to take advantage of the benefit. To do this, go to www.amazon.com/grubhub while signed into your Prime account, and click the yellow box that says "Activate now."

Alternatively, if you've recently received an email from Amazon (more specifically, store-news@amazon.com) with the subject line "New update to your Prime membership" you can activate Grubhub+ by clicking the yellow "Activate now" box.

Either way, once you've activated the benefit, you should receive an email from Amazon confirming your new permanent Grubhub+ subscription. If you already pay for Grubhub+, that plan will be canceled as soon as you activate your free subscription through Amazon Prime. Of course, if you cancel your Amazon Prime membership, your free Grubhub+ subscription will go away too.

If you no longer want the free Grubhub+ subscription, you can cancel it by going to the “Manage apps & services with data access” within the “Your Account” page on Amazon and unlinking your Grubhub and Amazon accounts, or by contacting Grubhub customer support.

What are the benefits of permanent Grubhub+ membership?

Removing the one-year limit to Amazon Prime members' free Grubhub+ subscription is important for a few reasons. First, there's the fiscal benefit: Now, as long as you keep paying the $139/year Amazon Prime membership fee, you'll get a $120/year Grubhub+ subscription for free indefinitely, instead of only once.

This upgrade also makes the free Grubhub+ benefit more appealing to Prime members who may be hesitant to sign up for trials or subscriptions because they want to avoid the worry and hassle of losing benefits, or being auto-subscribed to a paid service when the trial ends.

Plus, now you have the option of placing your orders through Amazon, in addition to the Grubhub site or app.

And, of course, there's all the usual stuff you get with a Grubhub+ subscription, including:

• Free delivery on eligible order of $12 or more (before tax, tip, and fees)

• Lower service fees

• 5% Grubhub+ credit back on pickup orders (which you can use on future orders for the next 90 days)

• Other exclusive offers and deals

Once you activate your free Grubhub+ subscription, you can get $5 off one $25+ order from now through June 3, 2024 at 2:59 am EST (June 2, 2024 at 11:59pm PST), or while supplies last, by entering code PRIME5 at checkout.

Enlarge (credit: 400tmax | iStock Unreleased)

Yesterday, Amazon failed to convince a US district court to dismiss the Federal Trade Commission's lawsuit targeting the tech giant's alleged history of tricking people into signing up for Prime.

The FTC has alleged that Amazon "tricked, coerced, and manipulated consumers into subscribing to Amazon Prime," a court order said, failing to get informed consent by designing a murky sign-up process. And to keep subscriptions high, Amazon also "did not provide simple mechanisms for these subscribers to cancel their Prime memberships," the FTC alleged. Instead, Amazon forced "consumers intending to cancel to navigate a four-page, six-click, fifteen-option cancellation process."

In their motion to dismiss, Amazon outright disputed these characterizations of its business, insisting its enrollment process was clear, its cancellation process was simple, and none of its executives could be held responsible for failing to fix these processes when "accidental" sign-ups became widespread. Amazon defended its current practices, arguing that some of its Prime disclosures "align with practices that the FTC encourages in its guidance documents."

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Shoppers at Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Lidl and Aldi have all swung to Labour from Conservative since 2019

The election may not yet be in the bag for Labour, but research suggests it is in the shopping basket.

The party’s voters now make up the majority of customers at all leading supermarkets apart from Waitrose, according to the latest polling from retail research firm GlobalData.

Our survey shows that buying ingredients separately for the meal kits offered by the leading suppliers can save up to 74%,

Consumers who subscribe to “recipe box” delivery services can save up to 74% of the cost of the meals by buying the ingredients separately in the supermarket, research by the Observer has found.

Analysis of the contents and prices of some of the most popular meal kits shows that buying the individual ingredients is far cheaper – even if you have to get whole bottles of sauce or packets of rice.

Why do we treat it like a national treasure when it’s just another multinational business that wants our cash?

Last week sometimes felt like standing in the midst of a triumphant hosiery and condiment-themed ticker-tape parade. I’m referring to the deluge of reports about the success of Marks & Spencer. M&S has topped the FTSE 100 leaderboard. It’s reported to be in its strongest financial health since 1997. The food is considered a treat during the cost-of-living crisis. The Zoe Gut Shot sparked a waiting list. Sienna Miller has fronted clothing campaigns, looking winsome in cable-knit. Young women are turbo-boosting the profits by buying M&S lingerie.

No wonder chief executive Stuart Machin talks of “wind in our sails”. What a way to celebrate being 140 years old. You could almost forgive the disquieting “bum-boosting pants” range introduced earlier this year (effectively a padded bra for the posterior: what fresh hell is this?). Even in relatively recent times, there were concerns about M&S, but all indications show that it’s out of the doldrums.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk

Learn the right way to haggle, take a load of small change … and get in early

Car boot sales are a great place for bargain hunters hoping to save money on everything from clothes to antiques. Larger, well-established sales tend to attract a wider variety of sellers and items, increasing your chances of finding a deal.

10 Tips for Safe Online Shopping

1. Safe passwords 

2. Debit cards over credit cards 

3. Enable multi-factor authentication 

4. Check bank statements 

5. Wi-Fi: Make sure it’s at home or secure instead of publicly available 

6. Use secure websites 

7. Be wary of emails 

8. Don’t buy from links that seem malicious/ don’t come from a trusted source 

9. Data backup 

10. Protect your device/connect securely 

FAQs on Safe Online Shopping 

What is the most trusted safe online shopping site? 

Which online shopping practice is safest? 

What is a safe online shopping site?  

What are fake shopping websites?  

Which websites can I trust?  

How to check a fake website?  

April’s wet weather leads to steeper fall than forecast, with clothing and toy stores among most affected

• Business live – latest updates

A month of unrelenting rain in many parts of the country resulted in British shoppers spending much less than expected in April, with fewer treating themselves to clothes and big-ticket items.

The Office for National Statistics blamed the wet weather for the 2.3% decrease in the amount of goods bought, compared with March, which was much steeper than the 0.4% decline forecast by analysts.

UK-based used-car website once valued at £6bn is now looking for a buyer for its remaining assets

The online car dealer Cazoo, which was once valued at $8bn (£6.3bn), has collapsed into administration, putting 200 jobs at risk.

Administrators at Teneo have been appointed to the business, which was founded by Alex Chesterman, the serial entrepreneur who also launched property site Zoopla and Netflix forerunner LoveFilm.

You may have seen the term "spaving" pop up on social media lately as a supposed money-saving hack. But despite its (sort of) catchy name, spaving is just a rebranded version of an old bad habit: overspending to save money. And as always: TikTok is never going to bring you the financial freedom you seek.

What is spaving?

Spaving refers to the practice of spending more money upfront in order to supposedly save more in the long run. For example, buying in bulk, choosing premium products instead of cheaper options, or splurging on an annual membership to get a discount.

While some of these tactics can make sense in moderation, spaving takes it to an extreme. Paying $100 for an annual streaming subscription to save $8 per month is smart. But spending $500 extra on a premium appliance you can't really afford in hopes of lower energy bills is spaving.

The spaving trap

The core problem with spaving is that you're still overspending and likely spending more than you're really saving. It's easy to rationalize spaving as a way to be frugal, when in reality it's just mentally tricking yourself into buying more than you truly need or can comfortably afford.

Smarter spending strategies

Whether you deliberately ignore certain bad spending habits or you’ve fallen prey to a larger trend of lifestyle creep, most of us have a general goal of "spend less, save more." Rather than falling for spending gimmicks like spaving, focus on sticking to a realistic budget and scaling back recurring costs. Look for ways to economize that don't require shelling out extra cash.

One place to start with your specific spending goals is to physically write down the things you want to buy before you buy them. Use those bank statements to inform what items make your official “to-buy list.” When you read over items on this list, you’ll be able to make a more thoughtful decision as to what you really need.

The bottom line

Spaving puts the emphasis on spending over saving. Don't get lured in by the faulty logic that you need to spend more to save more. True financial discipline comes from living within your means, curbing impulsive spending, and finding smart ways to cut costs—not rationalizing going over-budget.

Have a bidding strategy and a targeted approach … and train the algorithms

Be specific in searches. “If you enter ‘green dress’ into the search box on eBay, it will bring back thousands of results, so use the filter,” says Becky Barnes, a sustainable stylist from Bristol, who has been buying exclusively pre-owned clothes since 2017. “You can usually select brand, fabric, length, size – the filtering is more sophisticated than on Vinted.” There are brand new items for sale, too – if you only want pre-owned clothes, select “used”.

Chinese crooks are running a global network of more than 75,000 fake online shops to steal credit card data and process fraudulent payments.

The post Massive Online Shopping Scam Racks Up 850,000 Victims appeared first on Security Boulevard.