one further distinction exists in that there are people poor and desperate enough to commit crimes in the hopes of bieng jailed and there by housed and fed, though as they are such meager crimes,are then released, so the 1£ reward they might try and claim would be a significant incentive. it might be easy to dismiss my conjecture, but it is the sort of thing people in compromised situations think up, as they struggle to survive in a world where the logic is very different and in many ways diametricaly opposite.....nothing to loose + something to gain= <

I'm not sure I understand your point. The savings from comparison shopping will surely be greater than 1 GBP per shopping trip. And practicing that is a skill which you get better at and expend less effort doing over time -- reporting a shoplifter, not so much.

If it doesn't net me more than a dollar savings, no.

Much like I don't drive an extra 10 minutes to a gas station that costs two cents less per gallon.

Where I am it's kind of in between the two I think. People are not normally shoplifting nutritional staples, which are fairly cheap as far as it goes. It is more like "treats," often for their children, things like name brand cereal, pop tarts, cake mix. And then things that are excluded from SNAP like rotisserie chicken, alcohol, pet food, vitamins, dish & laundry detergent. And of course baby formula when possible. But that has been locked up for decades now.

There is no expensive merchandise in Iceland.