Are "dishonest" customers ruining honesty boxes for everyone?

Friday 09 June 2023

A "dishonest minority" are ruining honesty boxes for everyone, according to their owners – after one farm had to close its stall after one islander stole £70 of produce in a week.

Graham Barette, owner of Ferndale Farm in St. Peter, said that he was forced to close his farm shop and honesty box after too many issues with theft and short-changing.

His shop – which he describes as a shop with an honesty box, and where he sells Jersey Royals alongside other produce like pak choi – is located on farm property, near Jersey Airport.

Though theft used to happen "every now and then", Mr Barette said he had noticed an increase in theft from his shop in recent months.

He said he had watched this customer on CCTV fill a carrier bag without paying, then coming back and stealing another carrier bag's worth of produce later that week.

Though Mr Barette called the police, he said he was not able to provide the "100% evidence" required for further investigation – so he and his partner visited the culprit themselves to retrieve the money.

It wasn't just the money lost to theft that made him make this decision, but also the time spent watching back CCTV to identify culprits.

The money lost to theft was "in the hundreds", according to Mr Barette, but what made him want to close the shop was having to watch back CCTV footage to identify culprits.

He said: "It's not pleasant to see who's taken from you and the time involved if you look at the cameras. It's time-consuming to look at the cameras, we've got to really study them and find out. We get quite a few customers in the day.

"I enjoy growing, I didn't enjoy that."

He said: "It was a hard decision to close the shop, but it's too much work."

Mr Barette added that it was unpleasant to watch surveillance tape of honest community members buying produce from his shop. He explained: "Most of our customers are great, and that's why it was a hard decision."

Ferndale Farm will still be supplying Homefields with produce three times a week.

Jamie Ribeiro, who recently founded Bloom N Goodness together with his partner Anna Houiellbecq, said that they had not had many issues with theft.

He said that this might be because they were not putting out much produce at any one time, preferring to restock several times a day. They have also started providing the sustainable farming cooperative SCOOP with produce, and are hoping to open their own shop next month.

Joe Freire, a grower and owner of the honesty box at Joe Freire Genuine Jersey Produce, said he had regular issues with a minority of customers.

He said: "The common thing for dishonest people is that they put their hands in their pockets, put a coin in the box and then they help themselves and take far more than they paid for.

"They feel entitled to help themselves."

Mr Freire also has cameras installed, though he said he doesn't act on the footage, except for the most extreme cases.

He said he was particularly disappointed because he sells products like flowers, strawberries and asparagus, which aren't essential survival products.

Pictured: Joe Freire says his honest customers are what keeps him going. (Jon Guegan)

He added: "I actually feel very obligated that I have enough honest customers to keep me going, so I'm still doing it for those.

"Sometimes, people write a note saying "I was short, I owe you a pound".

"That's what keeps me going, really. There are some honest people there, and then there are other people that look, see nobody's around, they help themselves and don't pay."