Italians shoplift,French forget quality

Spanish police detect a shift in car thefts,from luxury brands to the sensible,midrange models now in demand on the black market.

These are the signs of a slow-motion crisis in continental Western Europe. The street-level repercussions of the economic meltdown have been less brutal than in the US or Eastern Europe,because of the strong government-backed social welfare network in France and its prosperous neighbours. But experts warn that the safety net is starting to fray as the global crisis persists,unemployment rises and benefits run out.

France lost 90,000 jobs in January alone,a real dramatic jump,and we havent felt the impact of that yet because those people will get benefits for a while, said Olivier Berthe,who directs Restos de Coeur,a charity that runs soup kitchens for the needy nationwide. The charity has served 12 more people this year than during the same period last year. In a recent French poll,half of the respondents said they could imagine themselves ending up on the street.

In Italy,quiet despair has led to a wave of pilfering by unlikely culprits who do not fit the profile of professional shoplifters,said Giuseppe Politi,director of the Italian Farmers Association. Shoplifting increased 7 this year compared with the first months of 2008,he said.