Five minutes at a suburban supermarket is all you need to be convinced that cost-of-living pressures are fuelling petty crime and antisocial behaviour. So spare a thought for reporter Cassandra Morgan, who this week had the unenviable task of spending a full four hours at a supermarket in Prahran that Coles had nominated as one of its stores most plagued by crime and social issues.

During her visit, Morgan saw a desperate woman demanding that a child in the checkout queue pay for her snack. The frightened girl did what she was told. She saw a bleeding man, who said he had come straight from the hospital, swearing at a security guard and leaving the store with pockets full of stolen food. One patron with a shaved head and tattooed scalp opened a black forest cake, put a happy birthday ca

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