Yea-Sayers:

"The Smiths return to the reverb-of-doom guitars of the mighty 'How Soon Is Now' for the murky 'Shoplifters of the World Unite,' while the flip's 'Half A Person' sounds like it's mocking Morrissey's miserabilism and is quite pretty as well."
- Creem

"'Shoplifters...' is the last oasis on The Smiths' journey, a great record (maybe their last?), a big hit, and, almost inevitably, site for further aggravation... One publicity-starved Tory MP decides that the record - an attack on plagiarism - actually encourages real-life supermarket-looting, and calls, in the House of Commons, for its withdrawal."
- Danny Kelly, NME, August 8, 1987

Nay-Sayers:

"This record might be the stuff of tragi-comedy, but the funereal tune with cumbersome guitars and world-weary singing kills any irony that may be hidden in the lyrics."
- Michele Kirsch, New Musical Express, January 31, 1987

Smiths-Speak:

"I've played 'Shoplifters of the World Unite' on this tour too. It's one of my all time favorite songs, a great song that means so much to me."
- Morrissey, RTE Guide, January 19, 1996

"Very, very witty single and a great moment for the Smiths in England. I think it was probably the best days of our career. It was just a very funny time and a time of very sparky rebellion, and this song, more than any, I think, exemplifies that. I like it."
- Morrissey interviewed by Richard Blade, KROQ, July, 1997

"Me and Morrissey would just disappear. Some of my favourite songs came about that way, like 'Half A Person'. We just locked ourselves away and did it. In the time it takes to play it, I wrote it. Morrissey was great in that respect. He knew when I was going to play something good."
- Johnny Marr, Record Collector, November/December 1992

"You can hear Nils Lofgren's influence on me in the solo on Shoplifters Of The World Unite. That's all done with false harmonics, which is a steel player's technique: you touch the strings with a right-hand finger an octave higher than where you're fretting, and then pluck the string with your thumb."
- Johnny Marr, The Guitar Magazine, January 1997

"I like the [guitar break] in 'Shoplifters' -- that was the first time I used harmonizing layering. People have said it sounds like Brian May, but I was thinking of stacked Roy Buchanans."
- Johnny Marr, Guitar Player, January 1990