UK retailers are warning that crime in their stores is “spiralling out of control” with 55,000 thefts a day and violent and abusive incidents rising by 50% last year to 2,000 a day.
What is it like to be on the frontline? We speak to a supermarket worker, a security guard and an independent shopkeeper.
Denise Bartrum, supermarket worker in Kent
Shoplifters have become a bit more brazen about what they do and it is not just specific things. Quite a few don’t hide it as they know staff are not allowed to stop them and some stores don’t have security staff. They come in and just cut security tags off.
Some have a list and steal to order. Christmas is the worst for that with things like Lego and Barbie.
When I first started in stores shoplifting was just homeless people coming in for a sandwich or deodorant. Now there is no average shoplifter. It could be anybody. We have well-dressed women and men going through self-service or scan-to-shop and they might have not scanned half of it.
Over the years staff have been cut quite a bit so there is more opportunity for people to take stuff. Some stores have quite a lot of self-service tills and not a lot of staff to cover it. Some stores are told they have to give up a member of shopfloor staff if they want a security guard.
We usually have a security guard but they can’t catch everybody. People are aware they can get away with it. Even if they do get caught the consequences are not sufficient to deter them.
Pretty much every day we get shoplifters in. We are lucky and our staff are quite vigilant and do have staff on the aisles that might get hit but they wait for an opportunity. They can steal anything. A store near us started putting mince in security boxes we used to use for DVDs.
George Bass, security guard on university campus, with shops and cafe open to public
We get all sorts of characters coming through, from dealers to local kids. I’m on the frontline.
There has been a lot more stealing to order since the cost of living crisis. I heard a local drug user reading out a shopping list from her phone.
They will steal anything on display – food or headphones from the bookshop. They do steaming – where they overwhelm you. A group will rush towards you and you might be able to chase one or two but the rest have bolted.
Youngsters are more brazen. They are not frightened of cameras, even bodycams. The idea of being photographed and that being sent to the police doesn’t bother them. People know the police are not likely to come.
I can remember when we had a local copper who knew you. They would tell your mum and dad. That knowledge is so powerful but most kids now only see the police when there is trouble.
I’ve had knives held up at me and people threatened my family but a lot of it is hot air. I am not too worried about being attacked. I can easily de-escalate things and talk. The single best deterrent against shop lifting is noise and people looking.
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Amit Puntambekar runs family convenience store in Fenstanton, Cambridgeshire
Last week I got hit by a woman outside the shop. We caught some individuals stealing £77 of vapes on our CCTV. I came down the next morning to report it and I saw the three of them walking up the street. Instinct took over and I said something like “you owe us money” and she punched me in the eye. It was right outside the shop and my mum was there. I was a bit worried she might start attacking my mum.
Last year a lady came in and threatened my staff with a hammer and the police really trivialised it. I thought about selling the business.
We’ve been losing £250 a week of stuff to theft in the first few weeks of January – a lot of steak, chocolate bars, laundry products. It is products that are easy to sell. Sometimes other people are requesting things to steal.
I lost 24 Mars bars in January – they are £1.25 each now and it sounds stupid but as retail margins are so tight, I would have to sell almost £600 of stuff to make that money back.
It has got much worse in the past three years. My parents came to this village in the late 1980s and never had any violent incidents. The first ever was during Covid when an adult hit a child in the shop after an argument over wearing masks.
Because everybody was wearing masks, a lot of criminals realised what they could get away with and it was a trigger for higher theft. The law also [effectively] decriminalised stealing [low-value items] from retailers under the last government.
Criminals have done a cost-benefit analysis. Stealing [from shops] since Covid has become home to habitual criminals. People who were doing burglaries and other illegal stuff who have realised the law is soft on retail crime. Police know who these people are.
