Retailers in UK demand immediate action to stop wave of shoplifting

Retailers ranging from Tesco Plc to Burberry Group Plc have called for immediate action from the UK government to tackle the rise in shoplifting that has emerged during the country’s cost of living crisis.

Nearly 90 retail industry chiefs have signed a letter to Home Affairs Minister Suella Braverman asking the government to introduce a standalone offense of assaulting a store worker, along with tougher penalties. The retailers, which also include department stores Fortnum & Mason and Harvey Nichols, are demanding that police give higher priority to retail crime.

The British Retail Consortium said the cost of retail crime totaled £1.76 billion ($2.15 billion) in the year to April, as organized gangs find an opportunity to sell stolen goods and shoppers become more desperate as due to the burden of inflation. Security labels have become commonplace on everyday items like baby food and hamburgers.

Tesco recently started offering body cameras to its staff for better protection and Aldi is currently testing out the idea.

“We are seeing organized gangs threatening staff with weapons and emptying shops,” said Helen Dickinson, CEO of the BRC. “We see violence against colleagues doing their work and asking for age verification. We are seeing a flood of abuse directed at hardworking store staff.” According to the BRC, violence against store workers has almost doubled since before the pandemic to 867 incidents per day last year. Shoplifting has risen by around 27 per cent in ten major cities in Britain this year.

Assaulting or assaulting a shop worker is already a criminal offense in Scotland and retailers are calling for this to be extended to other parts of Britain. It would also make theft a priority for police to crack down on, after 44 percent of retailers said the police response was ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’.

For one retailer, the police’s own data shows they failed to respond to 73 percent of reported serious retail crime, the BRC said. Upscale grocer Waitrose and department store John Lewis are offering free hot drinks to police officers on duty in a bid to deter thieves.

In a sign of how widespread the problem has become, hundreds of teenagers gathered at sneaker and ‘athleisure’ retailer JD Sports Fashion Plc in August to take part in a robbery in Oxford Circus, London’s main shopping district. The event was organized via Snapchat and Tiktok and resulted in arrests as the crowd was dispersed by police. Shoppers were temporarily locked up in stores for protection.