Inside horrifying shoplifting trend leaving supermarket staff terrified to work as bosses urge police to step in
27 July 2023, 17:33 | Updated: 27 July 2023, 17:37
A huge rise in the number of shoplifting cases in supermarkets across the UK is leaving staff terrified to work, industry bosses have warned.
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Major supermarket and retail chains, including John Lewis and Asda, have been targeted by criminal gangs, with a 26 per cent rise in shoplifting in the last year, according to the British Retail Consortium.
In Co-op stores, shoplifting has reached record levels, with an average of nearly 1,000 incidents each day in the first half of this year - an increase of 35%.
One shop in inner London was looted three times in a single day.
Physical assaults on front-line store workers have risen 30% year-on-year, with anti-social behaviour and verbal abuse rising by a fifth (20%).
Shockingly, police often failed to respond to reports of shoplifting - 71% of serious retail crime callouts were not responded to, the company said.
Supermarket worker: "People come to sweep the whole shelf..."
A shop worker told LBC's Nick Ferrari at Breakfast that she and her colleagues "don't know what to expect" when they go to work every morning.
"Stealing is going on every day. Shoplifting has always been in retail, it’s not new for us. But lately, it’s the robbery that’s happening," she said.
"People don’t just come in to steal some food or a bottle of wine, they come in to sweep the whole shelf."
“They come with knives…we have been threatened. My colleague has been threatened.
"It’s very difficult working there now because we go to work and we don’t know what’s next."
She added that police only come several hours after attacks are carried out, meaning very little is done.
As well as the Co-op, the John Lewis Partnership (JLP), which owns Waitrose, has also expressed concern over the "rising numbers of shoplifting offences...by organised gangs" in their stores.
Lucy Brown, director of security for JLP, said: "We're seeing a real increase - some are one-off offenders but the majority are shoplifting on a regular basis, switching across all retailers.
"They will use major transport infrastructure to hit every retailer in a particular town or city or high street.
"We're also seeing a rise in organised crime with groups targeting stores - they want to take high volumes and high value in one hit."
Police Commissioner for Sussex 'frustrated' by the PCSO who refused to attend a shoplifting incident
A rise in the number of shoplifting offences has led to an environment where criminals feel they have "freedom to loot", bosses warned, as they urged the police to do more to help them.
Matt Hood, Co-op Food managing director, said: "We know retail crime is driven by repeat and prolific offenders and, organised criminal gangs. It is an ongoing challenge for all retailers, and in the worst instances can even be described as ‘looting’.
"I have seen some horrific incidents of brazen and violent theft in our stores, where my store colleagues feel scared and threatened. I see first-hand how this criminal behaviour also erodes the very fabric of our communities - it’s hard to over-emphasise how important urgent change is."
Mr Hood added: "We need the police to play their part. Too often, forces fail to respond to desperate calls by our store teams, and criminals are operating in communities without any fear of consequences."
The Home Office said while theft is down on pre-pandemic levels, they are increasing funding for retail stores to help them tackle crime.
"Theft is down 20 per cent compared to pre pandemic levels," a spokesperson said.
"However, we recognise the impact that theft can have on retailers which is why we are supporting police by providing funding for crime prevention means.
"The Government's anti-social behaviour action plan, which is backed by £160million of funding will make our communities safer by ensuring perpetrators face swift and visible justice, tougher punishments and introduce early interventions to reduce this behaviour."
Tory Peer's warning on danger of ignoring crimes like shoplifting
Phillip Davies, Conservative MP for Shipley and the Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Customer Service, said that the police's "patchy" response record was "simply not good enough".
"Our frontline workers deserve far better," he added. "It is no good having stricter laws in place to punish offenders if the police are not properly investigating these crimes and ensure perpetrators are punished.
"Those police forces with the worst record need to find out what those with the best record what they are doing and ensure they bring themselves up to the same standard."
James Lowman, chairman of the Association of Convenience Stores, added: "Our members are at the sharp end, seeing crime in their communities get steadily worse.
"Shop theft is rising because repeat offenders and organised criminals are targeting local shops to steal goods to resell."
