A very serious issue they face is retail crime. Organised gangs are entering the stores, taking expensive items off the shelves and walking out. When challenged, the criminals are often abusive and threatening to staff and issue racist and misogynistic threats. The police advise they won’t come out for the theft of goods under £200.
They just do not have the staff. Much of this crime is going unreported. Yet, the figures we have are truly alarming.
Last year there were 1,300 reported incidences a day. Nationally, in the 12 months to September 2023, there were 402,482.
Retailers have been forced to employ different methods to frustrate the thieves-not having so much stock out, employing security guards, tagging the stock, using body cams. All this adds to costs of course, which is passed on to the consumer. Add the cost-of-living crisis and inflation, and we have a perfect storm.
Retailers are losing an estimated 3.3 billion a year, through prevention costs and the loss of commodities.
The front-line staff are experiencing worsening conditions at work with abuse, threatening behaviours and assault becoming common. Retail work is often the first work experience young people have. This is not a good introduction to the world of work and to adult life.
This behaviour should not be tolerated. We want retail workers to feel safe in the workplace. We need the police to have data that allows them to understand the scale of the issue, and to allocate sufficient resources to deal with it. We must ensure all retail workers have the same protection under the law as they do in Scotland, where a similar offence was introduced in 2021.
What needs to be done?
We need a Labour Government to bring in a law that makes the abuse of retail staff a specific crime.
We need a Labour Police Fire and Crime Commissioner to bring back neighbourhood policing.
We need fairer funding from government, so we can have more PCSOs and more PCs working in our communities, to help stop crime happening.