A surge in retail crime was reported by the police this week, with 11,400 incidents of shoplifting in the year to June. Retail employees have told Sheffield Wire that not enough is being done to protect them.
Sarah is an employee at a large supermarket chain operating in South Yorkshire. She told us that despite repeated incidents of shoplifting and violence, her shop was still operating without a security guard.
“On a nine-hour shift, we usually see between two and ten shoplifters. The worst come with concealed weapons and sweep hundreds of pounds worth of meat and wine, sometimes several times in one evening.
“What can we do without a security guard? We just have to let them walk out of the store.”
Daniel, an employee at a different supermarket, told us that shoplifters have threatened him and his colleagues with violence on several occasions:
“It’s especially bad when we don’t have any security in the store. There have been incidents where culprits have threatened my colleagues with hypodermic needles.”
Sarah doesn’t feel that the solution is a simple one.
“The issue is bigger than the shoplifters themselves. Unless the root causes are properly addressed – austerity, poverty, and a decade of public service cuts – then I think we’ll continue to have empty shelves.”
Last month, police launched Operation Pegasus, a campaign to clamp down on retail crime. As part of the campaign, major retailers, including the Co-Op, Boots, Primark, and John Lewis, have agreed to share information on crime in their stores to aid police operations.
However, South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner Alan Billings admitted in a blog post on Tuesday that more work than this was needed to tackle the problem:
“The missing link in all of this is how we stop members of the public becoming unwitting participants in these crimes by buying stolen goods. The gangs need a market and that market is us whenever we buy something in a pub or club without being curious as to where it came from or without caring about the retail staff who were intimidated and distressed along the way.”
