Alex's Weekly Blog - 10th October

I was shocked to read a report recently into the scale of shoplifting at Co-op stores. Despite the chain returning pre-tax profits of £58 million for the first half of the year,  they were hit with huge costs from theft and fraud amounting to almost £40 million, amid a shoplifting epidemic.

Forty million pounds worth of stock swiped from stores. I find this figure truly jawdropping. I witnessed it for myself recently, when I was in my local Co-op store and saw a bloke saunter casually in, help himself to several packs of beer, and casually leave without even a glance at the tills. Worse still, it was Carling Black Label.

Paul Gerrard, the public affairs director at the Co-op, puts a 44% rise in retail crime in the last year mostly down to gangs stealing to order. In many cases, whole shelves of certain items are cleared. "There have always been people who steal to make ends meet...and you could argue that happens more in a cost of living crisis", he said. "But that is not what is driving the 44% increase. What is driving it is people stealing to order, people coming into store with wheelie bins or a builder's bag to steal the entire confectionery section or spirits or meat section".

Worse still, colleagues in Co-op stores (and for that matter, other retailers hit with the same criminal behaviour) feel powerless to act. They face threats of violence, verbal and physical abuse, and there have been reports of syringes and medieval maces being used as weapons. Gerrard told the House of Lords justice and home affairs committee that some staff had been helped to move home, after being followed from a store and threatened.

The British Retail Consortium puts the number of thefts at around 16.7 million in the last year, which is roughly 45,000 every single day. Prices have risen at a rampant level in recent years, at a rate not seen in my lifetime, leaving many people having to make difficult choices when it comes to balancing household budgets. But I'm left really shocked by the scale of shoplifting happening in our shops, not to mention the toxic environment that workers are having to operate in. They kept us going through the pandemic, are often on minimum wage, and have to deal with gobby customers who can't manage the basics of good manners, all whilst maintaining a level of professionalism. I don't know how they do it.

The Centre for Social Justice has suggested that 70% of local organised criminals are stealing to fund drug addiction. Current laws desperately need reforming, as theft of goods under £200 is treated differently under existing legislation. The previous Government stated they wanted every single case of shoplifting to be properly investigated by police, but I guess the reality is that they just don't have the resources to do this at the moment.

Staff in many stores now have body-worn cameras, and the sight of shampoo and steaks with security tags on them is increasingly common. More definitely needs to be done, as those of us who actually pay for our shopping are having to make up the gaps in profit left by those who fleece stores of their stock.

Another interesting factor is the rise of middle class theft from self-service tills, as highlighted last year by M&S chairman Archie Norman. He commented on LBC Radio: "with the reduction of service you get in a lot of shops, people think: 'this didn't scan properly, or it's very difficult to scan these things through and I shop here all the time, it's not my fault, I'm owed it'...there's a little bit of that creeping in".

I'm increasingly eschewing self-service tills, as I always seem to generate several error messages that require human intervention, so the whole thing takes longer anyway. Not only that, but the staff these days press that 'visibly over 25' button with a bit too much certainty when I buy beer.

If the Government does sort out some new laws toughing up shoplifting sanctions, may I also suggest a ban on serving people who talk on their mobile phones at the checkout? Also, conversations right in the middle of aisles would accrue a small penalty, whilst polite customers would receive a 5% discount on their shopping. There's my retail manifesto. I'll leave the difficult stuff to the proper politicians, just as soon as they've checked that everything has been declared in accordance with the rules.