Britain is in the grip of a retail crime frenzy

In the Marks & Spencer foodhall near where I live, it’s become a common sight: the duty manager chasing a shoplifter down the street.

They never seem to catch them. But they feel bound to pursue, their pride wounded that someone could simply enter their store and snatch and scarper.

Same in Sweaty Betty. We were in there recently when there was a kerfuffle. We were at the back, paying, and a woman entered, grabbed whatever she could lay her hands on, stuffed the items into a big bag and ran off. She was reckoned to have got away with £300 worth.

It happens all the time, said the assistant. They target this branch because the door is wide and usually open, and there is no security person keeping guard (head office will not pay for one). The thief will be putting the stuff up for sale on the internet by the end of the day.

The M&S and Sweaty Betty are not in deprived areas. Far from it. Regardless of where a shopping street is located, Britain is in the grip of a retail crime frenzy.

Co-op has put some numbers on what is taking place. The convenience chain said it had experienced almost 1,000 incidents every single day in the first six months of 2023, a shocking 35 per cent increase from last year.

Worse, an FOI request revealed that 71 per cent of serious retail crime was not responded to by the police. Data from some forces showed they were not pursing an incredible nine out of 10 serious incidents.

Criminals have “freedom to loot”, said Co-op, with “rampant levels of out-of-control crime predominantly committed by repeat and prolific offenders, with drug or alcohol addictions and local organised criminal gangs among the main drivers”. One inner London outlet was “looted” three times in a single day.

The group also revealed its front-line store workers have seen physical assaults increase year-on-year by 30 per cent and anti-social behaviour and verbal abuse by 20 per cent.

Matt Hood, Co-op Food managing director, said: “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 overemphasise how important urgent change is. Co-op has invested significantly in keeping colleagues and stores safe, but 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.”

Working in a shop used to be a relatively safe way of making a living. Not today. Zarah, a Co-op store manager in east London said: “It is most frightening when the criminals clamber over the kiosks, they just tip the products into their bags. Sometimes colleagues are in there with them, it is terrifying. I have spent 20 years at Co-op, and it is worse now than ever before. It’s like you are stuck. Shoplifting has always been there, but this is different, they just sweep the products off the shelves. There is nothing you can do. They have even smashed our outer doors to get in. We call the police and have been told to call ‘101’.”

Zarah continued: “We have even had people dropped off, in blacked-out cars, to steal, then picked back up again. It is organised. We need to make sure no one gets hurt; something needs to change.”

Another Co-op store manager, Yasmin, in northwest London, said: “The gangs come with bags and sacks to steal. One colleague collapsed recently, due to the fear. I can’t help thinking what if the worst had happened, what if they hadn’t gone home to their family that night.”

Yasmin added: “Who knows what weapons they are carrying, what happens if they follow us when we leave the shop at night. The criminals know the police can’t come; they say they haven’t enough officers.”

Co-op spends heavily on combating crime, investing more than £200m in recent years – four times the average sector expenditure per store on security and safety measures – on CCTV, body cams, communication headsets for front-line assistants, undercover and uniformed guards, SmartWater, GPS tracked security cases and “dummy” packaging on shelves.

It’s also successfully campaigned for stricter sentencing for violence against retail workers through its Safer Colleagues, Safer Communities campaign.

Well done to Co-op for making a stand. But this is only one retailer. On its own it can’t make a difference. Others are trying to crack down, with mixed success. Still others cannot afford to, and must live with rampant crime and the physical risk and cost.

The fact is it should not be down to business. That’s why Co-op is also right to be calling for reform, for all forces to target repeat and prolific offenders, to reverse the existing situation that allows gangs to operate freely. 

If the police will not, or cannot act, then government must ensure they have the resources they require. Ministers can no longer ignore what is occurring daily on our high streets.