Abuse on the retail frontline

CO-OP STARTS CAMPAIGN TO HIGHLIGHT THE NEED FOR

VERBAL abuse of staff at Co-op supermarkets has almost tripled during the coronavirus pandemic.

Central England Co-op bosses have revealed their workers have been subjected to 312 crimes which were directly related to the Covid-19 restrictions.

Staff have been threatened with knives, wrenches and other weapons and one worker was attacked and robbed in the car park at work.

New research has shown that, in the past year incidents of verbal abuse jumped by 167 per cent, antisocial behaviour by 39 per cent, assaults by 35 per cent and threats by 16 per cent compared with 2019.

The retailer also revealed that 312 crimes related directly to Covid-19 have been recorded in its Midlands stores since the start of the pandemic.

Two of the worst instances reported in Leicestershire were both late last year.

In one, at the Central England

Co-op food store in Anson Road, Shepshed, a teenager assaulted a Co-op worker and made threats with a wrench after he was told he could not buy an energy drink if he did not show ID to prove he was at least 16 years old.

Another attacker knocked a shop worker unconscious and stole his mobile phone in an unprovoked attack on the male shop assistant in the car park of the Co-op in Main Street, Markfield.

The attacker rolled his unconscious victim, who was lying face down, over on to his front so he could steal the phone from his pocket.

The Co-op is asking youngsters to create “Be Kind” posters to help ongoing efforts to stop violent and aggressive incidents towards staff.

It comes as part of ongoing efforts to encourage people to treat shop workers with respect.

Parents will be able to pick up a poster pack when they next visit a store that children will then be able to bring to life and either display in their front window in support of staff or give back to their local store to help create a display.

Jamie Joyce, a Co-op store manager, said: “Our Be Kind campaign is extremely important and highlights the need for all of us to work together to ensure colleagues are treated with kindness and respect as they work around the clock to provide food and essentials for our communities.

“We thought that by designing a special poster pack it would help us spread the message further as well as giving youngsters something fun and free to do during lockdown.”

In other efforts to help combat the problem, the retailer rolled out a range of different measures including security assistance buttons and using tracking devices in more products to deter would-be thieves.

It has also been working with other major retailers, unions, industry bodies, police and crime commissioners and more than 200 MPs to push the government to crack down further on those who abuse or attack shopworkers via the introduction of tougher penalties, such as an automatic prison term.

Craig Goldie, loss prevention manager at the Co-op, said: “Our teams have gone above and beyond over the last past 12 months to ensure our communities have access to vital food and essentials, only to be greeted with shocking incidents like those we have seen recently.

“We want to send a clear message to anyone who might be thinking of committing a crime at one of our stores - this behaviour will not be tolerated and targeting our stores is not worth the risk.

“We need everyone to be kind and treat our colleagues with care, compassion and respect as they work around the clock for our communities.

“We want people to think long and hard about the person wearing our uniform – they will be someone’s much loved family member.”

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