Understaffed shops must take stock... otherwise shoplifters will
RETHINK ON SELF-SCAN TILLS IS NEEDED TO STEM
WE’VE all done it and a couple of weeks ago it was my turn.
I was distracted by my phone. The member of staff at the self service till was run off her feet. The shop was busy.
Before I knew it I was back at the car and staring at my trolley and the unpaid-for goods still in there (toilet roll, bleach and a four pack of chocolate Twirls if you’re interested).
Reader, I was mortified. And also a thief. Back I went, ‘fessed up to a startled woman on customer services and left, having paid for my shopping. But it set me thinking about how I had managed to waltz out of the shop so easily.
A few days later I read that shoplifting offences recorded by police in England and Wales have risen to the highest level in 20 years.
More than 430,000 were recorded last year – up by more than a third on the previous 12 months, according to the Office for National Statistics. And organisations representing retailers reckon the figures represent a fraction of the true number. Shoplifting is a complicated crime. In times of economic hardship it will always rise as people do anything to put food in their own or their kids’ stomachs.
But what is happening today feels as if it’s on another scale. Crime gangs and repeat offenders seem to operate at will.
More worrying still, another survey by the British Retail Consortium found shoplifting went hand in hand with increased violence towards shop staff.
Nicking from stores is not a victimless crime. The profits of small shops suffer while big businesses pass on the costs to consumers. And no-one should face the threat of violence just for doing their job.
So what can be done? More bobbies on the beat may help – although the numbers needed to patrol every shopping centre verge on the ridiculous. Technology might play a part – tills where you have to scan your receipt before you leave for instance. Or – and this is radical – shops could employ more staff. Once upon a time there were banks of tills in our supermarkets. Now they – and the people who operated them – are being replaced by self-checkouts. That means customers regulate their own behaviour, including whether to pay. And yes some retailers have responded by employing security guards, but how effective are they? Shops need to employ fewer robotic voices wittering about unexpected items in bagging areas and more human beings.
A SURGE IN THEFTS