Some £175m was spent by convenience store retailers in the year on crime prevention; typically on CCTV, contract security staff and intruder alarms. Taken with the cost of crimes against the convenience sector, that’s equivalent to a five pence ‘crime tax’ on every transaction in stores, according to the 2021 Crime Report by the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS).
As the trade body says, throughout the pandemic, convenience stores have stayed open, providing essential goods and services to customers that rely on them. Stores have adapted their businesses so that they’re covid secure, such as adding Perspex screens to counters, and one-way signage around the aisles to avoid shoppers and staff coming into too close contact. But despite limits on customer numbers in many stores and an overall drop in the number of people visiting convenience stores over the last year, there have still been an estimated 1.1million incidents of shop theft recorded in the convenience sector. And asking people to keep to covid rules such as wearing a mask in store, and asking young people to take off a mask so as to aid retailers when checking identity before sales of alcohol and cigarette, has only added to trigger points for verbal and physical abuse, the survey suggests.
At the launch, Association of Convenience Stores chief executive James Lowman trailed a ‘Shop Kind’ advertising campaign that the ACS is due to roll out from mid-April for the Home Office, to urge shoppers to think of shop staff.
He said: “Over a million shop thefts and incidents of violence and abuse aren’t just big numbers, each one is a crime that has a personal impact on retailers and their colleagues. For so many people in local shops to have suffered this kind of abuse, just for doing their jobs, is shocking and must not be allowed to be normalised.
“Convenience stores have been on the front line serving their communities throughout the last year, but despite this they have been the constant target of criminals, often repeat offenders, who aren’t being dealt with properly by the justice system. This results in fewer retailers being willing to report crimes and less trust in the ability of the police to respond to incidents when they occur.
“We need action now to ensure that everyone, from neighbourhood police and the courts to Police and Crime Commissioners and central Government, takes crimes committed against retailers and their colleagues seriously. The upcoming PCC elections in May are an opportunity for every candidate to set out their priorities and commit to tackling this issue and supporting local shops.”
Among those quoted in the report are Craig Goldie, loss prevention manager for Central England Co-op (pictured). The ACS notes that its survey has come ahead of elections postponed due to the pandemic until May, for Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs). The ACS has called on all prospective PCCs to act in four areas to support local shops:
– Create police-led business engagement teams with dedicated resource to engage with the retail sector;
– Provide funding for ‘Second Chance’ Programmes to deal with repeat offenders suffering from addiction issues;
– Use Community Remedy Powers to ban repeat offenders from local shops; and
– Provide better support for victims of violence and abuse in local shops.
You can download the seven-page report from the ACS website: http://bit.ly/ACS2021CrimeReport.
More in the May 2021 print edition of Professional Security magazine.
