NEWS
John Lewis: ‘organised gangs’ driving increase in shoplifting
T
he John Lewis Partnership (JLP) has said “greed not need” is behind the record levels of shoplifting that British high streets are seeing; the JLP has also rolled out a host of new measures to clamp down on the surge in crime.
It has been upgrading its CCTV system and installing more public display monitors, alongside other measures. Director of Central Operations and Security at JLP, Lucy Brown, told the Financial Times: “Shoplifting and retail crime have been a growing problem across the industry… we wanted to see what was the cumulative effect of doing more than one thing. “There’s a depressing narrative around cost of living and that shoplifting is because of that. I’m not seeing that. I describe it as absolutely greed, not need. There are lots of people, that are shoplifting for as many hours in the week as I work, which is a lot. It’s basically their occupation. “You get organised gangs… They will strip the shelves… They’re doing that for resale.
generally stealing to feed their own addiction or they are stealing to swap something to feed that addiction.”
Violence and abuse against retail staff has seen an increase to around 1,300 incidents
a day in the 12 months to the end of August 2023 – up from almost 870 a day during the same period a year earlier – according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC). Last year the retailer said that it had suffered a £12 million year-on-year increase in stock “shrinkage”, most of which was because of shoplifting.
Rainy Day Trust reminds industry ‘we are here to help’
R
ainy Day Trust CEO, Bryan Clover, has warned that while General Election, it’s easy to forget that a lot of people
still have struggles to contend with – from mental health
“I have said it before, but it is worth reiterating that if you
have cancer you don’t think twice about seeking help from hesitate to get in touch with the Rainy Day Trust,” said Mr problems than be called in at the last minute when things have got too big to solve.
needed.”
He is asking businesses to encourage staff to talk to the for printing off and displaying in public areas around the premises.
either managers and HR teams, or the whole staff team in
8 | June/July 2024
housewareslive.net
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