White paper: 79% of shop workers face verbal abuse – here’s what to do about it

Even more concerning, 12% report experiencing verbal abuse and threatening behaviour every day, as revealed in Retail Week’s latest white paper, The Great Store Reset: Raising standards across people and productivity, produced in association with SafetyCulture.   

Laying bare the scale of the problem, new research from SafetyCulture and Obsurvant, based on a survey of 1,003 UK retail workers, shows that 56% have witnessed ‘kamikaze shoplifting’ whereby theft takes place in plain sight. Alarmingly, 13% see this daily, and 37% say it happens weekly. 

These findings align with the British Retail Consortium’s annual crime survey, which showed reported incidents had risen to 20.4 million in 2023/24, costing businesses £4.2m. 

The statistics highlight the urgent need for action – and the white paper offers practical solutions to help retailers create safer, more supportive working environments. 

What’s the solution?

New government legislation has made assaulting a retail worker an imprisonable offence and shoplifting will be elevated from a summary to a serious offence.

Retailers are also rising to the challenge and taking proactive steps to protect their teams.   

For The Works, that has meant investing in wearable security devices. Chief executive Gavin Peck told Retail Week: “We are seeing, as everyone is, an increase in product shrinkage. So, first and foremost, we’re trying to protect colleagues and do what we can to ensure their safety. We’ve been implementing sort-of wearable security devices, trialling body-worn cameras and where we can, putting extra security measures in place.” 

In March, Asda began trialling live facial recognition at five stores to assess how the tech can help it battle spiking retail crime. It is integrated into CCTV and compares images against “a known list of individuals who have previously committed criminal activity on an Asda site”. If a match is found, a member of Asda head office security will conduct a check and inform the store in real-time.  

Currys unveiled its largest-ever investment in store safety earlier this year, including upgraded specification public display monitors in high-risk stores, as well as innovative trials to product security such as laptop clamps, investment in intelligence collection and analysis, and increased spending on guarding and surveillance. Colleague headsets were also trialled across all stores, before a full rollout in May. 

Technology can play a vital role in keeping store staff safe. This is one of the themes explored within The Great Store Reset.