The hidden cost of shoplifting: shop workers facing soaring rates of abuse, threats and violence for simply doing their job.
The UK is currently experiencing unprecedented rates of shoplifting, with the police recording 365,164 shoplifting offences last year – a 25% increase from the previous 12 months. With capacity a challenge for police departments up and down the country, the impact on front-line shop workers has never been worse, as they frequently experience abuse and violence from shoplifters, when simply trying to do their job.
Over the past few months, the news has been awash with reports of previously unseen levels of shoplifting on highstreets across the UK. Most notably, the Co-op reported a 42% increase in retail crime in the six months up to June 2023 - with 1,000 serious incidents every day.
This huge rise in shoplifting is linked to the downgrading of shoplifting as a crime by the UK Government, with the cost to the industry estimated to be around £1 billion for this year alone. Compounded by the cost-of-living crisis, many organised crime groups have also started taking advantage of the limited police response, putting shop workers across the country at even greater personal risk. And, with Christmas soon approaching and the financial pressures on individuals and families ever greater, it is unlikely this trend will improve.
Co-op store workers' lives threatened by suspected shoplifters - BBC News
The hidden cost of this shoplifting epidemic is real too. Some might try to rationalise away this issue, saying the big retail brands and supermarkets can afford the loss and those struggling to make ends meet have a higher need. However, the cost of the misappropriated goods and the additional security required to protect goods and staff results in a 6p loss per transaction according to the Co-op, in turn driving prices up. Bear in mind, also, the small business owners who are experiencing the same levels of loss, and for whom the impact can potentially be devastating. This argument also ignores the significant stress and emotional harm experienced by the everyday shop staff, who are working hard to make their own ‘ends meet’.
During a recent installation of our facial recognition technology, I was chatting to a worker on the shop floor of a small retail chain. I was blown away by the magnitude of the abuse that she and her colleagues experience on a daily basis. She calmly recounted instances where she had faced verbal abuse, as well as death threats, when trying to keep known troublemakers and shoplifters from entering the shop. What was most shocking was the nonchalant way she spoke. This kind of abuse has become the norm for our dedicated shop workers, and it absolutely should not be.
At The Face Recognition Company, our technology is first and foremost designed to protect. We help retailers protect against stock loss, but most importantly, we help them keep their staff and customers safe by immediately alerting them to the presence of those known trouble-makers, shoplifters and those with vicious intent.
Our solution is proven to accurately identify known individuals, even at difficult angles, in challenging lighting, or with partially covered faces. Even more impressive to those individuals who have explored technology from other providers is that we deliver better recognition sensitivity, very rarely generating false matches and without racial bias impacting results. Performance at this level is highly beneficial from a GDPR perspective. Our standards are incredibly high and we work hard to ensure that no innocent person is incorrectly ‘matched’ with someone on a client’s prohibited persons database. This would be damaging not only to the reputation of our product, and to that of the client, but most importantly, to the individual who has wrongly been accused.
We strongly believe that the return on investment (ROI) for keeping staff safe cannot be measured in financial terms. However, in commercial measures, the ROI is reached very quickly indeed. Even smaller retailers achieve a return on their investment in the technology in a few weeks - larger retail sites can witness a return within days.
At a time when shop workers are facing continued threats – all for doing their jobs - protecting the nation’s retail workforce has never been more vital. It is our hope that our technology will help keep shop workers across the UK safe so that they too can enjoy the festive season.
Please get in touch if you want to explore how we can help you protect your premises, staff and customers.