Small shops suffer as UK’s shoplifting problem grows, Nisa warns
Nisa has urged the government not to forget “the plight of independent retailers” as it attempts to clampdown on the surge in shoplifting.
The increasing incidence of organised criminality in independent shops is endangering workers in Nisa-partnered stores and affecting owners’ bottom lines, Managing Director Peter Batt and Head of Retail Victoria Lockie warned in an open letter.
“Our teams hear on a weekly basis from retailers dealing with the ongoing challenge of shoplifting, and the impact that is having both financially and on their own wellbeing,” the letter said.
Nisa retailer Ben Selvaratnam said that shoplifting at his Croydon store happens “anywhere between three [and] 10 times every day”, and that he now needs to pay someone just to monitor CCTV footage.
Last month, the British Retail Consortium declared that the industry was losing £1bn a year from theft and ONS data showed shoplifting has risen by a quarter in the past year.
In response to this, Lidl announced on Wednesday it had spent £2m on bodycam equipment for its shopworkers and security personnel, becoming the first supermarket in England to provide its staff with the kit as standard.
And in October, the likes of John Lewis, the Co-op, and Primark collectively pledged more than £840,000 to help kickstart a government initiative to reduce retail crime numbers.
The initiative, called Pegasus, hopes to improve how retailers share intelligence with police, after a Freedom of Information request by the Co-op found that the police did not respond to 71 per cent of serious retail crimes reported.
By Ali Lyon