Violence and abuse of retail employees climbed to greater than 2,000 incidents per day in 2023/24, up from 1,300 the 12 months earlier than. The newest determine is greater than 3 times what it was in 2020, when there have been 455 incidents a day.
Reported incidents included racial or sexual abuse, bodily assault or threats with weapons. There have been 70 incidents that concerned a weapon per day – greater than double the earlier 12 months.
The BRC examine – which covers the interval from 1 September 2023 to 31 August 2024 – additionally discovered that losses from buyer theft reached a document £2.2bn in the course of the interval, regardless of retailers spending £1.8bn on prevention.
Helen Dickinson, chief government of the BRC, mentioned: “Retail crime is spiralling uncontrolled. Folks in retail have been spat on, racially abused, and threatened with machetes.
“Daily this continues, criminals are getting bolder and extra aggressive. We owe it to the three million hardworking individuals working in retail to deliver the epidemic of crime to heel. Nobody ought to go to work in concern.”
The survey “represents the only largest and most dependable barometer of the state of retail crime”, mentioned the BRC. It’s based mostly on a pattern from retailers representing greater than 1.1 million staff and £194bn market turnover, that are used to estimate figures for all the trade.
Paddy Lillis, basic secretary of Usdaw (Union of Store, Distributive and Allied Employees), mentioned: “The dimensions of the epidemic of retail crime is laid naked on this surprising BRC report. Crime has a really direct affect on the viability of shops, as retailers go to rising lengths and expense to make them safe and secure. Communities are blighted by anti-social behaviour and retailer closures.”
