Retail crime is finally falling, but the battle is far from won

Spitting, punching, stealing: for too long, this type of abuse and violence have been accepted as the price retail workers must pay for simply doing their job. But that assumption is finally being challenged as, according to this week’s British Retail Consortium (BRC) Crime Report, incidents of violence and abuse against retail workers have fallen by one fifth, marking the first year-on-year decline in the past five years.

But perspective matters. Even with that 20% decline, there are still 1,600 incidents each day. It’s the second-highest figure on record, almost four times higher than the 455 per day recorded before the pandemic.

Over the past year alone, around 590,000 incidents have affected retail staff. There is, clearly, still a long way to go.

Still, though, this is the first meaningful sign that the recent surge may be easing. That improvement is further reflected in the latest figures from Co-op, which show overall retail crime across its stores is down 21% year on year. More specifically, anti social behaviour and abuse fell 36%, physical assaults dropped by almost a third (31%), and kiosk breaches are down 30%.

So is this the glimmer of hope retailers have been waiting for?

Strategic investment

Crucially, none of this happened by accident. Since the pandemic, retailers had been consistently warning that violence and abuse was spiralling, with low-level theft effectively decriminalised. Now, the response feels serious and more strategic.

Retailers have spent more than £5bn over the past five years on security technology, staff training, and crime reporting tools – and while they’d rather have spent that money elsewhere, the investment is paying off. Police engagement is improving too. More retailers are now rating the response as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’, according to the BRC, supported by a boost in neighbourhood patrols and 2023’s Retail Crime Action Plan, which prioritises police attendance at violent incidents.

Project Pegasus – which saw supermarkets and retailers funding a team of intelligence analysts within the police –has further strengthened collaboration between retailers and law enforcement, making it easier to share intelligence and create a national picture of organised crime groups operating across the UK. This has led to weightier charges and longer sentences.

A fragile situation

These are all promising signs, but the situation is still fragile. The BRC report shows physical assaults remain stubbornly high at 43,000 each year, with around one-fifth of those using weapons. Nearly 1,500 acts of non-physical abuse, such as threats and harassment, are also reported each day, causing an unimaginable impact on staff wellbeing.

Theft also remains a significant burden on the sector. There were 5.5 million verified incidents of customer theft last year, at a cost of £408m, with delivery theft costing a further £107m. And those figures reflect only known incidents, making the true scale much higher. Organised criminals openly threaten retailers as they target high-value items destined to be resold, such as alcohol, cosmetics, baby formula and medicines.

Legislative change may help rebalance that dynamic. The Crime and Policing Bill, set to pass later this year, will introduce a standalone offence for assaulting retail workers, which will strengthen sentencing and allow the police to better allocate resources. It will also remove the £200 threshold for so-called “low-level” theft, which will send a clear signal that no act of theft, however small, will be ignored.

This will be welcome, but legislation alone will not solve the issue. Lasting change will depend on consistent enforcement, dedicated policing, and ongoing retailer investment.

But the sector should feel cautiously optimistic. For the first time in years, the BRC data suggests the tide in retail crime may be turning. But this does not equal victory, and retailers, police and government can’t afford to take their foot off the pedal just yet. If shopworkers are to truly work in a fear-free environment, effort and investment must continue until their safety is fully secured.