Have you noticed an increase in shoplifting in and around your store? I sincerely hope not! After all, our trade means nothing if people aren’t paying for the products that we stock. Regardless, even if your business hasn’t been plagued by customers liberating drinks and snacks from the cruel oppression of shelving units, the nation has seen a dramatic uptick in cases…
The surge across the United Kingdom, presents significant challenges for retailers, supermarket chains, and you, the small convenience store owner. According to the British Retail Consortium (BRC), UK retailers now experience around 55,000 thefts daily, with the annual cost of shoplifting surpassing £2.2 billion. These figures represent an alarming increase.
I’ve even seen this myself; having witnessed multiple instances of shoplifting happening before my eyes throughout the last few months. The statistics show that you most likely have, too. If that’s the case, I can imagine how dispiriting that can be. For yourselves and your staff; not to mention those customers who play by the rules and pay what they owe. It would be easy to fall into the slough of despond. With the economy, at least at the ground level, the individual level, not improving to a significant extent; it might be hard to see a way out of the shoplifting epidemic…but I think that the independent convenience store is the most likely to weather the storm of retail crime’ and is uniquely advantaged in tackling it.
Before outlining how I think that it’s worth dissecting the causes of the condition –
What the heck is going on, exactly?
The causes of the dramatic increase in shoplifting cases are complex, nuanced and varied. Some might be seen as valid, or legitimate depending on your point of view. Others, appear infinitely more opportunistic. As ever, the truth lies somewhere in between. While we can assess the validity of a shoplifter’s motives, we must also acknowledge that shoplifting, in practical terms has become easier…
The UK’s ongoing cost-of-living crisis has created financial hardships for many households, leading some individuals to resort to theft out of necessity. Essentials such as food, baby formula, toiletries, and hygiene products have become common targets, highlighting a worrying trend where shoplifting is driven by desperation rather than pure criminal intent. Reports indicate that theft of basic goods has increased dramatically, with retailers noting that items such as butter, cheese, and even baby formula are among the most frequently stolen products. The dramatic rise in the basic costs of necessities since the pandemic has had a dramatic impact on the individual consumer. In this regard, the increase in pilfering of bare necessities is unsurprising.
But how has it become easier, exactly? Not morally or philosophically, but practically?
The three A’s – Automation, Apathy and Awareness
Let me break it down. – I promise, that this is not a hit piece. I’m not accusing any one individual retailer or business of these three A’s, but rather acknowledging a general, more macroscopic set of trends.
Automation
I’ll get this one out of the way first, is it mostly impacts larger stores and chains as opposed to smaller convenience stores. Self-service checkouts, while designed to enhance convenience and efficiency, have inadvertently contributed to an increase in theft. Many retailers have transitioned toward automation, reducing direct supervision at checkout points. Some customers exploit these self-checkout systems by either failing to scan items, inputting cheaper product codes, or engaging in “banana trick” scams where expensive items are weighed as cheaper ones. As I’ll touch on later, the absence of the human element is the deciding factor here. We’ve created and implemented a system whereby customers using self-checkout or automated systems feel as though they are simply ‘grabbing and going’. It’s easy to see how a commensurate culture might form where customers feel a lack of human oversight over the
purchasing process.
Apathy
Ok, I know that this is a loaded word… let me explain. I spoke earlier about the proverbial ‘slough of despond’. Nothing, of course, to do with the Slough just outside London. What I mean is, that as we increasingly feel that shoplifting is a problem that cannot be solved, we might stop trying, let it slide, or otherwise stop taking steps to alleviate the problem. You might not be guilty of this, but I’ve seen with my own eyes stores watching shoplifting happen, only to respond with a sigh and a chorus of: ‘There’s nothing we can do…’.
Awareness
I don’t mean this in the purely literal sense. If shoplifting is going on in your store, you more than likely know about it. By awareness, I’m referring to our awareness of our role in the process…
Is your store layout making it easier to shoplift, with blind spots and popular, grabbable items near the escape route? Do your CCTV cameras have sufficient coverage of your store and/or problem areas? We can, unknowingly, help to facilitate shoplifting by not tackling the problem at an in-store, granular level,
So what do we do…?
Mitigation
In truth, there is no magic cure-all to the issue of pervasive pilfering. Would that there were; but the issue is too macroscopic, too societal in its root causes for that ever to be possible. The best that we can hope for is to mitigate it as much as humanly possible. Based on what I’ve outlined above, are there specific mitigation tactics that I would advocate? Certainly…
The Human Touch – While less, ‘efficient’, the issues outlined above regarding automation are a strong argument in favour of maintaining the ‘human element’ in a retail transaction. Ensure that your store forces customers to engage with a person, face-to-face, eye-to-eye to ensure that potential shoplifters feel observed. Can we trigger a moment of guilt, uncertainty or even just empathy to mitigate the desire to grab and run?
On the issue of apathy, that is just one suggestion for how to handle shoplifting. You are empowered to act! I’m not suggesting that your workers tackle shoplifters to the ground like a professional fly-half – rather, as a retail team, you can acknowledge that collective, proactive steps can be taken to reduce shoplifting in your store.
Perhaps one of those measures would be to slightly re-arrange your displays, to move vulnerable products (the aforementioned essentials) into positions where it is harder for shoplifters to easily snatch them without recourse. If you’re wondering based on the title of this article where my positivity for the future stems from; I’ll end with this… I think that we as small convenience retailers have an advantage in the fight against retail crime!
We can work closely with our local communities in a way that bigger stores can’t! You can be adaptable e.g., rearranging your store with more flexibility than a big-brand outlet. Most importantly, you are close-knit teams of family, friends and neighbours. You can pitch in together, far more than a faceless corporation or supermarket can, and take the necessary steps to tackle the problem.
Most importantly, convenience retail is a nationwide community, both here on C–Talk and off. You can talk to each other, share ideas and work in the spirit of camaraderie with retailers across the length and breadth of the country. Together, we can tackle shoplifting, even if we can’t tackle a shoplifter.
Share your ideas with the convenience community! – Email us at: info@c-talk.co.uk or send us a message on any of our social platforms, and we’ll share your ideas with the retail world!
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