The upmarket supermarket’s owner John Lewis Partnership said that while it could not “speculate on the reasons”, it was seeing “rising numbers of shoplifting offences – often by organised gangs as well anti-social behaviour”.
The partnership added that although none of its staff had been seriously injured, some “have been threatened with weapons”, with “clearly an emotional cost to them if they feel threatened at work”.
John Lewis Partnership’s director of security Lucy Brown told the BBC: “We’re seeing a real increase – some are one-off offenders but the majority are shoplifting on a regular basis, switching across all retailers.”
Data analysed by the BBC showed that shoplifting offences had now returned to pre-pandemic levels, with police forces in England, Wales and Northern Ireland recording almost 33,000 incidents in March.
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Conservative MP for Bracknell James Sunderland added that gangs appear to be “operating with impunity across the South East and there have been instances of violence to staff when they attempt to intervene, not just at Waitrose but all supermarkets.”
This comes as the British Retail Consortium’s 2023 Crime Survey Report found that retailers spent £715m on crime prevention since the Covid-19 pandemic.
For security, the partnership said its stores used CCTV, private security and some staff wore body cameras. Waitrose has also recently introduced “love-bombing” to deter shoplifters. The new scheme aims to tackle in-store theft by having Waitrose workers be extra mindful of customers and attending to their every need.
