As cost-of-living pressures continue, over a quarter of UK shoppers say they have witnessed theft of everyday essentials, such as groceries, baby supplies and basic healthcare items. While over 21 per cent have witnessed big-ticket items being stolen.

Furthermore, organised crime is becoming more prevalent and visible to a growing number of customers. Two thirds of consumers responded that organised retail crime has worsened in the past year, and almost half say they have witnessed goods seemingly being stolen to order in-store, rising to 58 per cent among Gen Zs and Millennials.

SAI’s survey also highlighted consumers detachment to witnessing such crimes. More than one in ten (12 per cent) shoppers now feel “indifferent” to witnessing crime when shopping in bricks-and-mortar locations.

“Growing shopper indifference towards retail crime isn’t just a worrying trend – it goes beyond a simple behavioural or consumer mindset shift,” said Som Sinha, CEO of SAI. “This indifference to shoplifting is a symptom of the scale of the retail crime epidemic, which risks being left unchecked due to bricks-and-mortar data gaps.”

“When theft becomes expected, it also becomes overlooked, exposing the limits of traditional, reactive loss prevention and surveillance,” he added.  “Retailers need to move from passive observation to real-time prevention to change the underlying cause of shoplifting and materially evolve how retail crime is fought in the longer-term.”

This latest research follows data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) that revealed retailers have reported 509,566 shoplifting offences in the past year.