At Retail Risk – Leicester one important thing was missing in the fight against retail violence – Public opinion!
Intrepid Team at Retail Risk today
Collaboration between retailers is vital, but cannot end this problem in and of itself…
Do I look like a Stormtrooper from the Star Wars trilogy!?!
Obviously not. For a start, I’m not 6ft 3inches tall. But I am quite sure that at least one retailer visiting the stand at Retail Risk – Leicester this week got confused and thought that the Stormtrooper helmet, which we offered as a prize draw prize, was somehow part of my old working wardrobe!
Not that body armour would be a bad thing for people in retail these days. And in particular store colleagues...
During the Big Breakfast, host Paul Bessant interviewed four panellists – leading figures in retail including Iona Blake, Peter Page and Neville Cotton. The room was still reeling from the announcement of the winner of an all-expenses paid flight to Australia that a member of the Tesco team won, but then failed to turn up to claim in the allotted 30 seconds in “This Is What You Could’ve Won”. So, the prize went begging – for the second year running!
“I was reminded of the time when it became unacceptable to drive without a seatbelt”
Peter Page, responding to a question about what is keeping him awake at night, I thought spoke eloquently about how, like other retailers present at the show and widely reported in the Press, had seen a disturbing increase in the number of assaults on staff.
He pointed out that teenage Saturday employees, students and others just looking for a casual income were being assaulted in the stores and that this was simply unacceptable for all staff.
Paul Newbury discussing the new Freedom Case Wraparound
Peter suggested that it was not just about the technology, like body worn cameras or tagging. It was about a societal change towards crime that somehow had developed a tolerance for petty theft and abusing shop workers. This is not just about getting the police to do more, even if they could, or retailers hardening their targets. This sort of thing will only stop once society demands that it stops. He’ll go far that chap!
I was reminded of the time when it became unacceptable to drive without a seatbelt. Governments had tries to reduce the amount of incidents by enacting laws that required car manufacturers to fit front and rear seatbelts to all new cars and for all passengers and drivers to wear them. However, the real game changer was when ITV (only one commercial channel back then) started running public information films (“TV advertisements” by another name!) demonstrating the consequences of not wearing a belt – the physical injury, the broken lives. It was only then public opinion swung from an acceptance that the decision to wear or not wear a seat belt was a matter of personal choice to one of individual responsibility, that people really started to wear seatbelts. And now, who do you know that even thinks twice about it?
I think a similar thing is happening with regard to people driving whilst using mobile phones. The horrible consequences of this, involving deaths of public servants, like police officers as a result of that case with the lorry driver, is changing society’s approach regarding mobile phones. And so the same will have to happen around retail crime.
The collaborative spirit around Retail Risk – Leicester was commendable. It was great to see and to meet so many colleagues from around the industry. And collaboration around colleague safety is of course a very valuable way forward.
However, technology and industry collaboration alone will not, in my opinion, manage to deal with this problem. What we need is to bring public pressure to bear, so that those who abuse retail staff physically or verbally realise that in doing so they will not only face the legal consequences and penalties, but also become social pariahs.
“Technology and industry collaboration alone will not, in my opinion, manage to deal with this problem”