Assaults on pregnant retailers and other female shopworkers are becoming more common in the growing wave of shoplifting and violent incidents.
Speaking at the Scottish Grocers’ Federation’s (SGF) annual Crime Seminar this month, Dan Brown, of Pinkie Farm Stores in Musselburgh, Edinburgh, highlighted an incident where his pregnant partner had been attacked after confronting a shoplifter.
He said: “We had a shoplifter in the store. My partner Nicole asked them to pay for the stuff, and they took offence at that. She was 26-weeks pregnant and ended up getting battered by the woman. She was repeatedly kicked in the stomach, and we had to go to hospital. Nicole is okay, thankfully, but that’s the kind of level of crime we’re dealing with.
“They saw she was pregnant, and the first thing they did was kick her in the stomach, all over trying to get some Easter eggs. There are very limited deterrents. These people are coming in daily, and I’m at a stage where I don’t know what to do.”
Mohammed Rajak, of Day-Today Dalmarnock Road in Glasgow, recalled how a fellow retailer had recently lost a baby due to the stress she experienced from a shoplifting incident. “Politicians may only listen when a death occurs and a retailer loses their life.”
Retailers fear violence at own homes as crime soars
Co-op has also highlighted how the stress of shoplifting and violence on female retailers in small shops has reached a national scale. Speaking at a House of Lords committee meeting in September last year, the supermarket’s campaigns, public affairs and policy director, Paul Gerrard, said: “If one of my colleagues gets in the way, they won’t say sorry and walk out.
“There will be assault, there will be a violent threat, there might be a knife and there might be a syringe. One colleague was attacked with a medieval mace; a colleague has lost an eye and another has miscarried. There’s a level of violence, abuse and threat nobody who works in retail has seen before.”
Elsewhere, Fiona Malone, of Tenby Stores & Post Office in Pembrokeshire, was spat at recently after confronting a shoplifter. Posting about the incident on social media this month, Malone said: “Tonight, I got spat at. My crime was to apprehend a teenage shop thief. Our cameras picked up the crime and I was in quick pursuit. I caught up with the teenager about 500 yards from the shop.
“After a brief exchange of words, he decided to spit at me and throw the bottle of wine towards me. Why is this deemed as acceptable and when will this be stopped? Will it be when I am killed due to running after shoplifters? Why do people not understand right from wrong? Shop theft is not a victimless crime.”
According to ACS research published in 2022, 70% of small-shop workers were female. These incidents against female staff come as the ACS and SGF released their annual crime reports this month. The ACS said more than 59,000 estimated incidents of violence occurred in the convenience sector over the past year, with 1.2 million incidents of verbal abuse over the same period. Meanwhile, the SGF’s report claimed the average store in Scotland lost £5,000 to shoplifting in the past year. Nearly all stores had reported that violence against staff had occurred at least once a month, while weekly incidents of abuse were sparked by refusing sales or asking for proof of age.
ACS chief executive James Lowman said: “The levels of theft, abuse and violence experienced by retailers over the past year makes for shocking reading, but it will not surprise our members who are living it daily. “Criminals targeting local shops without fear of reproach cannot be allowed to continue, which is why we’re fully supportive of the government’s Crime and Policing Bill.”
Read more retail crime news
Comments
This article doesn't have any comments yet, be the first!