Shop worker abuse has become a weekly experience for most UK retail staff. A new survey by the charity Retail Trust found that 54% of shop workers now face abuse every week, up from 43% last year and 33% in 2024. L’Express Franchise reports that the survey of 1,138 retail workers was published on 9 November, as the charity launched its Let’s Respect Retail campaign for the festive season.
What the survey found
- 79% had experienced abuse or violence from members of the public in the past year, up from 77%.
- Almost a quarter reported a physical attack.
- 38% said they or a colleague had been filmed without consent, up from 30%.
- Of those affected, 70% felt stressed or anxious about going to work, and more than a third felt unsafe there.
- 48% said the abuse had made them think about quitting their job or leaving retail.
- 84% had seen shoplifting in the past year, and 35% saw it every day.
The campaign asks customers to “start with hello”, with messages in shops, shopping centres and railway stations over the busy holiday period.
Why it matters for small shops
The survey covers retail workers in general. It doesn’t give separate figures for independent shops, so I won’t pretend it does.
But think about what these numbers look like in a small shop. There is often one person on the floor. No security guard, no colleague in the back, no manager to call over. When a customer starts shouting, that person deals with it alone.
And the cost isn’t only stress. Nearly half of workers thinking about leaving is a real problem for a small business. Finding and training good staff is hard. Losing them because the job feels unsafe is harder.
My take
Most of what this survey describes isn’t theft. It’s how people treat each other. That’s exactly the part technology handles worst.
AI is very good at video recognition. It can spot a person, an item, a movement. What it doesn’t do well is read behaviour and intent. People have an instinct for the moment a situation is about to turn. A raised voice, a change in posture, someone who keeps circling back to the counter. A human watching can notice that early. For me that’s mainly an ethical point: decisions about people should involve people.
There’s also a privacy angle worth noticing. More than a third of workers say they or a colleague were filmed without consent. Being on camera without a say is uncomfortable, whether you’re the worker or the customer. Security cameras should protect people without turning every visit into a recording of someone’s face. That’s why at Sentinel Watch faces are blurred inside the shop before any stream leaves it.
A friendly “hello” from customers is a good start. But nobody behind a counter should have to feel they’re on their own.
Source: L’Express Franchise
