John Lewis is training its store employees across the partnership to help deter shoplifters following the rise of violence against retail workers.
The move comes weeks after chairwoman Sharon White warned criminals had a “licence to shoplift” and had become more aggressive towards shop staff.
As such, store employees at John Lewis and Waitrose have been given de-escalation training, which aims to make the situation less dangerous or difficult.
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Head of security or the John Lewis Partnership Nicki Juniper told BBC News that the retailer was “investing heavily in training” for security and shop staff.
“Should they want to take part in some de-escalation training they’d be able to handle an incident should it arise,” she said.
Some John Lewis employees have been given bodycams to help catch offenders.
Staff are also doing training known as “love bombing”, which uses good customer service in an attempt to deter abuse.
“It has proven very successful in reducing levels of theft,” she said, warning that offenders needed to face consequences.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said retail thefts across the sector in England and Wales rose by 26% in 2022, with more than 850 incidents of violence and abuse towards shop workers recorded every day.
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2 Comments. Leave new
I don’t think it was a clever idea to go public and say criminals had a “licence to shoplift,”. Shoplifting has always been present and retailers know its going to happen and deal with incidents of abuse harshly. Sharon White would have been better, quietly using all her Government connections to lead retailers in a demand for police Shoplifting squads in towns and cities, rather than advertising a freedom to Shoplifting.
Customers having been saying there’s a lack of staff in John Lewis stores, all the training the world isn’t going to stop shoplifting if there isn’t staff numbers on the shopfloor. Shoplifters only have to be lucky once, staff have to lucky all the time to able to stop it.