It’s safe to say that UK retail crime is continuing to escalate.
Last July, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported that shoplifting across the UK had hit record highs, with a total of 530,643 offences recorded in the year to March 2025.
In October, the British Independent Retailers Association (Bira) described the situation as a “retail crime crisis” following ONS figures that revealed shoplifting offences had risen 13 per cent from June 2024 to June 2025.
M&S also recently called for a stronger police response to retail crime, cautioning that abuse, violence and organised theft were becoming a routine part of life on Britain’s high streets.
Against this backdrop, events recently took a new turn when Waitrose fired an employee for intervening in a shoplifting incident at its Clapham branch.
The incident sparked huge backlash for the supermarket, and led to renewed debate over how retailers balance employee safety with soaring crime levels.
Waitrose dismisses Walker Smith
The Waitrose incident involved 54 year old Walker Smith, who had worked for the retailer for 17 years, tackling a shoplifter who was trying to steal Easter eggs.
According to the Guardian, the employee “grabbed” a bag that the shoplifter had been using to put the £13 Easter eggs in, leading to a struggle which lasted a few seconds.
Smith told the publication that one of the Easter eggs broke and that he picked up a piece and “threw it out of frustration” towards some shopping trolleys.
He reportedly went on to apologise to his manager, having previously been told not to approach suspected shoplifters.
Smith told the Guardian: “I’ve been there 17 years. I’ve seen it happen every hour of every day for the last five years.
“It’s everybody from drug addicts to teenagers nicking bits and bobs or walking out with bottles of wine in their arms. We’re not allowed to do anything.”
The high end supermarket has come under fire for its decision to dismiss Walker.
Shoppers vowed to boycott the supermarket over the dismissal. The Conservatives wrote to Waitrose asking them to reinstate the worker, with shadow home secretary Chris Philp accusing the store of acting “disgracefully”.
Rival supermarket Iceland even went as far as offering Smith a new job, with its chairman Lord Richard Walker posting on LinkedIn that he was “welcome to a job with us”.
However, Waitrose has defended its decision.
In a statement, the grocery giant explained: “The safety and security of our partners and customers couldn’t be more important to us, and we have policies in place to protect both.
“We’ve had incidents where our partners have been hospitalised when challenging shoplifters. Luckily, they have always recovered, but that might not always be the case.
“There is a serious danger to life in tackling shoplifters. We refuse to put anyone’s life at risk and that’s why we have policies in place that are very clearly understood and must be strictly followed.”
It continued: “As a responsible employer, we never want to be in a position where we are notifying families of a tragedy because someone tried to stop a theft. Nothing we sell is worth risking lives for.
“We have campaigned for some time for more to be done to protect shop workers from offenders, including retail crime being made into a specific stand alone offence.”
Non-intervention policies across the retail industry
The event has shone a spotlight on the non-intervention policies used across the retail sector.
Waitrose isn’t the only UK supermarket that takes this kind of approach. In March, the Telegraph reported that Co-op store staff were warned they could face disciplinary action if they intervened to stop shoplifters from stealing goods, with the chain operating a “no-challenge policy”.
Walker’s potential new employer, Iceland, seems to take a slightly different stance.
In a Good Morning Britain interview with Richard Walker after the Waitrose incident, presenter Ranvir Singh said the breakfast show had spoken to Iceland who said: “Our policy is clear at Iceland in terms of when/how store colleagues can flag/intervene with shoplifting”.
Singh said this suggested that Iceland did have a policy, on certain occasions, where staff could intervene.
When she asked what intervention Iceland workers could take, Walker confirmed: “There’s always got to be two colleagues on the shop floor, there might be more who work in the stock in the back or on deliveries.
“If they see a shoplifter, they need to safely, in a group, apprehend them, but of course violence either way in any form is never condoned. So you can ask someone politely to leave the premises.”
What’s the right approach to tackling shoplifters?
With non-intervention policies used widely across the sector, what alternative approaches should UK retailers make to tackle retail crime?
The Waitrose case has led to workers calling for more visible security in stores.
According to the Guardian, trade union Usdaw said 59 per cent of members responding to its 2025 survey would welcome more security guards in stores. Workers also backed measures such as improved CCTV, facial recognition, body-worn cameras and headsets linked to central support.
Additionally, security workers are calling for more protective equipment. The Security Industry Federation has pressed for stab-proof vests and wider use of body-worn cameras, arguing that retail security teams are increasingly exposed to violence while operating under hands-off policies that limit their ability to intervene physically.
Retailers have implemented countless other measures in efforts to curb shoplifting, including controversial facial recognition tech, self-checkout barriers, body cameras for staff and anti-theft smoke machines.
According to police.uk, retailers should secure their stores from shoplifters by using techniques such as a meet and greet, crime mapping, electronic tagging and maintaining tidy stores.
It also recommends having safety in numbers in stores, and claims that staff should “only engage a potential shoplifter if it is safe to do so”.
But with UK shoplifting figures not getting any lower, it’s no surprise the Waitrose sacking has sparked heated debate.
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