Poundland has issued a warning to shoppers at 800 stores in the UK – saying: “Enough is enough.” The budget retailer and discounter has launched its “Against Retail Crime” initiative as part of its ongoing efforts to address increasing shop theft.
Poundland also wants to crackdown on abuse and harassment of retail staff. The high street chain is enhancing its security infrastructure, including the introduction of anti-theft technology and communication headsets for its staff across its store estate.
It is also hiring additional security officers, investing in CCTV, and rolling out Motorola Solutions VT100 body cameras to stores with the most significant crime issues. The cameras, which provide a visual deterrent for offenders as well as recording incidents, have driven an 11% decline in violence against Poundland’s colleagues, alongside a marked reduction in shoplifting and theft, since their initial trial, BirminghamLive reports.
In a post on LinkedIn, Poundland said: “At Poundland, we’re committed to creating a safer shopping experience for our customers and a secure environment for our colleagues. So, we will be launching our ‘Retail Against Crime’ campaign this month-a bold approach to tackling theft and anti-social behaviour in our stores.
“This campaign is a commitment to protect our people and our community by actively challenging crime and creating an environment where theft and anti-social behaviour have no place. Together, we can make shopping in our communities safe and enjoyable, making retail crime a thing of the past.”
It comes after the British Retail Consortium (BRC) reported that UK shop workers now face 1,300 incidents of violence and abuse every day, up 50% on the previous year. Poundland’s head of loss prevention Christina Jesty said: “The rate of store theft and colleague abuse has accelerated significantly across our stores in the last 18 months, and this has been very challenging for our people. Whether it’s store theft undermining all our colleagues’ hard work, or incidents of violence and abuse making our colleagues feel unsafe at work, something must change.
“At Poundland, we pride ourselves on being a value-led high street retailer, where protecting our colleagues goes hand in hand with protecting our prices. That is why we’re saying enough is enough and beginning a campaign to support our front-line teams and crack down on retail crime across our stores.”
Sign up to our daily Glasgow Live newsletter here to receive news and features direct to your inbox
Join Glasgow Live’s WhatsApp community here and get the latest news sent straight to your messages.