The plans gave rise to our Take Retail Crime Seriously campaign, which gained huge support from across the sector. Finally, after what has seemed an interminable period of consultation, the new guidelines for sentencing were released this week and the option to imprison persistent shoplifters who intimidate retailers or use violence against them has been retained.
This is good news, but there is still much in the new guidelines to give retailers cause for alarm. There is a lack of understanding of the impact that crime has on the lives of low-paid workers and on jobs. And this week’s document shows that attitude hasn’t changed.
Take the plan to make sentences more severe for crime against independents than multiples. While small retailers can be victims of intimidation, such a proposal effectively gives a green light for crime against multiples. Shoplifting and intimidation is a crime, whatever retailer it is against.
A small battle is won, but sadly the aim of our campaign remains. Take Retail Crime Seriously? Some hope.
We salute you, Sir Ken
There are few real greats in retail these days and there is one less today. Having celebrated last night at the Retail Week Awards with his fellow board members, Sir Ken Morrison is no longer chairman of the business that bears his family name.
56 years in one business is a huge achievement – and to have transformed the retailer from a Bradford market stall to a national supermarket chain is even more remarkable.
Of course, it was the Safeway takeover that propelled Morrisons into the limelight and created probably the biggest challenges. But the deal is now finally paying off and Morrisons is a successful grocer up and down the land.
Sir Ken leaves on a high. And whatever criticisms may have been levelled at him, few would dispute that the industry is saying goodbye to the best grocer of his generation.
No comments yet