‘Last Sunday my daughter and I watched a shoplifter headbutt a store worker outside Sainsbury’s’

Last Sunday afternoon, my daughter and I watched a shoplifter headbutt a store worker outside a Sainsbury’s branch in the Buckinghamshire town where I live. The store colleague was trying to take back a bag full of goods including champagne. It was horrifying.

As shoplifting in the UK reaches record highs, the morale and mental wellbeing of shopfloor staff is at a record low.

I was struck last week by the following quote in Retail Week’s interview with Marks & Spencer people director Sarah Findlater: “I needed to understand how it feels. What’s going on in our colleagues’ lives? Our customers’ lives? What do they really need?”

Findlater spent three months on a shopfloor in Surrey. So far, so normal; senior directors spending time in stores is nothing new. But what Findlater did was different. She spent time in every single job that exists in a store; in fitting rooms, unloading lorries, as a team manager and a store manager.

Can head office senior leaders and their colleagues genuinely say they understand how it feels to work on retail’s frontline? Not just processes, myriad demands and the relentless pace, but how it feels to be shouted at, threatened, and to feel afraid?

Around half of store colleagues (48%) say they don’t get enough support from their employer to deal with current levels of shopper abuse

Research published by The Retail Trust this week indicates that nearly half of those interviewed in their survey of 1,200 retail employees say they feel unsafe going into work. 39% are considering leaving the job or retail altogether – a figure that reduces to 17% with effective training in handling abusive customers.

There’s an air of back-to-basics in UK retail at the moment; John Lewis is pouring its efforts into achieving simple retail excellence again. Sainsbury’s under chief executive Simon Roberts has focused on a food-first strategy. Co-op managing director of food Matt Hood last week told Retail Week that the retailer’s challenges in recent years were driven in part by losing sight of what being brilliant at running small shops entails.

Despite the growth of ecommerce, store colleagues still hold most of the customer interactions behind UK retail sales, totalling more than £400bn (total ecommerce sales were around £110bn in 2023). So, as many retailers rightly focus on the essence of brilliant retailing, being a brilliant employer of people is central to a success strategy.

Part of the challenge is the sheer level of complexity that has come with digital transformation. Distractions pervade modern retailing; diversification strategies, multiple revenue streams, new business models, new opportunities, disruptive players, and a plethora of new technologies to decipher. The list goes on. The to-do lists are long. Attention is divided. Is the link between head office and stores all too often broken?

The statistic from the Retail Trust that around half of store colleagues (48%) say they don’t get enough support from their employer to deal with current levels of shopper abuse must surely focus boardroom minds. This has reached a crisis point. Leaders have a moral and business obligation to do something about it.

Retailers should follow M&S’ example and look at fresh ways to ensure a genuine understanding of the unacceptable pressure that store colleagues face

There are many factors that have led to this crisis that are out of retailers’ control. One is underfunded police and justice systems that are creaking at the seams. Another is the continued economic hardship faced by millions that has worsened in recent years.

But systemic problems mustn’t lead to complacency or despondency. There are practical measures that every business can take today to effect change; technology solutions such as bodycams, training of colleagues, and industry-wide collaboration around public education.

Retailers should follow M&S’ example and look at fresh ways to ensure a genuine understanding of the unacceptable pressure that store colleagues face. Greater empathy will fuel a desire for genuine change.

‘What keeps you awake at night?’ This is a question asked too often of retail chief executives. Is it ever a question directed at retail’s frontline colleagues? These are the people who sadly have genuine cause for sleepless nights. 

• As part of its Respect Retail campaign, The Retail Trust is running free training sessions online and in London from November 12 to 14, to arm hundreds of shop staff with new skills to manage challenging in-store situations this Christmas and deal with any difficult experiences. Retail workers can apply to take part by visiting https://www.retailtrust.org.uk/respect. Respect Retail is backed by major retail companies including Primark, H&M, BP, Frasers Group and Holland & Barrett.