Locking store doors instead of throwing them open is a shocking indictment of the crime challenge retailers face, says George MacDonald
Last weekend I saw a sign in a shop window that stopped me in my tracks. It wasn’t an eye-catching deal. Instead it made you raise your eyebrows in surprise and then, as the implications dawned, in horror. The sign told passers-by that the shop was operating a locked door policy and numbers in-store would be limited for security reasons.
This wasn’t a luxury store on Bond Street, nor in a void-plagued town centre, but on the door of Aesop on Hampstead High Street on a Saturday morning – a busy day for shopping and when the sunny weather had drawn out plenty of people.
Aesop isn’t alone. This week, we also revealed that Whistles has adopted a similar stance at its shop in Islington. The Sun reported that some O2 branches, such as in Richmond, London, and St Albans, Herts, are doing the same following “terrifying raids”.
What a damning indictment of conditions in the places retailers trade every day.
Keeping the doors locked and vetting who comes in are anathema to mass-market retailers – they want to encourage people into their shops and turn browsers into buyers. No other sector relies more on an open-door policy than retail, which is by its nature the most welcoming and democratic of industries.
But the retailers’ decisions are, sadly, understandable. Of course they are concerned about theft, but more than that they are determined to protect their staff and ensure they can do their jobs in the safest conditions possible.
Retailers know the stats, but they are so awful they bear repeating. The latest BRC Crime Survey revealed that retail workers suffered 2,000 violent or abusive incidents every single day of the year and weapons were involved in 70 incidents per day.
Keeping the doors locked and vetting who comes in are anathema to mass-market retailers
Coincidentally, Retail Week spoke a few days ago to the minister of state for crime, policing and fire, Diana Johnson, who was at an event at facilities management company Mitie’s intelligence security operations centre.
Johnson made encouraging noises about the government’s commitment to tackling retail crime and making town centres safer and more appealing.
The government is pumping resources into local policing, including 3,000 more neighbourhood officers and community support officers. Johnson said: “Over 500 town centres this summer are seeing increased police patrols and local action.” Hampstead and Islington, it would appear, have not seen sufficient benefit from that initiative yet.
To be fair, it’s work in progress. But after the summer’s over it would be worth retailers taking stock of how effective the initiative has been and ensuring feedback to the authorities so that successes or failures can be learned from.
At the same time, the Crime and Policing Bill now going through Parliament should herald a standalone offence of assaulting a shopworker. That offers some hope, when it eventually comes into force, that retail crime is finally winning the attention it deserves.
For all the ambition and promises, retailers have heard it all before and things have got worse with each passing year.
But when the government is making high-profile pledges, it’s vital that it’s held to account on them. Johnson’s theme, after all, was ‘Tackling Retail Crime Together’ so, taking her at her word, now is the time for retailers to make sure their voice is heard on crime.
Because otherwise, then the likelihood is that some stores’ doors will not just be locked, they’ll be permanently closed as occupiers pick up sticks and seek less troublesome locations.
That would be bad for retail, bad for local communities and ultimately bad for the country.
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