Central England Co-op is asking people to ‘be kind’ to shop workers after new statistics showed a rise in shocking incidents including knife attacks, verbal abuse, criminal damage and staff being hospitalised.
The campaign has been launched in an effort to encourage people to treat shop workers with respect and to repeat the Co-op’s long-term message to would-be criminals that ‘it is not worth the risk’ to target them.
New research has shown that, in the last 12 months, incidents of verbal abuse jumped by 167%, anti-social behaviour by 39%, assaults by 35% and threats by 16% compared to 2019.
The retailer also revealed that 312 crimes related directly to covid-19 had been recorded in stores since the start of the pandemic – including customers threatening to cough on staff!
Craig Goldie, loss prevention manager, said: “We need everyone to be kind and treat our colleagues with care, compassion and respect as they work around the clock for our communities. We want people to think long and hard about the person wearing our uniform – they will be someone’s much-loved family member.”
The chain has also been working with other major retailers, unions, industry bodies, police and crime commissioners and more than 200 MPs to push the Government to crack down further on those who abuse or attack shopworkers via the introduction of tougher penalties such as an automatic prison term.
