Staff at supermarket chain Aldi are to be given body-worn cameras as the German discounter becomes the latest retailer to bring in more security measures amidst increasing rates of shoplifting across the country.
UK boss Giles Hurley said that the company hadn’t been immune to reported rises in people looting from shops, a rising pattern of behaviour seen nationwide, with some brazen thieves simply filling up carrier bags with items and leaving.
Security staff and shop assistants are being offered the devices, which record video and audio as a deterrent to would-be thieves, on a trial basis while Aldi bosses evaluate their effectiveness in reducing crime and threats to staff.
Aldi is the latest in a long line of major retailers to introduce body cameras, coming after Waitrose, the Co-op, Morrisons and Tesco, which has committed to giving the technology to every member of frontline staff.
Mr Hurley made an announcement as he unveiled the latest company’s results, which revealed a 14 per cent climb in revenue to £15.5 billion as customers opted for more affordable supermarkets amidst the cost of living crisis.
In remarks first reported by The Grocer, the Aldi CEO said that there’s been an uptick in shoplifting across the industry and they were not immune to that.
He said that with body cams, they currently have a trial which is underway in part of their business, exploring what benefits they can derive from that for their colleagues.
He added that they have an absolutely fantastic team there at Aldi and they were very clear that would expect a safe and secure working environment and it was therefore a priority for them.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said this summer that shoplifting had risen 27 per cent across ten of the largest cities in the United Kingdom, with some cities up to as much as 68 per cent.
It estimates that stores lost £953 million to customer theft last year, the most significant loss on record in recent years, and official statistics issued by the Office for National Statistics reveal that shoplifting increased 24 per cent between March 2022 and March 2023.
Callous thieves are even targeting charity shops, with 80 per cent of non-profits reporting a rise in thefts of donated goods.
Shops are having to take desperate measures to discourage thieves, from installing facial recognition cameras to locking up baby formula.
The problem is that this will take a lot of money to cover this type of security, and it’s not cheap, but who will foot the bill, of course, the consumer will foot the bill when they all put all their prices up.
The Government are happy to give money to uncontrolled mass immigration, but they won’t enable the people who were born in this country, just make any sense at all.
There really is no real deterrent, and the police are not interested, and if somehow the perpetrators do actually find themselves in court, the judges let them off anyway. I can only assume that criminality is not only tolerated but actively facilitated by our system.
These store attendants might be wearing body cameras now, but no job is worth the risk of getting injured or even killed.
I guess the reason the police don’t get involved in these incidences is that why would you face a criminal with a knife if there’s a fair chance the judge would feel sorry for them and tell them that if they’re a good boy or girl then they can go home and behave.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 