Young people do not want to work in retail because they are scared of being attacked by shoplifters, a leading retail chief has warned.
Jonathan James, who runs around 40 convenience stores and supermarkets under the Select Convenience brand, said he was struggling to hire staff over fears they may be targeted by criminals.
It comes as Britain’s retailers are battling a sharp rise in shoplifting and attacks on shopworkers which is costing the industry billions of pounds.
“It’s just completely going unchecked and that is having an impact, obviously on morale, but it’s also having an impact on recruitment,” said Mr James.
“People are just seeing in the local paper that the shops have been done and staff have been assaulted. It’s a hell of a job to recruit because they don’t want ot put themselves in harm’s way.
“People are coming up to me and saying they would love to get into retail. But little Billy and Johnny, who are 18 and looking for their first job, their parents are worried [and saying], ‘Do you really want to do that’?”
He said for the first time in 25 years, he was designing stores around security and safety instead of around how to maximise purchases.
Mr James, who owns James Convenience Retail, is a veteran retail figure and owns newsagents and Select Convenience stores across the UK.
According to a survey by the British Retail Consortium (BRC), retail violence and abuse towards shopworkers rose by more than 50pc to above 2,000 incidents per day over the year to August 31 2024, rising from 1,300 the prior year.
Thefts also hit an all-time high, coming in at more than 20 million incidents, which cost the industry £2.2bn. The crime wave has been blamed on a combination of high living costs as well as organised criminal gangs.
Chris Noice, of the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS), said: “Working in a local shop at the heart of the community can be incredibly rewarding, but sadly the impact of crime can be life-changing.
“Retailers and their colleagues have to deal with everything from theft and abuse to assault, violence and being threatened with weapons. In some cases, retailers have even reduced their opening hours to support colleagues that are concerned about locking up late at night.
“In the last two years, retailers have spent over half a billion pounds on making their shops safer and more secure. This must be backed up by the police when incidents are reported to stop the prolific offenders that are targeting shops on a regular basis.”
The Government has promised a clampdown on retail crime, with the former policing and crime minister Dame Diana Johnson vowing “there will be consequences” for shoplifters earlier this year.
Ministers have said they will invest £200m into neighbourhood policing and make assaulting a shop worker a standalone offence. Previous legislation that made stealing foods worth less than £200 a low-level offence has also been scrapped.
Speaking in July, Dame Diana also said shoplifters and other criminals would be punished no matter their background, amid rising concerns over growing incidences of so-called “middle-class shoplifting” by more affluent people.
