Shopkeepers are demanding more community cops to deter the rise of shoplifting gangs and career thieves who target stores on a daily basis.
Jordan Trainer, owner of Plantique in Partick, Glasgow, which sells exotic plants and novelty gifts, also supported calls for more police – and said there should be enough officers to deal with lower level shoplifting.
He spoke out after it was revealed that the Scottish bill for shoplifting last year was a record £170 million – almost double that of 2022.
The Scottish Retail Consortium, also claims that attacks on shop staff are through the roof.
Recent controversy erupted over the directive that people stealing goods worth less than £200 would not be investigated.
Jordan said: “I get a lot of what would be considered low level crime – but stopping theft has become a really big part of my job.
“When I started I was a bit naive and a sitting duck for gangs, who would use distraction tactics while one would do the theft.
“I now have to recognise the danger when people come in and watch them like a hawk. You need to have eyes in the back of your head and when you’re the only one running the shop it can be very stressful.
“There is no two ways about it – shoplifting has become a daily hazard of the job.
“I’ve lost thousands of pounds of stock and it is getting worse. So I would certainly be in favour of more community policing.
“I would appreciate if police responded to these crimes when they take place because they can be utterly destructive to small businesses.”
Shopkeeper Umar Majid said he is now inundated with shoplifting on a daily basis, as brazen thieves feel there is no deterrent and no shame in stealing.
Umar, who owns Baba’s Kitchen in Bellshill, Lanarkshire, was attacked by a shoplifter three years ago and has been part of a Scottish Grocers’ Federation think-tank that is seeking ways of halting the rise in shoplifting.
Umar said: “It’s now brazen shameless and all kings of people do it.
“I had a group of workmen in last week, who were buying stuff for lunch but also stealing items.
“I reviewed the CCTV and I could see them cluster round one aisle while one of them out six cans of Red Bull in his pocket.
“So I was then faced with deciding between two bad scenarios. In the end I banned the men from the shop, but that lost me the daily trade.
“I just can’t square how a group of six or so grown men can all agree to be part of something like that – but society seems to tolerate shoplifting more than it once did.”
Umar attended a meeting in Edinburgh, along with police and Trading Standards, focusing on retail crime.
He said: There was very strong support for a more visible police presence on streets, with community officers, as this would certainly act as a deterrent.
“The £3 million put aside by the Scottish Government for retail crime is not enough when you see the massive scale of the problem.”
Umar said the backlog of cases against thieves has also damaged trade. He said: “It can take over a year to come to court and then the accused person doesn’t turn up.
“That can mean a day off work. And then the sentence given out is so lenient, they just keep doing it.
“There is a lot of support for handing out significant community service sentences – and making sure people carry them out. Otherwise things will keep getting worse.”
The Scottish Government said 543 offenders have been convicted after the introduction of legislation protecting shop workers in 2021.
The British Retail Consortium’s Annual Crime Survey found 61% of respondents in the UK described the police response to incidents as ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’.
Theft reached an all-time high with over 20 million incidents (over 55,000 per day) costing retailers £2.2 billion in 2023/24 (up from £1.8 billion the previous year).
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