The owners of a chain of high-end convenience stores in London has raised for a call for action against the rising blatant crime, saying the term "shoplifting" belittles the scale of the incidents and damage.
James Cartwright and James Bostock, who in 2020 co-founded The Grocery Post, a design-led convenience store, revealed to The Times how their stores are constantly under attack by criminals who tend to walk in, fill their bags with expensive wine bottles and walk out.
“I don’t like the term ‘shoplifting’ because it belittles the harm it causes — this is organised crime,” Cartwright told The Times. “We’ve caught totally brazen thieves turning up on Santander bikes and making off with £1,000 of goods. How can we allow bikes to be jump started by criminals and used to mug people and rob from shops?"
The first The Grocery Post shop opened in Highgate November 2022 while a second one opened in West Hampstead in July 2023. The store sells at least 120 brands of wines and champagne which, Cartwright said, have attracted thieves.
“I cannot have a situation where we are forced to close early because it’s not safe for staff to work on their own. The tax burden on us is significant … all we ask is to operate in a safe city.
“There are probably ten people in London who’ve caused me significant financial pain,” Cartwright said. “We’re down on the Met. Two officers visited the Highgate store on Tuesday and said they have one car between the entire Safer Neighbourhood team and their shift ends at 5pm. They were lovely — but they’re not going to be there when we need them.
“We’re considering installing an electronic door release button as locking the thieves out seems like our only option.”
He also criticised at Operation Retail, the Met’s crime reporting system for shoplifting cases, in which “CCTV evidence is the only line of inquiry, no violence or weapons have been used and the suspect is unknown or not known to be a repeat offender”.
Shoplifting offences in England and Wales shot up 29 per cent to 469,788 in the year to June, the highest level since records began in March 2003, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Across the UK, shop workers face up to 1,300 violent and abusive incidents a day and there has been a 50 per cent rise in physical assaults, sexual harassment, racist abuse and threat of weapons over the past year, the British Retail Consortium found last year.
Apart from the record high levels, the criminals are now reportedly becoming more blatant and fearless.
Earlier this week, a group of thieves raided a tobacco counter behind the tills at a Tesco Extra store in north London, before waving goodbye to shocked customers and cycling off.
According to local reports, two men dressed in all black smashed a window at an Extra store in Colney Hatch, Barnet, and then jumped over the counter.
They frantically filled their bags with cigarettes and tobacco from behind the kiosk, as shocked shoppers and helpless staff watched on.
The thieves seemed unbothered by shoppers and staff alike, with one woman shouting, “A whole army of police has already arrived. You're not going to get away”, as they carried out their raid.
Before departing the north London store, one of the balaclava-donned thieves cheekily waved at a shopper. They then mounted their bikes and drove away from the scene into the darkness.
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