3
Jun
2014
By Calvin at 07:13 GMT, 11 years ago
An interesting article in Lancashire telegraph on 31 May shows just what a problem shoplifting has become in Blackburn during the past year.
It also describes the frustrations local police have with a particular store’s apparent lack of action to help themselves.
It’s not often I find a direct criticism of a retail business by the local police in terms of crime prevention, and maybe the Inspector’s comments might ring a bell amongst my police audience.
Modern retail shops are a long way removed from the shop my Mum used to work in as a teenager in Exeter.
Ladies would enter the dress shop, which had a few dresses on show behind glass cabinets, to be greeted by a senior assistant. The customer was asked what sort of dress she was looking for and what was her preference for colour (she would never be asked her size). The assistant would then go to the back of the shop and return with a selection of dresses. In other words, browsing through freely hanging collections was not nearly as common as it is today and not surprisingly, shoplifting was relatively rare.
Shoplifting in its current volume is something that began to creep into our society when the counters disappeared and the backroom stocks were brought to the front of the shop. Retailers found that the more you put goods directly in front of customers the more they would buy. This obviously upped the opportunities to shoplift!
I’m not sure if most of us want to return to the ‘good ol’ days’ of counters and dressers but we do want retailers to do everything they can to reduce the shoplifting blight that costs us all in the long run.
A good read: Lancashire Telegraph http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/11247969.Debenhams_tops_Blackburn_s_shoplifting_hotspots_list_again/?ref=var_0
