The 2021 Commercial Victimisation Survey reported that the most commonly cited circumstances in which incidents of violence were experienced in the retail and wholesale sector included: encountering a store thief (26% of premises), confronting suspicious behaviour (21%) and asking customers to comply with Covid–19 safety requirements (21%).
In addition, The British Retail Consortium (BRC) Crime Report 2021 stated that, on average, there were 455 violent or abusive incidents every day of the year in the year ending March 2020, the year before the pandemic.
Abuse, threats and physical violence are a real and present risk for those working in retail and being equipped with the tools and training to defuse and avoid conflict are key to shop workers remaining safe.
The NBCC has commissioned a series of videos designed as a training aid for those working in the retail sector to empower employees in the areas of personal safety and de-escalation, saying no - refusing service, deterring and interacting with thieves and handling disruptive behaviour.
