Greggs rolls back self-service cabinets in shoplifting hotspots

Staff are handing over sandwiches from behind a theft-proof counter as the high street fights back

Keir Starmer will attempt to call time on a “disgraceful” shoplifting epidemic afflicting the UK’s retailers, as Greggs became the latest to take action to deter thieves.

The bakery chain has axed self-service display cabinets in stores that have been most severely hit by shoplifters.

They are the latest measures aimed at combating a problem plaguing the high street. Last year official figures revealed annual shoplifting offences in England and Wales had passed half a million offences for the first time, and since then many retailers have reported high levels of crime in their shops.

Starmer, whose government is attempting to introduce a new offence of assaulting a retail worker, will say on Monday: “Working people – grafters – go to work, do the right thing, keep our high streets thriving and yet too often they are abused or assaulted by people who think they can get away with it and just cheat the system. It’s disgraceful.”

He will add that his government has put an extra 3,000 neighbourhood police officers on the streets and scrapped the effective immunity for thieves stealing goods worth less than £200.

“That was a shoplifters’ charter, and we’ve ended it,” he is expected to say.

Despite the promised crackdown, retailers appear to be pressing on with their own initiatives.

Self-service display cabinets are being replaced at a selection of Greggs outlets, with staff now handing over products to customers from behind a theft-proof counter.

Branches in Croydon and Peckham, south London; Whitechapel and Upton Park, in east London; and in Birmingham and Wilford, Nottinghamshire, are all testing the new format.

The company also said it is introducing software systems that supply information directly to police stations.

The trial follows Greggs seemingly becoming a target of habitual shoplifters, while its rivals Pret a Manger and Costa have reportedly employed the services of bouncers to guard their stock from shoplifters.

Last week Archie Norman, the chair of Marks & Spencer, told the Daily Telegraph that self-checkouts have been fuelling a rise in shoplifting among “good, honest people”.

In February, the British Retail Consortium said criminal gangs were “systematically” targeting shops, with the 5.5m incidents of shoplifting detected during the past year costing the industry an estimated £400m.

The trade organisation also warned of “endemic” violence towards shop workers, who collectively faced an average 36 incidents of violence involving a weapon every day last year.

Greggs said in a statement: “This is one of a number of initiatives we are trialling across a very small number of shops which are exposed to higher levels of antisocial behaviour.”