Crime rose sharply in Co-op outlets during the last six months, with 950 offences happening day by day, the enterprise mentioned.
The price of theft and fraud in Co-op’s meals enterprise rose to £39.5m within the first half of 2024 alone. In comparison with the identical time a yr earlier, it value 19% extra, up from £33.3m.
Throughout the half-year interval, 172,008 incidents happened, 4% greater than in 2023.
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In an effort to carry down stealing, Co-op started testing the usage of synthetic intelligence (AI) in 14 outlets to detect hid items and alert employees members.
The know-how can detect a bodily assault happening and immediately alert safety, requesting help, the corporate mentioned.
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Shoplifting hits 20-year excessive
The issue of elevated stealing just isn’t distinctive to Co-op, it mentioned, as a report from the Affiliation of Comfort Shops (ACS) confirmed that, whereas Co-op represented almost a 3rd of gross sales coated, it skilled solely 6% of the crime reported.
As the price of dwelling disaster hit, shoplifting reached a document excessive with 16.7 million incidents recorded in 2023 – greater than double 2022, costing retailers about £1.8bn – a document sum – in line with an annual survey by business group the British Retail Consortium (BRC).
There was additionally an increase in violence and abuse in opposition to store employees which spiked to about 1,300 incidents each day in 2023, an increase of fifty% from 870 the yr earlier than.
Additionally introduced on Wednesday in its half-year interim outcomes was the opening of 120 new outlets by the tip of 2025.
