Supermarket employees have been warned they might lose their jobs if they confront individuals blatantly stealing from stores.
It’s reported that Co-op staff have been advised by management to refrain from intervening when witnessing theft, allowing shoplifters to make off with items.
This directive has been criticized as ‘absurd’ by employees, who argue it signals to thieves that they can simply fill their bags and leave without any consequences.
One employee from a Co-op branch in west London described witnessing individuals walk away with products valued at several hundred pounds.
He noted that many of these incidents involve the same culprits returning repeatedly to the store to commit theft.
The worker, in his twenties and choosing to remain unnamed, mentioned that staff have been informed that even the slightest physical contact with shoplifters could result in termination.
Terrifying footage shows a machete-wielding gang robbing a Co-op store in London in February 2024
Shameless thieves were caught stuffing Deliveroo bags with alcohol with staff saying they have been told not to stop them
‘We have to stand and watch,’ he added in comments made to The Sun.
The Co-op was hit by more than 300,000 cases of shoplifting and abuse in 2023, with staff being targeted up to 1,000 times a day.
The supermarket chain said incidents at its stores had soared by 44 per cent in 2023 compared with 2022.
One piece of shocking footage shows a gang of machete-wielding thugs raiding a Co-op store in London.
The gang of three masked men, clad in black, were seen leaping over a counter wielding the weapons and grabbing packs of cigarettes and vapes in February 2024.
Staff were threatened by the criminals and there was also a store worker behind the kiosk when the raid began.
And on another occasion, a shop worker at a Co-op store in Dorset was attacked when she saw a thief steal a pastry and two bottles of alcohol.
She was then bottled by a shoplifter.
Charlene Corbin, 28, shared pictures of her gruesome head wound to highlight the danger retailers face from increasingly brazen and violent thieves.
She said: ‘I grabbed my head and went back inside the store. I started to feel slightly faint and then I fell to my knees.’
One suspected shoplifter was filmed being chased through a Co-op store in Edgeley near Stockport, Greater Manchester
Meanwhile, staff at Waitrose have also been told not to intervene after thieves were caught stuffing bottles of alcohol into Deliveroo bags.
Shocking footage from September last year shows a pair of young men in hoods and balaclavas stealing at least 13 bottles in 45 seconds.
They brazenly walked out of the shop, heading straight past the checkout with the stolen items.
Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick shared the clip online and criticised Labour by saying it had lost control of Britain’s streets.
He said: ‘This is the reality of Sadiq Khan’s London. It’s a complete and utter disgrace.
‘And Labour are about to make this even worse by scrapping prison sentences for shoplifters.’
Store security guard Craig Wincarr said employees are instructed not to stop them.
He told The Sun: ‘They basically come in most evenings and go for the alcohol and it boils my blood.
‘We can’t do anything about it as we’re told not to tackle them. We’re basically here as a deterrent for middle-class chancers, not professionals. I feel like a lemon these days.’
Recent figures show that Britain is currently in the grip of a shoplifting epidemic with a record 810 offences going unsolved every day.
Police closed 295,589 shoplifting cases without identifying a suspect in 2024 to 2025 – the equivalent of officers shelving 34 offences an hour.
Shoplifting levels have doubled since the pandemic and rocketed by 20 per cent since Labour came into power.
And new analysis, produced for the Liberal Democrats, has revealed how a record number of cases are being dropped by police.
The number of shoplifting investigations being closed without a suspect identified has soared by 65 per cent compared to five years ago when 178,906 shoplifting offences went unsolved.
Last year, fewer than one in five (19 per cent) shoplifting cases led to a suspect being charged or summoned, while 55 per cent of cases were closed without a suspect being identified.
And separate Office for National Statistics figures show that between April 2024 and March 2025, police recorded 530,643 shoplifting offences – the equivalent of one a minute.
A spokesperson for the Co-op said: ‘Safety is always our first priority, as too often retail crime can be a trigger for violence and abuse, so we ask our store colleagues not to put themselves in harm’s way, with the sole aim of protecting them.
‘We have been a leading voice in campaigning for stronger protection for shopworkers which resulted in a new law to make abusing a shop worker an offence.
‘Overall retail crime at Co-op last year, following our continued investment in preventative security measures and partnerships with local police forces, plus increased police attendance and Government action.’
