Co-op sees rise in profit despite prolific shoplifting by criminal gangs

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Supermarket chain Co-op has revealed in its annual report that it has seen a surge in profit over the past year, as well as a huge boost to its membership of five million Brits - but there are serious problems facing their stores and the wider grocery industry.

The consumer co-operative supermarket, which was founded in Greater Manchester during the Industrial Revolution, has said that it recorded 336,270 shoplifting incidents in the last year alone.

This equates to 1000 incidents of shoplifting every day, a 44 per cent increase from the year before that reflects the reality of life on the shop floor after the pandemic.

Co-op also revealed in its report that, on average, 100 frontline Co-op workers face abuse and violence every single day. One Co-op employee who works in a smaller Salford store, told the Manchester Evening News: "We frequently only have two or three people working on the floor at a time, they know this and they know we aren't meant to try and stop them if we think they are shoplifting." READ MORE: Three employment laws coming into effect this week that every worker should know The employee, who wished to remain anonymous, continued: "I think something about the pandemic changed the way people act, now they just come in and quite blatantly take stuff and walk out." Over the past few years, Co-op has introduced body cameras for their staff members, increased CCTV coverage in their stores, and introduced more secure packaging for their products.