Primark is taking shocking measures to combat the rise in shoplifting sparked by the TikTok trend
PRIMARK staff are being fitted with body cameras for protection as shoplifting increases dramatically – with TikTok and other social media sites blamed for the rise.
Retail bosses said the thefts had gone “well beyond child thefts” and that thieves were walking out with hundreds of pounds of clothing and goods at a time.
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The boss of John Lewis has described it as an “epidemic”.
TikTok and other social media sites have been accused of encouraging users to share tips on looting stores.
The level of theft has increased so much that Primark’s owner had to tell investors yesterday it was impacting its own budgets and stock levels.
As a result, the company is now increasing its spending on additional security personnel and joining a growing number of retailers using body cameras.
Eoin Tonge, chief financial officer of owner Associated British Foods, told The Sun: “I think the cost of living crisis has given some people a social excuse that they can just go out and steal whatever they want.”
“It’s depressing, especially for our employees.”
Mr Tonge acknowledged that there is a clear difference between people stealing food or items because they need them to eat or to support their families.
Instead, he warned that there was a staggering rise in the “glorification of nicking on social media.”
Mr Tonge said users were posting “I just stole this from Primark” to their friends to get likes.
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A social media user reviewed six chain stores on TikTok and rated them based on how easy it was to steal from them.
Mr Tonge said Primark was now working with police and social media platforms to crack down, remove posts and share information to help with prosecutions.
Last month there was chaos on London’s Oxford Street as a group of youths flocked to JD Sports to take part in a “JD raid in Oxford Circus”.
A viral TikTok post urging followers to “root JDSports” forced other stores to also pull down their shutters to avoid looting.
The TikTok video shared by Yobs urged users to adhere to “the dress code of balaclavas and gloves” and no weapons.
ABF chief executive George Weston has called on authorities to take responsibility for law and order.
He said: “We must, as others have pointed out, highlight the role of the police, the Crown Prosecution Service and judges in tackling this ever-worsening problem.”
“They are doing more, but it’s still not enough.”
Dame Sharon White, the chairman of John Lewis and Waitrose, said this week that the UK was facing an “epidemic” of shoplifting and the number of crimes had doubled in the past year.
The retail boss said Britain’s city centers were at risk of becoming “a prey zone for emboldened shoplifters and organized gangs”.
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The situation has become so serious that some cities and districts could become off-limits areas for shops due to rising retail crime, the cooperative warned.
The food retailer said there were 1,000 incidents of crime, shoplifting and anti-social behavior in its stores every day – with some stores being looted by gangs three times in one day.
Retail workers have told The Sun newspaper that gangs are coming into stores with holdalls to load entire shelves of items, then brazenly walking out because they know they won’t be stopped.
Some organized crime gangs also steal cans of baby formula to cut down on drugs.
The scale of the thefts at Primark has surprised retail experts, as shoplifting of this magnitude typically occurs in supermarkets.
A senior retail source said: “Primark is supposed to be budget clothing.
“They wouldn’t have much resale value, unlike stealing sneakers that you could then sell on an online marketplace.
“This suggests that people are only out for themselves.”
According to the British Retail Consortium, retailers lost almost £1bn from eight million thefts last year.
Shop workers also suffered 315,000 incidents of violence or abuse, equivalent to 867 assaults per day.
Primark bosses said the UK accounted for half of reported shoplifting, but numbers had also risen in France, Spain and the US.
Dame Sharon, meanwhile, said incidents in shops were not always investigated by police.
John Lewis is among the UK’s top 10 retailers that have agreed to fund a police operation called Project Pegasus to tackle shoplifting.
The companies are expected to pay around £600,000 for the project, which will use CCTV images and facial recognition technology.
She wrote in the Telegraph: “Main streets risk becoming looting grounds for emboldened shoplifters and organized gangs.”
She also called for a Scottish law to be introduced across the country making it a criminal offense to mistreat a retail worker.
Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme, she said: ‘When I think of our shop workers who have been hailed as national heroes during the pandemic, it is not right that they should have to endure abuse and attacks.
“The police did not always respond to incidents. . . and sometimes these incidents have some violent aspects.”