Iceland boss will pay customers to sniff out shoplifters after thieves cost supermarket £20million in the past year

Daily Mail​

a day ago

Iceland's boss will pay customers to catch shoplifters in the act after suffering a £20million blow to business in the last year.
Richard Walker hoped that the incentive would encourage shoppers to act if they spotted a shoplifter and hit back at claims it was a 'victimless crime '.
The supermarket is the first in the UK to offer rewards to customers who snitch on thieves.
Shoppers will be given £1 on their bonus cards each time they point out thieves to Iceland staff and Mr Walker hopes it will allow the chain to lower their prices.
The CEO revealed that the cost of shoplifting to the business was £20million annually and Mr Walker hoped that money saved from the scheme could go back in to the shops, paying for more workers and lowering prices.
'I'd actually like to announce that we will give a pound to any customer who points out a shoplifter,' he told Channel 5 News on Wednesday.
'We will put it on their bonus card if they see any customer in our stores who are undertaking that offence.'
He added that he believed the programme would deter thieves, adding: 'Some people see it as a victimless crime. It is not.
Iceland's CEO Richard Walker (pictured) hopes the incentive will encourage shoppers to act if they spot a shoplifter which will help bring prices down
'It also keeps prices from being lowered because it's a cost to the business, it's a cost to the hours that we pay our colleagues, as well as it obviously being about intimidation and violence.'
And the Iceland boss emphasised that it was an important issue to tackle and affected customers as well as profit.
'That's not £20 million of profit. That's just £20million that we could pay in more hours to our colleagues or in lowering prices,' he said.
'So we'd like our customers to help us lower our prices even more by pointing out shoplifters and then we'll give them a quid back.'
Mr Walker's new scheme comes just months after an Iceland security guard was filmed arming himself with a shopping basket to stave off a suspected thief aiming kicks at him.
In a video capturing the moment, the shop employee is seen backing away before picking up the basket to use as a shield against the intruder at his store's entrance in Walworth, south-east London.
A customer filmed the confrontation on their phone, appearing to show the suspected offender then picking up a bag and running away down the street.
Members of the public and retail security are being encouraged to stand up to shoplifters after Matthew Barber, the Conservative Police and Crime Commissioner for Thames Valley said tackling thieves was not just a job for police and criticised onlookers for simply filming instances of crime.
Mr Barber hit out at the public for being 'part of the problem' and encouraged shop owners to to deal with thieves themselves.
At a meeting of the Thames Valley police and crime panel in June, the PCC said: 'If you've got someone in your store now stealing from you, call 999.
'Also ideally try and stop them leaving, don't just stand there and watch, which a lot of people do, which frustrates me.'
He added that he wasn't suggesting everybody 'take it upon themselves to rugby tackle' shoplifters but that everyone should take on the responsibility in their own communities.
Mr Barber then doubled down on his comments and said he was concerned that the UK had become a 'very poor society' with the public simply refusing to involve themselves in tackling crime.