Supermarket violence: Foodstuffs reveals sharp increase in retail crime, increase in violent attacks on staff

One of the country’s biggest supermarket chains has recorded an alarming increase in retail crime and vicious assaults on staff across its 320 supermarkets in the North Island.

Supermarket giant Foodstuffs released disturbing footage of offenders, including one wielding an iron bar, attacking workers.

Another person was caught on video aggressively punching a staff member in the head.

Serious incidents such as burglary, assault, robbery, and other aggressive, violent, and threatening behaviour have gone up by 36 per cent year on year between February and April.

Retail crime rates have increased by 37.8 per cent for the same period - this equates to a total of 3285 incidents of retail crime or around 37 incidents a day. Shoplifting has increased by 57 per cent.

Supermarket giant Foodstuffs says they have seen a 36 per cent increase in aggressive behaviour. Image / Supplied

“Our grocers have never seen retail crime at these levels. It’s an extremely concerning trend and it’s unacceptable,” said chief executive of Foodstuffs North Island Chris Quin.

“Retail crime is coming through the front doors of grocery stores and impacting our teams every day. Grocers are focused on keeping their people safe and that means investing in de-escalation and conflict management training and helping people to cope in a situation which involves aggression,” says Quin.

“I see the reports of what our store owners and their people are dealing with on a daily basis, and it’s distressing when we have people threatening our team members with weapons and throwing punches. Every New Zealander has the right to work in a safe and secure environment and not be threatened, assaulted, spat on, yelled at, or racially abused as they go about their working day.”

Chief executive of Foodstuffs North Island, Chris Quin.

Foodstuffs North Islands’ security and loss prevention teams identified incidents of co-ordinated crime involving individuals or groups who are stealing to order and to on-sell.

In one case, which is currently before the courts, tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of non-perishable goods were stolen over a period of months and shipped overseas.

In another incident, one repeat offender stole 31 whole eye, scotch, and sirloin fillets over a period of weeks, valued at almost $3200.

“The trend we’re increasingly seeing is professional criminals who’re stealing brand-specific goods to order. That’s not something we’ve seen before at these levels.”

The number of reported repeat offenders has increased by 34 per cent from last year and repeat offenders are responsible for 36 per cent of all reported retail crime incidents.

“There’s no postcode for the current wave of crime. It’s in the cities, the regions, and in our small communities too. It’s right across the North Island,” said Quin.

“To really address this complex issue, we need strong collaboration between Government, Police, community leaders and business owners. Our grocers and our co-operative is committed to working together with communities to tackle retail crime.”

The FoodStuffs group includes New World, PaK’nSave and Four Square stores.