#ShopKind Week, a campaign run by The Home Office and Association of Convenience Stores (ACS), returns this week, starting today (30 June 2025).

The week-long campaign, which is supported by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and retailers including Currys, Co-op, Greggs and Morrisons, aims to raise awareness of the impact of abuse, threats and violence in shops. It brings together retailers, trade unions, police forces and government in a show of unity against levels of unacceptable behaviour experienced by retail workers.

“We are proud to deliver the #ShopKind campaign this year and are grateful for the widespread support it has received from across the sector and our customers,” James Lowman, Chief Executive of the ACS, said. “We hope that the campaign reminds everyone to be considerate to shopworkers, and that it will continue to raise awareness about the violence and abuse that they face when serving their communities.”

“As the number of incidents of violence and abuse against our hard-working retail colleagues rises, the ShopKind campaign is more important than ever,” Helen Dickinson OBE, Chief Executive of the BRC, commented.

A growing epidemic of retail crime

Official figures from the ONS showed that shoplifting offences in England and Wales rose +20% year-on-year, with more than half a million instances recorded in the 12months to December 2024.

A total of 516,971 retail theft offences were reported to police last year, compared to 429,873 in the previous year, marking the highest number of shoplifting instances since records began. 

The BRC’s Annual Crime Survey showed that, in response, retailers are now spending £1.8billion pounds on crime prevention measures, a rise of +52% on the previous year, in a bid to protect customers and colleagues.

Retailers fight back

Retailers, including Currys and Greggs, have been looking at ways to improve colleague and customer safety.

Greggs has opted to remove self-serve fridges in some of its bakeries as it attempts to fit crime in shoplifting hotspots across its store network – some of which were experiencing theft attempts every 20 minutes. It has also turned to tech, testing body cameras (body cams) as a further precautionary measure in some select stores last year.

Also putting technology central to its store safety procedures, Currys has rolled out VoCoVo headsets to all its UK&I stores as part of its largest ever annual investment in store safety and security. The headsets allow store staff to stay connected and feel safer on the shop floor.

“Incidents of shoplifting and aggression against retail workers are continuing to rise at a completely unacceptable level,” Currys’ Director of UK Stores, Matthew Speight, said. He added the headsets, alongside a range of other store safety measures, were allowing the retailer to “put its best foot forward” in protecting colleagues and customers.

“The rising level of retail crime and aggression towards retail workers is unacceptable,” said Lindsay Haselhurst, Chief Operating Officer at Currys. “Effectively tackling this issue requires collaboration between retailers, law enforcement and the Government, which is why we’re delighted to be supporting #ShopKind Week.”

2025 marks the fifth #ShopKind Week, with over 170 retailers, trade bodies and law enforcement organisations taking part since the campaign launched in 2021.