industry focus
Is The Tide Too High to Turn for a High Street Battered by the Relentless Waves of Retail Crime?
This is not just a demand for action to fight retail crime—this is an M&S demand for action to fight retail crime, as the UK high street seemingly plumbs new depths— dropping from “flawless to lawless”.
The UK high street was once widely considered the “envy of the world”, particularly during the mid-twentieth century as a result of its unique density and accessibility to the best that money could buy—from food to fashion—as a result of its shop window to the world and branded chain stores.
While London’s Oxford Street held a reputation as a global retail pinnacle for decades, the true “golden age” for the broader UK high street was arguably between the 1960s to the early 1980s, when rising affluence and “swinging” fashion made it a bustling leisure experience. Now its grandeur has lost its lustre, with bust businesses and shuttered shops making many town and city centres no-go areas where higher than average crime and anti-social behaviour are a daily occurrence.
But retailers have had enough. Indeed, this is not just M&S calling for change—the brand is simply echoing a narrative that has been brewing on the high street for the best part of two decades. This is a play on words from the darling of the high street’s famous strapline after M&S made headlines this spring by calling out “brazen and aggressive” shop theft as well as demanding better collaboration and data sharing with the police.
The power of such a high profile brand’s intervention in the “epidemic” on the UK high street seems to have cut through and successfully put the issue back on the Government’s agenda—even though it was already a rising priority—to the point that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer suggested in April that the “tide could be turning” on shoplifting when he cited a 17 per cent rise in charge rates and a slight decrease in recent police-recorded shop theft.
The Government highlights tougher policing as a result of the Crime and Policing Act which came into force in April which scrapped the rule that ignored thefts under £200—the so-called “shoplifters’ charter”—as evidence that action against retail crime is increasing.
But M&S, recognised by many consumers as the embodiment of the UK high street, remained unconvinced and made two direct interventions in as many weeks, both of which suggested Sir Keir’s tide turning analogy was out of step with the daily reality for most retailers.
Firstly, in the wake of a wave of social-media enabled anti-social behaviour incidents in Clapham in late March, M&S’s retail director Thinus Keeve warned crime is getting “more brazen, more organised, and more aggressive”.
M&S’s CEO Stuart Machin wrote to the Government and London Mayor Sadiq Khan to say: “Without a Government seriously cracking down on crime and a Mayor that prioritises effective policing, we are powerless”.
He was referring to sudden unrest involving scores of teenagers swept up in a Snapchat and TikTok “link-up” in the south London borough. More than about 100 officers responded to anti-social behaviour in a number of stores, four of whom were assaulted, along with one member of the public.
The incident was not isolated. A mob of youths sparked havoc in Birmingham over the Easter holidays as a wave of teenage disorder went viral on social media. Again, swathes of teens gathered in the city centre on the last day of term, forcing shops to shut as police battled to control the school children.
Hooded youths were seen storming through the streets, clashing with police and each other as they descended on shops and fast-food restaurants.
Again, this was social media-led and nothing new, an issue we will look at later on in this article as we explore the evolving crime landscape and the backlash against the all-powerful platforms.
Second Intervention
In the second M&S intervention on retail crime, chairman Archie Norman hinted that the brand may move away from self-checkouts (SCOs) to bring customer service back into stores but added that the retailer was receiving “very little help from the police”.
“I think we have to accept the police are not interested in this sort of crime anymore. Whether we like it or not, that’s the way it’s gone”.
Of course, SCOs have also brought their own level of crime from so-called middle class “swipers”—Seemingly Well-Intentioned Patrons Engaging in Routine Shoplifting—a phrase coined by criminologist Professor Emmeline Taylor, to describe people who typically do not view themselves as criminals but regularly steal or underpay at self-service checkouts.
Archie Norman also questioned claims that crime rates are falling in the capital.
He said: “I keep hearing crime is falling, especially in London— something none of us believe, and very few people working in retail would see”.
In fact, we see the absolute opposite on our high streets and in our stores, where our colleagues are on the receiving end of abuse and violence in their workplace every day.
Lack of Consequences
The common themes at play here are the stubborn pockets of poor police response and what many still believe to be a low priority view of law enforcement toward retail crime, a factor that is breeding a subsequent sense of impunity because of the lack of consequence. Those involved in organised and opportunistic crime understand that even if they are caught there is very little chance of them seeing the inside of a courtroom let alone a jail cell—even if there was one to put them in as a result of Britain’s already overcrowded prison estate.
Consequently, even people who would regard themselves as law abiding citizens are happy to steal or receive items that they know to be stolen such as tobacco, alcohol, and in recent months chocolate as a result of sticky-fingered thieves stealing confectionery to order (see page 15).
In the letter to the Government, Stuart Machin added: “It is worse in London, but it is happening across the country, and it is becoming routine, because it seems there are no consequences”.
“Our colleagues come to work to serve customers, build relationships and take pride in what they do. Instead, too many are dealing with theft, intimidation and verbal and physical abuse as part of their daily reality. That erodes confidence. It impacts well-being and it drives people out of the industry”.
M&S is not alone in uncovering evidence of a general high street lawlessness. The media, with the BBC at the vanguard, have carried out widespread investigations into pop-up mini-marts, some even run by illegal immigrants, selling counterfeit tobacco and even drugs.
The BBC investigation found cocaine, cannabis, laughing gas, and prescription pills being offered for sale in mini-marts on UK high streets.
They were readily offered to undercover researchers who secretly filmed in shops across four neighbouring West Midlands towns.
One street the BBC visited was unofficially described as “lawless” by police.
Just a few miles away, in a town where the BBC found illegal drugs being sold in shops, legitimate businesses said they had been intimidated by gangs and witnessed knife and gun violence.
“I’ve got weed, coke, everything. Whatever you want, I can sort you out”, a man behind the counter at a mini-mart in Cradley Heath, told undercover reporters who had come to the Black Country town as part of its year-long investigation after a law enforcement whistleblower had suggested that drug gangs were out of control along its 300 metre stretch of high street.
Across the country, shopfronts are being exploited by organised criminal gangs that have gained a foothold pushing illegal drugs, according to the National Crime Agency (NCA) and the Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI).
BBC researchers analysed dozens of recent local news reports as part of the Corporation’s ongoing investigation into criminal activity on UK high streets. From Bideford in Devon, to Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, to Belfast in Northern Ireland, it found that drugs, including crystal meth and heroin had been found in more than 70 shops and linked premises.
Responding to the BBC findings, a senior Labour MP is now calling on the Government to act urgently. “We can’t restore our high streets unless we take out the cancer of organised crime”, said Liam Byrne, chair of the Business and Trade Committee and MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill.
In response to the BBC report, the Government is working with police, the NCA, and Trading Standards to “take the strongest possible action against these criminal businesses”, a spokesperson for the Home Office said. West Midlands Police said it would always work with partners “to act on complaints about illegal drugs sales, anti-social behaviour, and crime and disorder”.
Social Media
As mentioned earlier, much of the illegal activity is driven by the irresistible and rapacious force of social media platforms. This has already been well-documented in Loss Prevention Magazine Europe. In the summer issue of 2023, we highlighted a social media “hashtag heist” campaign being waged against Primark/Penneys in Ireland and parts of the UK. The brand, headquartered in Dublin, became the target of widespread steaming gangs moving through their stores carrying out industrial levels of shoplifting. Ostensibly, this looked like a very physical crime not dissimilar to those orchestrated by retail gangs across Europe over many years. But this had a distinct twist where the rewards were not cash but kudos.
Like many stores, Primark has previously been targeted by grab and run activities, the nature of these raids displayed certain common behaviours and all the hallmarks of a concerted criminal campaign rather than ad-hoc or random store theft. Drilling down into the data, the store’s profit protection analysts uncovered the source of the issue, which was a TikTok trend encouraging users of the social media platform famous for its user-generated videos to start #borrowing or #renting from Primark and posting their “results” online.
The content, which also went under the hashtags of #borrowingfromprimark, #renting…tipssss, also gave advice on how to steal, remove labels, and how to avoid detection if challenged (pretend to be on your phone and walk away).
To its credit, TikTok at that time worked closely with Primark to identify and disrupt the activity through a process of “devirilisation” by hundreds of safety moderators on the platform preventing the “likes” from being viewed or responded to. This kind of collaboration was welcomed by retailers three years ago although not widely publicised or adopted by other platforms.
In what has become an algorithm-driven and ever-connected landscape, the hashtag indexes, keywords or topics allow people to easily follow topics they are interested in. An agnostic tool, it provides connectivity to the disconnected and brings together the like-minded and, indeed, whatever is on their minds, good or bad.
In this regard it aids the proliferation of online trends, fashion or indeed digital scams that once shared around a global community wedded to their smartphones becomes a truth, or alternative reality, even though it may break the physical law of the land. In this new frontier world of user-generated content, the #(hashtag) is both lawmaker and lawbreaker.
In the world of retail, scammers have exploited the metadata tag power of the hashtag to anonymise criminal activity. From forums sharing “how to” guides on everything from refund fraud and returns label manipulation on parcels to how to successfully “steam” stores under hashtags including #‘It’s a chain, it’s free reign”.
Such fraudulent activity has cost businesses dearly in lost merchandise, refunds and chargebacks, not to mention the collateral reputational damage of being held to ransom by keyboard warriors and armchair generals directing their exploits and foot soldiers from remote locations. Because the internet knows no legal jurisdiction or sovereign borders, this could be a bedsit in Brighton or an organised criminal safe or mule house in Moldova.
Again, as noted earlier, the same pattern of internet-fuelled mobilisation was taking place during the spring of 2026 but with more widespread anti-social behaviour and disruption in mind. The offending platforms can orchestrate activity at pace, leaving law enforcement with little time to respond effectively.
But as interventions such as those from M&S indicate, the attitudinal climate is changing from resignation to demands for greater powers to tackle retail crime whether it’s shoplifting or armchair fraud or mob mobilisation.
Is Social Media Experiencing Its “Tobacco Moment”?
As proven by the recent high-profile case of the young woman who secured a 6-million-dollar compensation package from Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram for deliberately creating addictive algorithms, social media is currently experiencing a significant reckoning, often described as a “comeuppance” or “digital reckoning”.
Some commentators have even referred to this as the sector’s “tobacco moment”—the point where the potential for harmful effects are widely accepted and proven, which has been driven by intense legal scrutiny and increased levels of regulatory action. After years of unchecked growth, major platforms like Meta, TikTok, and YouTube are facing accountability for such addictive algorithms, potential user harm, and data privacy issues.
They are also coming under fire from legislators around child safety concerns. The Online Safety Act (OSA) soon to become law in the UK to stop harmful content being viewed by children provides powers to pursue fines of up to 10 per cent of a social media company’s global turnover. The Government is also looking to introduce implement tougher rules around access to social media among young people such as the schools ban recently introduced in Australia.
Data Sharing
Fighting retail crime during a cost-of-living crisis where it seems that many feel entitled to steal, can seem like a hopeless case. Retailers are notorious at under-reporting the crimes committed against them partly because of the productivity time it takes to file cases and deliver evidence, but also because of a general pervasive sense of “what’s the point, the police won’t respond anyway” attitude. Not reporting is not the answer. Reporting creates data, a crime reference, and ultimately determines police resource and deployment.
This was part of the thrust of the letter to the Government from M&S’s CEO Stuart Machin who said: “It’s a clear ask: Support our police. Help them show up in our communities when and where we need them. Give them the resources they need to tackle crime effectively and ensure they work with retailers to consistently use the tools we’ve developed to share data and help them actively target offenders”.
“This is not complicated. The capability exists. The data exists. The investment has been made. Time is up; we need to deal with this now”.
“The industry is not standing still. Retailers have invested billions in security, technology, and loss prevention. At M&S we’ve invested more in the last year than ever before—tens of millions to protect our stores, our stock, and most importantly our people, using tools like Auror, a crime fighting partnership which helps us identify repeat offenders and work more effectively with police forces”.
“But investment alone is not enough and the level of crime we face in so many communities is not something retailers can solve alone. We put in cameras, guards, and systems, but it does not stop colleagues being abused or stores being damaged”.
“We need a stronger, faster and more consistent police response, using tools that already exist to target repeat offenders and crime hotspots”.
“And we need far greater transparency on crime so the true scale and impact is understood and can be used to target resources”.
The views of M&S chime with those of retail consultant Tom Nicholson, the former head of resilience and security at Starbucks in the UK who refers to the “missing link” between police and the retail community.
“The missing link between retailers and police isn’t technology or intent; it’s often down to reporting culture and what happens to data once it exists.”
“Retailers are often sitting on valuable intelligence that never reaches police in a usable form, which often means that police are making decisions without the full picture. When both sides are properly aligned, the outcomes improve significantly. The challenge is that alignment rarely happens consistently or at scale.”
“I have real examples of this in working practice from my role at Starbucks. By analysing the times and days of incidents across a national retail estate, patterns emerged that directly informed police engagement and allowed staffing to be tailored to meet the risk at the right times. That data became a genuine unlock; not just for loss prevention, but for meaningful collaboration with the local police.”
“The tools, reporting platforms, and police partnerships all often exist. What’s often missing is the cultural shift that makes consistent, quality reporting the default behaviour on both sides, positive outputs from the reporting, and the operational understanding of both worlds needed to make that shift happen in practice— that’s the missing link,” he added.
There are many examples of good practice between the law enforcement and retail communities with both recognising the financial challenges and pressures police officers are placed under. The public purse is empty so the success of collaborations such as BIDs, Business Crime Reduction Partnerships, the National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service (NaVCIS), and Opal are all predicated on the private support from the business community. All rely on data analytics and access to evidence and, overall, the reporting of crime in the first instance.
However, the failing confidence of the same retail business community could reverse all of the good work that has come to pass and result in fewer cases being reported to police, a factor that could be behind Sir Keir Starmer’s ill-judged insistence that the tide is turning on shoplifting. Reconnecting the data with the decision makers is not just an M&S ask, but a driver for the whole of the UK high street.
