>>Costcutter retailer Keith Wakeham examines the impact of troublemakers on community stores
Shops have always been targets for criminals. I’ve been in retailing 39 years, both in the independent and multiple sectors, so I’ve seen it at first hand. But over the years the number of incidents has increased and the nature of these appears to have got worse.
Unfortunately knives have been used in raids for a long time but more and more guns, or what appear to be guns, are now being used. Many of these incidents are drug-related so you never know how any situation will turn out. That’s the most frightening thing for staff - not knowing what will happen next. The safety of those who work in our stores is the most important thing to us and we’ve told all our staff to co-operate with thieves and do whatever they are told.
However, you don’t know how you will react until you actually find yourself in that situation. A couple of years ago I was serving behind the counter in one of my shops on New Year’s Day when there was an incident. Someone attempted to grab the money from the till and my reaction was to grab them - the result was that I flew over the top of the counter when they ran off. Although we’re told not to retaliate it was an instinctive reaction and I came away very bruised. I definitely would not want my staff to do anything like that.
We recently had another incident on a Friday night. Two people came in and one got behind the counter and grabbed some keys. There was a confrontation and it was very frightening for the staff - as a result one of them resigned the next day. Luckily we’ve not had too many incidents of that nature.
Youngsters attempting to buy things that they’re not legally old enough to buy, like cigarettes and alcohol, is an ongoing problem. I don’t think there’s been a massive increase in it over the years, it’s more a case of us becoming much more aware of it.
Unfortunately now the problem is more with older people buying for youngsters. It’s a difficult situation to handle because it’s hard to prove that they’re doing this. We’ve had test purchasers in here, from agencies working for Camelot or Trading Standards, and fortunately we’ve not been caught out.
As we’re running community stores most of the local kids are known to us; we see their families on a daily basis. The trouble is that test-purchase agencies send in kids who we don’t know from Adam and of course you can never tell their age so you have to
refuse to serve them. I think test purchasing has its benefits but our staff members do well to be able to pass these tests.
In a couple of our stores, because of the areas they trade in, we have raised the minimum age for buying alcohol to 21. If the person wishing to buy alcohol looks under 21 then we ask for ID. Some people get aggressive, but if this happens we politely ask them to leave. It’s tense for staff because they don’t know how the person might react but the situation usually works out.
If we were to have a national ID card everybody would know where they stood. At the moment there are a number of ID cards around and it gets confusing for everyone.
Vandalism is a major problem. We recently had a visit from MP Parmjit Dhanda to our Gloucester store as part of the Association of Convenience Stores retailer visit programme. At the shop he visited, we have had to board up all 10 windows because they kept getting broken. Each one costs between £1,500 and £2,000 to replace and recently we had to replace four in one week.
Yes, the damage is covered by our insurance but our premiums go through the roof. Now we’re having graphics put on to the boards and that’s costing us £3,000. The cost of vandalism to the business is massive and that’s without taking into account the disruption and upheaval in the store.
After saying all this community retailing might sound like more trouble than it’s worth. However 98% of our customers are salt of the earth types. It’s only the odd 2% that create problems but those problems can be very difficult to manage and control.
Shops have always been targets for criminals. I’ve been in retailing 39 years, both in the independent and multiple sectors, so I’ve seen it at first hand. But over the years the number of incidents has increased and the nature of these appears to have got worse.
Unfortunately knives have been used in raids for a long time but more and more guns, or what appear to be guns, are now being used. Many of these incidents are drug-related so you never know how any situation will turn out. That’s the most frightening thing for staff - not knowing what will happen next. The safety of those who work in our stores is the most important thing to us and we’ve told all our staff to co-operate with thieves and do whatever they are told.
However, you don’t know how you will react until you actually find yourself in that situation. A couple of years ago I was serving behind the counter in one of my shops on New Year’s Day when there was an incident. Someone attempted to grab the money from the till and my reaction was to grab them - the result was that I flew over the top of the counter when they ran off. Although we’re told not to retaliate it was an instinctive reaction and I came away very bruised. I definitely would not want my staff to do anything like that.
We recently had another incident on a Friday night. Two people came in and one got behind the counter and grabbed some keys. There was a confrontation and it was very frightening for the staff - as a result one of them resigned the next day. Luckily we’ve not had too many incidents of that nature.
Youngsters attempting to buy things that they’re not legally old enough to buy, like cigarettes and alcohol, is an ongoing problem. I don’t think there’s been a massive increase in it over the years, it’s more a case of us becoming much more aware of it.
Unfortunately now the problem is more with older people buying for youngsters. It’s a difficult situation to handle because it’s hard to prove that they’re doing this. We’ve had test purchasers in here, from agencies working for Camelot or Trading Standards, and fortunately we’ve not been caught out.
As we’re running community stores most of the local kids are known to us; we see their families on a daily basis. The trouble is that test-purchase agencies send in kids who we don’t know from Adam and of course you can never tell their age so you have to
refuse to serve them. I think test purchasing has its benefits but our staff members do well to be able to pass these tests.
In a couple of our stores, because of the areas they trade in, we have raised the minimum age for buying alcohol to 21. If the person wishing to buy alcohol looks under 21 then we ask for ID. Some people get aggressive, but if this happens we politely ask them to leave. It’s tense for staff because they don’t know how the person might react but the situation usually works out.
If we were to have a national ID card everybody would know where they stood. At the moment there are a number of ID cards around and it gets confusing for everyone.
Vandalism is a major problem. We recently had a visit from MP Parmjit Dhanda to our Gloucester store as part of the Association of Convenience Stores retailer visit programme. At the shop he visited, we have had to board up all 10 windows because they kept getting broken. Each one costs between £1,500 and £2,000 to replace and recently we had to replace four in one week.
Yes, the damage is covered by our insurance but our premiums go through the roof. Now we’re having graphics put on to the boards and that’s costing us £3,000. The cost of vandalism to the business is massive and that’s without taking into account the disruption and upheaval in the store.
After saying all this community retailing might sound like more trouble than it’s worth. However 98% of our customers are salt of the earth types. It’s only the odd 2% that create problems but those problems can be very difficult to manage and control.
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