Retailers, policing bodies and businesses are coming together to promote the #ShopKind campaign, taking place on the week commencing June 30.
ShopKind is supported by a wide range of stakeholders such as the British Retail Consortium, Usdaw, and the Home Office to encourage kind behaviour in shops and acknowledge the essential role of shopworkers in our communities, as well as raising awareness about the scale and impact of abuse they face.
The campaign comes as the Crime and Policing Bill continues to pass through parliament, which introduces a variety of measures to protect convenience stores and tackle retail crime.
These include increasing police presence in neighbourhoods and high streets, introducing a standalone offence for assaulting a shopworker, and using interventions to help take offenders out of the cycle of reoffending.
Figures from USDAW, the Shopworkers Union, show that 77% of shopworkers were verbally abused and 53% were threatened at work over the last year.
Policing Minister, Dame Diana Johnson said: “Stealing from shops and abusing retail staff is unacceptable and the government wholeheartedly supports the #ShopKind campaign.
“We are taking robust action to stop this criminality and are bringing in a new specific offence for assaulting retail workers and have ended the effective immunity for shop theft of goods under £200.
“After years of declining police officer presence in our communities, we are putting 3,000 more neighbourhood police officers onto our streets this year, which will better protect our town centres and help restore public confidence in communities.”
James Lowman, ACS chief executive said: “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. 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.”
Paddy Lillis - Usdaw General Secretary said: “Usdaw very much welcomes the #ShopKind campaign, which brings together voices from across the retail sector, politicians and the police to promote a message of respect for retail workers.
"These are key workers delivering essential services in every community and we stand together to say that abuse should not be a part of their job.”
Helen Dickinson OBE, Chief Executive of the British Retail Consortium, said: “As the number of incidents of violence and abuse against our hard-working retail colleagues rises, the #ShopKind campaign is more important than ever.
"Victims are ordinary people - teenagers taking on their first job, carers looking for part-time work, parents working around childcare. It is unacceptable that any of these people should ever go to work fearing for their safety.
"We remind customers to shop kind and be respectful to retail workers and fellow customers.”
Paul Gerrard, Director of Campaigns and Public Affairs, Co-op, said: “Co-op is dedicated to the need for healthy and more resilient high streets, where people and communities can thrive and grow, and where anti-social behaviour, abuse, and violence has no place.
"We are seeing improvements with greater collaboration between businesses, policing and, Government action including the creation of a standalone offence for assaulting a shop worker, the scrapping of the £200 limit for shop theft and, commitments to tackling neighbourhood crime. Co-op supports the #Shopkind campaign.”
Lindsay Haselhurst, Chief Operating Officer at Currys, said: “The rising level of retail crime and aggression towards retail workers is unacceptable. Effectively tackling this issue requires collaboration between retailers, law enforcement, and the Government, which is why we’re delighted to be supporting #ShopKind Week.”
To help promote the campaign, retailers can download materials from the official National Business Crime Centre website. These include posters they can print out and hang up in store, as well as social media assets to promote the campaign online.
Retailers are also able to develop their own assets as long as they follow the brand guidelines, which are available here.