Store bosses say self-service machines and not enough police cause more theft
Introduction
Archie Norman, the boss of Marks & Spencer, says self-service checkouts make good people steal. The machines have problems and no staff help. He also wants more police after many teenagers stole from a store. Simon Roberts, the boss of Sainsbury's, also wants more police. His store uses face recognition to stop crime. Official numbers show a small drop in shoplifting but a big rise in robberies. This may be because the government changed how they count crimes.
Main Body
Mr. Norman says self-service machines break the link between store and shopper. Items do not scan and no staff help. Good people then take things without paying. He does not want to go back to full staff. He wants better machines. Marks & Spencer added 800 new self-service machines in 2023 to save money. Mr. Norman talks about an incident in Clapham. Over 100 teenagers came into the store and took things. He says this is a police problem. He wants police to act. Mr. Roberts of Sainsbury's agrees. His store uses face recognition to keep staff safe. In stores with this system, incidents fell by 46%. 92% of people caught did not come back. He wants more police to show the problem is serious. Official crime numbers show 509,566 shoplifting incidents last year. That is a 1% drop from before. But the Home Office changed the rules in April 2025. Now theft with violence or threats is called robbery of business property, not shoplifting. This may explain why shoplifting numbers went down a little and robberies went up 78%. Robberies rose from 14,691 in 2024 to 26,158 in 2025. So the numbers may not show the real situation.
Conclusion
Retail leaders say the problem comes from bad technology and not enough police. Official numbers may not tell the full story because of new rules. The situation is important for stores. They want better technology and more police.