Tuggy Meyer at Huntsworth Wine in central London, and Lucie Parker at Jeroboams, give their insight into how shoplifting is affecting indies. By Jacob Stokes
In the year to June 2024, reports of shoplifting in England and Wales increased by 29% compared with the previous 12-month period. That’s the highest level since records began in 2003. Independent wine merchants are clearly at risk of losing valuable stock to thieves.
Do you think shoplifting is organised or opportunist?
Tuggy: Most of the time it’s organised and deliberate, mainly by a select few repeat offenders. A grab-and-run kind of scenario has happened in the past, but it’s unusual.
There are certain situations that set off alarm bells in my head. They often appear in pairs, with the most confident one acting as a distraction by engaging in conversation, often requesting an expensive wine. They will wait until there’s an added factor, like the phone ringing or another customer coming in, for their moment to leave your sightline and pocket whatever they can see. A previous thief had multiple hidden pockets in his jacket.
Lucie: A bit of both. When the person coming in grabs the first bottle they see, this is opportunistic and potentially just for drinking. When it’s grande marque Champagne, we think it is stolen to order.
These thieves are brazen and experienced. They will walk in openly, fill their pockets and leave. Even when known to staff and asked to leave, they carry on regardless.
What products are targeted?
Tuggy: It depends on the shoplifter. Some will take whatever they can get their hands on and will literally go from shop to shop grabbing whatever they find.
In the case of people teaming up and having someone engage in conversation, they often target Champagne, and a real giveaway is when someone is asking about Krug or Dom Perignon, and when told we don’t have those in stock, will then jump right down to Moët & Chandon. A giveaway that they don’t care about what they’re looking at.
Lucie: Champagne is the number one product that is stolen. It’s always a well-known brand with a widely-known value.
What measures can be taken to deter thieves?
Tuggy: It’s about being savvy and trusting your instincts. If you have suspicions about someone, don’t give them any opportunity. Lock the door so that no one else can get in. If the phone rings, don’t answer. Always stay with them. If they want something that’s downstairs or in the back, refuse. Of course, there are times when I’ll get it wrong and might lose a genuine customer. But with over 40 years as a shopkeeper, I trust my instincts for that kind of thing.
Lucie: We have CCTV in all our shops. Whilst this doesn’t deter the shoplifters initially, it has led to arrests. When Champagne thefts were at an all-time high, we removed stock from our shelves and replaced it with signage saying we had the wines but had tucked them away in a safe place. The thieves saw the stock wasn’t available and stopped coming in.
We’ve also used dummy bottles. It would be great if Champagne houses provided these as a matter of course to retailers; it keeps their brand present and our stock safe. We’ve also now started using security tags on high-value stock. In the past, we’ve tried locking the shop doors, but this creates a significant barrier to customers. We always have two people working to ensure that the shop floor is never left unattended.
Do the police ever catch the thieves?
Tuggy: No, the police can’t do anything. We must get involved ourselves if we want the crime resolving. There is a WhatsApp group chat with all the surrounding businesses: we pool any relevant information there, like CCTV images, warnings and pre-warnings of shoplifting, descriptions of culprits and so on.
For example, when the local antiques shop had £12,000 worth of stock stolen, we had an image of the thief. And they’re a bit thick: he came back two days later, attempting to steal from another local shop. One of the people on the WhatsApp group had seen him and rang me. So, we converged on the shop he was at, waited outside and didn’t let him go. When the police arrived, they arrested him and took him back to his flat, but the antiques weren’t there. So absolutely nothing came of it and there was no follow-up to the lady who had lost £12,000 worth of stock. I’m afraid it’s just simply pathetic.
They [the police] ask you to upload images online and say they can’t deal with any of it in person. In other words, it’s up to us. If it wasn’t for us circulating the messages and physically catching the guy he would never have even been arrested.
Forty-two years ago, when I first owned a shop, you had a big local bobby, and you’d exchange information with him and that was useful. But all of that’s gone out of the window now. I don’t even call 999 because it just takes way too long. You must be proactive with people in your neighbourhood.
Lucie: When we file a report and provide CCTV images, some arrests have been made, but this is definitely not always the case.
What is the cost, both financially and emotionally?
Tuggy: There’s emotional and psychological damage, no question. I’ve been surrounded by people who you might expect to be carrying knives. I know people who have been held up at knifepoint. These experiences stay with you. When the door opens unexpectedly on a dark winter’s night, it takes you right back.
Lucie: The cost to our business across our 10 shops has been high, in the tens of thousands in terms of stock stolen across a year. It also takes time to report the thefts, come up with solutions to prevent them in future and make sure our staff teams are OK. Unfortunately, we have had physical threats to our staff teams. Our advice when dealing with shoplifters is always not to intervene and to protect their own welfare. Stock is replaceable. People are not.
BIRMINGHAM BUSINESSES FIGHT BACK
Phil Innes is owner of Loki Wines, which has a branch in the centre of Birmingham as well as premises in Edgbaston and Solihull. He says that shoplifting has been tackled in the city with the help of some well-organised initiatives.
“We were getting targeted several times a day on some occasions,” he says. “A mixture of clearly organised stuff with snatch-and-grab thefts common as well. But we have had a success story here in Birmingham.
“I sit on the board of something called Central BID, which is a business improvement district, and recently shoplifting was the biggest concern for all members. So, we started a programme three months ago, working with the police and the council to really focus on retail crime.
“For example, in our Central BID offices, we have two police officers there permanently. Their job is only to look at retail crime and action it. And then we’ve got someone from the council side, also working full time.
“Each member of the BID pays 1.5% on top of their rates to the organisation. The funding is then collected by the council and allocated to pay for the fleet. In effect we pay for the wages of the two police officers and all the BID wardens who patrol the area – this dedicates them to this task all the time.
“We are targeting specific people. It isn’t a scattergun approach. It is a deep dive, working with our teams on the ground. Our several BID wardens, most of whom are ex-police officers, know the district well and know all the perpetrators.
“The wardens will make a citizen’s arrest and report it to our offices through our radio network. It is then logged as a crime by our police officers, and they then go to the scene and make a proper arrest.
“In these first three months, we have taken 87 people to conviction. We have gone from several instances of shoplifting a day, to not even one over the Christmas period. It proves that if you put the money there and have that official structure in place, you will get results.”
