LONDON, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Violence against retail workers soared and the cost of theft to retailers went up greatly in the United Kingdom (UK) last year, as the retail crimes reached a "crisis" level, a survey showed on Wednesday.
A 50-percent increase in levels of retail violence and abuse, to 1,300 incidents a day, was reported by the British Retail Consortium's (BRC) survey. The cost of theft doubled to 1.8 billion British pounds (2.3 billion U.S. dollars) in 2022/23 with over 45,000 incidents a day.
"Despite retailers investing huge sums in crime prevention, violence and abuse against retail workers is climbing," BRC Chief Executive Helen Dickinson said in a statement, adding, "This is a crisis that demands action now."
The crime survey covers the period from September 2022 to August 2023.
