Discount Retail Chain Aldi UK (German family owned) has become the latest supermarket to offer staff body-worn cameras in a bid to deter shoplifters. Chief executive Giles Hurley said the move was being trialled in a handful of the supermarket’s stores as crime rates across its portfolio surged.
“There’s an uptick in shoplifting across the industry and we’re not immune to that,” he said. With body cams, we currently have a trial which is underway in part of our business, exploring what benefits we can derive from that for our colleagues.
“We have an absolutely fantastic team here at Aldi and we are very clear that they should expect a safe and secure working environment and it is therefore a priority for us.”
Hurley said the cameras were among “a range of security measures in place”, which also include checking customers’ shopping bags at the checkouts, to respond to the rise in crime.
“Our management teams are well attuned to monitoring those and tightening them when there are localised issues,” he said. “It’s something that we’re working on with and through the industry to try and drive improvements.”
His comments come as Aldi reported its profits had rocketed 196% to £178.7m in the year to December 2022 thanks to “a new generation of savvy shoppers turning their back on traditional, full price supermarkets”. Tesco revealed at the start of the month that shop workers had been offered body cameras following an increase in violent attacks.
Fellow grocer Morrisons has also launched a body-worn camera trial in 25 of its locations, with the possibility of rolling it out further, in response to the recent wave of crime.
