One of London’s most famous high streets have tried a new method to stop shoplifting from their stores.
The Strand in the West End of the city has seen an uptick in shoplifting, prompting shops to enact a ‘locked door’ policy from now on.
Signs warning shoppers to wait to be let in have been put up on doors, with one reading: ‘Please knock and a member of staff will be with you shortly.’
Shoplifting incidents have risen 20% year-on-year to 2024, reaching the highest level since records began, according to official figures.
A source told The Sun: ‘The Strand is one of London’s busiest shopping streets and it’s shocking that store managers are having to introduce this last-resort measure.’
There were 530,643 reported shoplifting offences in the year to March, a 20% increase on 2024, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
In London, retailers are often helpless when it comes to addressing the major issue.
Violence and intimidation of workers is also of huge concern to groups representing retail and security workers.
The rising cost of living has been widely cited as the key reason fuelling the surge in retail crime, with research showing a link between deprivation and the hardest-hit areas nationally.
Counter-measures taken by retailers include replacing products on shelves with dummy products or label tags, investing in better CCTV, hiring security guards and body cameras for staff.
Last year, a network of shoplifters managed to steal at least £73,000 worth of champagne from British shops before trafficking it abroad.
The group wear Bluetooth headsets to communicate while committing the thievery in the ‘mafia-style’ operation.
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Emmeline Taylor, Professor of Criminology at City St George’s University of London, previously told Metro: ‘Criminals are just very quick to adapt, and that sets them apart in terms of how professional they are.
‘They’re approaching this as a business, rather than being just opportunistic.’
Professor Taylor said the epidemic has caused some bigger chains to say they might close out of concern for not operating safely.
By her analysis, she estimates that less than 3% of shoplifting offences are reported to the police. Of those, over half are closed with no suspects identified.
‘When you put those two figures together, you can quite confidently say theft has been decriminalised in the UK,’ she added.
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