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Iceland’s Managing Director Richard Walker explained the supermarket is seeing a concerning rise in shoplifting incidents.
The retailer’s boss also said aggressive incidents have been reported in Iceland’s stores.
Mr Walker claimed these are going up “because people are struggling”.
He explained: “We’re not the police and we do have security guards in some stores.
“But they will give a written warning or ban the customer from the store if they get aggressive.”
He continued: “I get the serious incident reports every week of aggressive behaviour that goes on in our stores.
“Unfortunately it is going up because people are struggling.”
This comes as Iceland and other supermarkets are seeing sales fall at a rate “not seen since the depth of the pandemic”.
According to last month’s BRC-KPMG retail sales monitor report, the total retail sales dropped by one percent in June.
This makes it the third fall in a row this year.
Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium (BRC), explained that “sales volumes are falling to a rate not seen since the depths of the pandemic”.
This is “as inflation continues to bite, and households cut back spending”.
She continued: “Discretionary purchases were hit hard, especially white goods and homeware, while consumers also traded down to cheaper brands in food and non-food alike.
“While the Jubilee weekend gave food sales a temporary boost, and fashion sales benefitted from the summer holiday and wedding season, this was not enough to counter the substantial slowdown in consumer spending.”
Earlier this month, Iceland announced it was going to reduce hundreds of items to just 1p due to the cost of living crisis.
The offer included food shop essentials such as milk, bread and butter.
Richard Walker, Managing Director at Iceland, commented: “We’re continuing to work hard to ensure our customers are being supported as much as possible as the cost of living continues to rise.
“We’re committed to helping our customers as much as we can at this difficult time and will continue to do so.”
Iceland also offers shoppers free next delivery when they spend £40 online.
There is also an option to have groceries delivered the same day if you’re shopping in stores.
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