{"id":61108,"date":"2025-08-17T13:42:44","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T13:42:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/lancashire-police-advises-greeting-customers-deters-shoplifters\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T13:42:45","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T13:42:45","slug":"lancashire-police-advises-greeting-customers-deters-shoplifters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/lancashire-police-advises-greeting-customers-deters-shoplifters\/","title":{"rendered":"Lancashire Police advises greeting customers deters shoplifters"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Angela Ferguson<\/span><\/p>\n

BBC News, Lancashire<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"EPAEPA<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Shoplifting cost retailers and customers \u00a32.2bn a year, the British Retail Association said<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Shop owners should greet customers as soon as they enter a store in a bid to deter shoplifters, police have advised.<\/p>\n

Lancashire Police said shoplifters can assess how easy it is to steal from a shop by how soon after they enter they are spoken to by a member of staff, in what is known as “the three-to-five second rule”.<\/p>\n

“By greeting genuine shoppers, not only does this provide a positive impression of your store, it also deters potential shoplifters,” the force said. <\/p>\n

The advice comes as retailers said theft was spiralling out of control<\/a> with the highest levels across England and Wales since current records began two decades ago.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In July, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said there were 530,643 reported shoplifting offences in the year to March, which is a 20% increase from the previous year.<\/p>\n

British Retailers Association director Tom Ironside said the ONS figures “prove what retailers have long been telling us – that retail theft is spiralling out of control”.<\/p>\n

He said such theft triggered violence and abuse towards staff and cost retailers and customers \u00a32.2bn a year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

‘Aggressive when challenged’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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Lancashire Police issued the advice to retailers in an online guide – Securing your shop from shoplifters – as part of Operation Vulture, which tackles shoplifting.<\/p>\n

“If a thief thinks they’ve been spotted they’re more likely to leave,” the guide said.<\/p>\n

But it also urged caution as “shoplifters could respond aggressively when challenged”.<\/p>\n

It advised staff to keep a safe distance, ask if the person needed help or a basket, and to step away and alert a manager or security if they felt uncomfortable.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The force also warned that thieves targeted stores where there was only one member of staff, “so have a few members of staff and make sure they’re trained in how to spot shoplifters”.<\/p>\n

It said Operation Vulture also involved hotspot patrols, increased visibility in targeted areas, and working with retailers to understand retail crime and identify offenders.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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Angela Ferguson BBC News, Lancashire EPA Shoplifting cost retailers and customers \u00a32.2bn a year, the British Retail Association said Shop owners should greet customers as soon as they enter a store in a bid to deter shoplifters, police have advised. Lancashire Police said shoplifters can assess how easy it is to steal from a shop […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":61109,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[53],"tags":[8117,232,18181,18180,1804,599,18182],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61108"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61108"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61110,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61108\/revisions\/61110"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}