SHOP staff are being abused and assaulted at an alarming rate — with 1,600 incidents recorded every day, figures show.
The total has fallen from 2,000 a day last year — but staff are still “working in fear”, according to officials at the British Retail Consortium.
Its annual crime report found 118 cases of physical violence a day.
And worryingly, there were an average of 36 incidents per day involving a weapon.
Abuse ranges from shouting and threats to racist or homophobic slurs, and from pushes and shoves to outright attacks.
Retailers say they have spent more than £5billion on prevention and protection over the past five years, paying for security guards, CCTV and body-worn cameras.
Despite this, there were 5.5million detected incidents of shoplifting last year, costing retailers nearly £400million — but with many thefts going undetected, the true cost is likely to be much higher.
BRC boss Helen Dickinson said: “This drop in violence and abuse has been hard-won, but the job is far from done as numbers of incidents remain almost four times those of pre-pandemic levels.
“Violence remains endemic.
“No one should go to work fearing for their safety, and we must redouble our efforts to bring these numbers much further down once and for all.
“For the sake of the three million hardworking people in retail, this work must not stop.”
£1.1bn FOR ROBOTAXIS
WAYVE, the self-driving car firm set to launch robotaxis in London this year, has raised £1.1billion from investors including Uber, Microsoft and Nvidia.
It has secured £890million through a funding round backed by the major tech firms, institutional investors and car makers, with Uber investing extra funds to help deliver its driverless taxi plans.
The Series D funding round, one of the largest ever for a British start-up, values the London-based business at around £6.4billion. Mercedes-Benz and Nissan have also injected cash.
STREAM CURBS
NETFLIX, Prime Video and Disney+ could soon face tougher UK oversight, as the Government moves to bring major streaming platforms under Ofcom regulation.
Video-on-demand services with more than 500,000 users will be required to follow standards similar to those laid down by the Broadcasting Code for traditional TV.
Ofcom will investigate viewer complaints and have the power to act if rules are broken.
UP THE CHARTS
STANDARD CHARTERED banked a strong 2025 — benefitting from jittery global trade and swelling ranks of rich customers.
The lender said its pre-tax profit rose to £5.2billion from £4.5billion.
Wealth income surged 24 per cent, while its global banking arm grew by 15 per cent.
The group added 275,000 new affluent clients and also attracted £38.6billion of net new money to the company.
