Fed-up workers at a Melbourne supermarket have been captured on camera fighting back against suspected thieves.
The shop’s owners say they don’t want staff putting themselves in harm’s way but claim police aren’t doing enough to stop the skyrocketing number of thefts.
When Charie Galizia saw one of her colleagues wrestling with a suspected cigarette thief, she armed herself by throwing a roll of paper towels.
“You get very angry and upset,” Galizia, said.
“Why these people do this?”
It’s not the first time the dedicated workers at East Melbourne IGA have taken on people they suspect are shoplifters.
Theft, particularly alcohol, is costing Sam Bedi almost half a million dollars a year across nine IGA stores in Melbourne.
“They confront them. But it’s not their job. It’s the police’s job,” Bedi said.
“They get a slap on the wrist and they keep coming back.”
The escalating abuse and violence towards retail staff has the union worried.
“We’ve had instances where members have been knifed in those sorts of circumstances,” Michael Donovan from the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association union said.
“We can’t afford to put retail workers’ lives at risk.”
Tougher penalties for offenders won’t be introduced into parliament until next year.
The owners of the East Melbourne store are now considering installing locked cages around the liquor and cigarette areas so customers can no longer help themselves.
But of course that security measure will come at a huge cost.
While the big retailers can afford it, Fleur Brown from the Australian Retailers Association said there is an impact
“That has to be passed onto customers as well,” Brown said.
