Woolworths New Zealand has detailed its investment in making its stores safer for customers and team members.
In the last few years, the retailer says it has seen a “significant increase” in “aggressive, threatening and brazen behaviour” from offenders in stores, along with a “marked rise” in shoplifting and retail crime incidents.
Woolworths NZ Managing Director Spencer Sonn says the trend is unacceptable, and keeping customers and team safe in stores is an absolute priority for the business.
“The behaviour our team and customers see and experience every day in our stores is simply not good enough, and we won’t tolerate it. We’re stepping up our security and safety measures across our network to combat this and make ourselves a much harder target for retail crime,” he says.
“Our team comes to work every day to serve our local communities. They don’t deserve to be abused, verbally or physically assaulted for simply showing up to do their job. Hearing our team describe some of what they see and experience on the frontline is simply disgraceful.
“We’ve been working to introduce a number of new initiatives in our stores, and New Zealanders can expect to see further changes in their local area in the coming months and years.
“We also know our strong relationships with both local and national police, community groups and other retailers are critical – and we’re continuing to further build these.”
Woolworths NZ already has a number of different safety and security measures in place including specific team training, store design initiatives, push to talk radios and the use of CCTV. All of these will continue alongside the new measures.
New initiatives
- Trolley lock systems are in place in 12 stores, with a further 30 stores to be implemented within the next two months. The system uses a smart wheel lock technology to stop trolley push outs.
- New camera technology at self-checkouts is now live in four stores with a further 16 stores to have the technology by the end of 2023, with a plan to implement more from early 2024.
- Double entry gates are in place in 12 stores.
- Push to talk radios are now in place in all stores.