Self-checkouts fuelling rise in shoplifting among ‘good, honest people’, M&S chair warns
Self-checkouts fuelling rise in shoplifting among ‘good, honest people’, M&S chair warns
Dan HaygarthFri, April 24, 2026 at 8:42 AM UTC
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Self-checkouts are driving an increase in shoplifting among “good, honest people”, according to the chair of Marks & Spencer.
Archie Norman, who has led the retailer since 2017, told The Telegraph that the “human link” between customers and shops has been broken by the presence of automated checkouts, though he said that supermarkets should not have to remove them if they wish to reduce theft.
Mr Norman told the newspaper: “When normally good, honest people come in and they’re buying their shopping and it doesn’t scan, and there’s nobody manning the checkouts, they’re saying: ‘It’s not my fault and I don’t have much time so if I can’t get my strawberries through, I’ll just put them in my basket’.”
The company’s chair, who was the MP for Tunbridge Wells from 1997 to 2001, said levels of theft mean that shops have “to make the technology easier for people to use”.
Archie Norman has been the M&S chair since 2017 (PA)
It comes after the M&S Food store in Clapham, south London, was targeted when a group of teenagers stormed the streets of the neighbourhood as part of an Easter holiday “link up”, causing people to barricade themselves within shops.
Footage appeared to show huge crowds of young people, many wearing masks, gathering on Clapham High Street at the end of March, with several supermarkets forced to close their doors.
About the incidents in Clapham, Mr Norman said self-checkouts, which are now ubiquitous in British supermarkets, were not to blame, instead calling for a more active response from the police.
He said: “When you have gangs of kids coming in and sweeping the shelves, that’s a police event and it requires an active police response.
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“When something like that starts to become common, it says to everybody, including ordinary citizens, that it’s not safe.”
Statistics from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that shoplifting offences declined by one per cent to 509,566 in the year ending December 2025.
However, Lucy Whing, crime policy adviser at the British Retail Consortium (BRC), said that the ONS statistics “underestimate” the issue, as it only captures reported incidents. According to the BRC, there were 5.5 million detected incidents of theft last year.
A shoplifting warning sign in a supermarket in central London (Alamy/PA)
Ms Whing said: “The causes are manifold, but the rise in organised crime is particularly worrying as gangs systematically target one store after another across the country.”
The Metropolitan Police said this week it is solving 50 per cent more shoplifting cases in areas trialling new technology designed to rapidly identify suspects.
Technology allowing retailers to submit reports and CCTV footage instantly has been piloted in areas such as Lewisham and central London since January.
According to the Met, providing officers with immediate access to high‑quality evidence at the point of reporting makes identifying repeat offenders operating across boroughs easier.
Since its rollout, the positive outcome rate – defined as an arrest, charge or conviction – is 21.4 per cent, above the Met average of 14 per cent.
Last year, the Met said it solved almost twice as many shoplifting offences and made almost 50 per cent more arrests.
Source: “AOL Breaking”
