Waitrose Sacks Worker for Stopping Shoplifter

What is the point of a security guard?

I’ve always thought of Waitrose as the posh supermarket. It’s where people don’t just buy milk, they buy “Essential Organic Semi-Skimmed” from a cow that probably has private healthcare. The kind of place where the loudest noise is usually someone tutting at a slightly overpriced sourdough.

Turns out their famous middle-class civility has limits, and those limits come in the shape of a chocolate Easter egg.

Walker Smith, 54, working at the supermarket’s Clapham Junction branch in south London, spotted a shoplifter clearing out the Lindt Gold Bunny display. Instead of doing the modern thing and filling in a risk assessment form, he actually stepped in, grabbed the bag back, and sent the thief packing.

Seventeen years of service, one moment of common sense, and bang, sacked for gross misconduct.

The company says it’s all about health and safety, because of course it does. We can’t have staff putting themselves at risk over a few Easter eggs, right? That makes sense but it implies your rule is that anyone can have free Easter eggs as long as they are a wrong ’un.

Even if you want your security staff to stand there and passively deter crime you’re sending the wrong message by sacking the individual.

We’re constantly told there’s a shoplifting epidemic. Police won’t touch it, retailers are losing millions, and the solution from head office is to sack the only person who actually did something about it. No wonder Batman was so grumpy.

I’m not convinced a “passive observation” policy is going to make the staff on the shop floor feel meaningfully supported. The only way watching someone shoplift will help is if they have the theft equivalent of a shy bladder.

Last week the boss of M&S said Sadiq Khan was too soft on crime. Then the boss of Iceland agreed. Then Waitrose takes the side of the shoplifter. It was going so well.

What is the point of a security guard if they don’t guard anything or increase security? If all they do is stand by the exit they’re simply making it easier for the criminals to spot where they have to run out.

I’ll be sticking to my local corner shop for now. At least there the owner still has the right to chase you down the street with a broom if you try it on. At Waitrose they’d probably offer the thief a complimentary rabbit and a loyalty card.