retail environment
Iceland boss uses TV appearance to appeal to customers not to be aggressive
The managing director of Iceland has appealed to shoppers on breakfast television not to be violent and aggressive in his stores.
Richard Walker, Managing Director of Iceland, made an appearance on Good Morning Britain in July where he urged shoppers not to begin shoplifting or become aggressive in stores.
The frozen supermarket's boss has said that a rise in shoplifting and aggressive incidents have been triggered by the cost-of-living crisis.
His warning comes as millions of households are struggling to make ends meet after inflation reached 9.4% - a 40-year high.
Walker said: "I get the serious incident reports every week of aggressive behaviour that goes on in our stores and unfortunately it is going up because people are struggling."
One of the hosts was taken aback by the worrying rise and quizzed Walker on how supermarket staff deal with shoplifters.
He explained: "We're not the police and we do have security guards in some stores, but they will give a written warning or ban the customer from the store if they get aggressive."
Iceland has launched a series of initiatives to help ease the cost-of-living crisis for shoppers. The supermarket chain reduced the threshold for free delivery and has frozen the price of hundreds of £1 value lines.
Viewers following the show on Twitter praised the supermarket chain for taking action to help shoppers. Jasmine commented: "I like the boss of Iceland...at least he's trying."
David added: "Very impressed by the boss of Iceland."
