Boots is a unique company in terms of both preventative policy and the attention the policy has generated in the news.
Without reading any more than just the bold print, it’s quite clear that Boots has a stringent policy against shoplifting, and it works.
According to Boots’ Privacy Policy, they use CCTV devices to record images within Boots stores. Those images may be used against shoplifters. Recorded CCTV images may also be used in the event of credit card fraud within the store.
What is Boots?
Boots UK Limited sounds like a premium boot store but, in reality, they are a health and beauty retailer, with a splash of pharmaceutical odds and ends. It’s a huge retailer throughout the UK and Ireland, with roughly 2,000 stores in the UK alone.
Established in 1849, Boots is not going anywhere anytime soon, with nearly a century of retail experience.
Boots has its hands in and out of a variety of different products, whether it’s laser eye surgery (which they sold to Alliance Unichem in 2004) or botox.
In the early years of the new millennium, Boots became a private company, after it was purchased by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts.
How Does Boots Prevent Shoplifting?
It’s a fairly straightforward policy. However, Boots often takes it a step further, using both CCTV cameras and automated recordings.
Boots is not just a pharmacy, health, and beauty store. They also maintain a CCTV monitoring center that has access to live CCTV footage for all 2,000 Boots stores throughout the United Kingdom.
A team of Security Operations Specialists works at the monitoring center, where they keep an eye on the 18 screens which are linked to the cameras in all of the Boots locations.
It’s not just the cameras. If that was all there was to it, catching shoplifters would be far more randomized.
Every store employee also has access to a ‘panic button,’ which they can use any time they think a customer is acting in an odd or threatening manner.
In roughly 350 Boots stores, personnel wears body cameras, which they can activate at any time, but especially when they feel threatened.
When would-be thieves are caught on camera, an automated message is played over the store’s loudspeakers, which achieves two things. Number one, it lets the shoplifter know they’ve been caught and their face is on camera.
Number two, it places the spotlight on them, knowing that everyone in the store, from the employees to the other customers, now knows there is a shoplifter within.
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Boots’ Health and Safety Policy
Boots doesn’t necessarily have a “shoplifting policy” per se. The company calls it its Health and Safety Policy. According to this policy, “We actively care for customers, colleagues, visitors, contractors and others who interact with our business, as we work to help people to feel good every day.”
This policy includes “management systems” (the aforementioned CCTV security cameras in all of the stores), along with advice on safety parameters and Boot’s belief that “no one should be harmed as a result of working, visiting, or shopping with us.”
Reading Boots’ Health and Safety Policy sounds kind of like a paramilitary management program and process, with a hardline stance on protecting consumers and employees alike.
Regardless, it’s difficult to lay out the level of and reasoning for the security process and policy instituted by Boots without delving into statistics.
Shoplifting, whether you are in the UK or the United States, is becoming more and more prevalent. From small, petty theft to large, mass-group shoplifting efforts that sometimes remove thousands of dollars or pounds in merchandise from the stores.
Shoplifting Statistics in the UK
Since Boots is primarily a UK and Ireland store, the statistics for shoplifting in the UK are far more pertinent than elsewhere in the world. According to the Office for National Statistics, there were 8 million ‘theft incidents in British stores throughout the year in 2022.
Even worse, it’s not an anomaly, but an overall, upward trend from 2016. According to data obtained and analyzed by the BBC, there were 33,000 shoplifting incidents in March 2022 alone—occurring across England, North Ireland, and Wales.
According to Boots, each time a suspected shoplifter is caught on camera, an automated voice recording is issued through the store speakers.
The following is the announcement would-be thieves hear: “Be aware we are actively monitoring this store. Put the items back and leave the store. You are being recorded and the police will be contacted.
Boots’ Security Force – My Local Bobby
Boots doesn’t conduct its own security and anti-shoplifting force, nor do they entirely depend on the local police. Instead, Boots turned to My Local Bobby, a security services provider created because of a lack of local police force resources.
My Local Bobby was formed in 2016 and has since become the primary security force for a number of large brands throughout the UK. They employ 40 full-time Bobbies and have 6 local Bobby Patrol Vehicles.
My Local Bobby doesn’t work alone, however, as its sister company—TM-Eye—a private investigative and prosecutor company, functions as a supplemental resource to My Local Bobby’s growing personnel and infrastructure.
My Local Bobby offers four, primary services: Corporate security, residential security, public realm security, and personal security services.
Its primary headquarters is in London, England, however, its operations are spread out all through the UK.
Other Boots Actions to Deter Shoplifters
Some Boots stores throughout the UK have taken other actions that go beyond bodycams, CCTV cameras, and recorded messages over the loudspeakers.
One of those actions is to take make-up and toiletries off the shelves, either placing them behind glass cases or taking them out of sight completely.
For now, customers are forced to order what they want, which they can come in and pick up at another time or, they can order online for home delivery. The only other option is to purchase what is there, on the shelves.
Of course, anything left on the shelves in the select Boots stores that are instituting this policy (hopefully it’s as temporary as it can be) is bound to be the cheaper product lines, which won’t cost the company nearly as much if they are swiped from the shelves.
According to Cambridge News, two shoplifters were given jail time for stealing roughly £52.50 in merchandise from a Boots retailer in the Horsefair Shopping Centre in Wisbech.
This is just one small example of the reasoning behind all of the above measures that Boots, along with other retailers, regardless of the product type, are taking to deter would-be or serial shoplifters.
All Things Considered
As it is, the number of shoplifting incidents has created a negative atmosphere and led to a number of strengthened shoplifting policies. Boots is just one of many retailers doing just that.
With its state-of-the-art security monitoring center, and thousands of CCTV cameras integrated into its security network, Boots is no longer playing around. In some cases, they are seeking civil litigation against shoplifters.
With the current environment of rising shoplifting incidents throughout the UK, Boots and other retailers will only continue to bolster their security infrastructure.
Either that, or they will simply remove their products from the shelves, forcing customers to purchase their products online or through in-store delivery.
Reference Sources
https://www.boots-uk.com/media/4212/health-and-safety-policy-october-2018.pdf