United Kingdom

"Mr Murphy write in the Mail on Sunday that a law should be introduced to make abuse or violence towards retail workers an offence in its own right across the UK"

Is brandishing a knife at someone not already an offense?

Surely the problem is a shameful lack of policing and more people falling into poverty following 15 years of tory rule. how is creating an offense out of something that is already an offense going to change anything?

Used to work in a pretty sizable Sainsbury's up until last year. I never dealt with physical abuse from a customer, but I did hear about a fair bit of it, especially from the female members of staff.

Customers would come in and start being incredibly inappropriate to them. You'd hear that one customer had patted them on the bottom, or grabbed their hand. One customer would routinely come in and start trying to kiss my partner's hand (we worked together). You report this behaviour to management and at best it's laughed off.

Don't even get me started on the behaviour some customers think they're entitled to push on staff who are unfortunate enough to have to do reductions in the evening; grabbing, pushing, shouting, you name it, it's done. Management are adamant it has to be done on the shop floor though, why? You tell me.

Ultimately what I'm trying to say is that a lot of these sort of things might be less prominent if management came out and backed their colleagues when a customer was showing signs of being a t*at. Fitting them with cameras makes it look like another profit protection measure.

I went to Asda not long after lockdown had lifted the first time and said something standard to the lady on the checkout like "long day?" and she looked at me with hollow eyes and told me that when she'd told a woman they'd run out of toilet roll the customer spat in her face. Some people are the worst.

If someone is already assaulting a member of staff, what stops them just stealing the camera?

Call me cynical, but it sounds like a disguise for a profit protection thing.

After 1900 our Tesco local has their doors locked and you have to be let in. Why are people such pricks. I work on the railway and someone threatened to stab me over a £4 ticket the other day. I just fucking hate people.

A camera is a deterrent at best. If someone is intent on shanking you to death, they will do it with the cameras on or off. The only protection the camera will give you is it may stop the blade if it gets struck. And that’s maybe good for like one hit?

If I was given this as a safety feature I would quit and find a new place to work. Fuck that shit.

The video in that article is wild, what the actual fuck

Honestly, how long until all of us are wearing body cameras so we have accurate evidence of what is happening?

Ik someone who works in Sainsbury's and she wears a bodycamera