54% of Shop Workers Face Weekly Abuse, Retail Trust Survey Finds

More than half of UK shop workers now face abuse every week, according to a survey of 1,138 retail employees published by the Retail Trust on 9 November. The figure stands at 54%, up from 33% two years ago and 43% last year.

The numbers give store operators a retention problem they can quantify. Nearly half of respondents, 48%, said worsening customer behaviour had pushed them to consider leaving their job or the retail industry altogether. That figure rose from 43% in 2025. Among workers affected by abuse, 70% reported feeling stressed or anxious about going to work.

How severe is the abuse?

The survey measured specific incident types. It found:

• 79% of respondents had experienced an abusive or violent situation in the past 12 months.
• 23% had experienced a physical attack, such as being hit or kicked.
• 38% said they or a colleague had been filmed without consent, up from 30% last year.

The findings sit inside a broader crime picture. The British Retail Consortium's Crime Report, published in February, recorded an average of 1,600 incidents of violence and abuse against retail workers every day last year. That average fell from 2,000 the previous year but remains well above pre-pandemic levels.

For retailers, the data point to a cost line that rarely appears in accounts: staff turnover driven by customer behaviour, and the training and recruitment spend that follows it.

What is the Retail Trust doing about it?

The charity launched its Let's Respect Retail campaign on 9 November, ahead of the Christmas trading peak. It runs in partnership with the Association of Convenience Stores, the shopworkers' union Usdaw and the National Business Crime Centre.

Messages will appear in stores, shopping centres, cinemas and transport hubs across the UK. The campaign asks shoppers to begin interactions with staff with a simple greeting. Its design rests on a survey finding that 83% of retail employees believe a positive customer interaction can help them recover from a negative experience.

Chris Brook-Carter, Chief Executive of the Retail Trust, said: "Our country's shop workers have had enough of being shouted at, threatened, and treated with contempt."

He added that behaviour once considered unacceptable was increasingly seen as "part of the job". That normalisation, he argued, damages confidence and morale and drives people out of the sector.

What does this mean for retailers?

The survey arrives at the start of the busiest trading weeks of the year, when temporary staff join permanent teams on shop floors. Brands and store groups that treat the findings as a workforce risk rather than a public relations matter will face questions on staffing levels, incident reporting and support for frontline employees.

The campaign partners, which span the convenience sector, organised labour and policing through the National Business Crime Centre, signal that the issue now reaches beyond individual employers. With 48% of surveyed workers weighing an exit from the industry, retention through the festive period and beyond will test how retailers convert campaign messaging into workplace practice.