West Australian Police have revealed more than 400 people were charged with assaulting retail workers over the past year as shopping centres record an unprecedented spike in violence.
Local police attended the Australian Retailers Association Retail Crime Symposium in Melbourne last month, an event sparked in part by the Bondi Junction stabbing.
The statistics come after a series of high profile incidents around WA.
The event was held by the Australian Retailers Association, which said their statistics showed violence and serious incidents have gone up by about 30 per cent compared to last year.
“There have been 800,000 retail crime incidents reported across Australia in the past year, and 16 per cent of all events reported into the platform include threatening or violent behaviour,” a spokesperson said.
“More than half of those events are classified as ‘serious’, meaning they involve physical abuse, violence, or the use of a weapon.”
The association said events involving knives and blades were up by more than 40 per cent last year, and made up more than 50 per cent of all events involving weapons.
In Western Australia, a man wielding a knife set off a number of flares at Joondalup Shopping Centre, and a teen was jailed after coward-punching another boy at Ellenbrook Shopping Centre.
A WA Police spokesperson said while data revealed a drop in retail theft, there was an increase in offences against other people in shopping centres.
“Current police data – comparing financial years 2024/25 to 2023/24 – shows a decline in reported retail theft; attributable mainly to better in store technology and sharing of information such as [automatic number plate recognition] and CCTV directly between retail operators and police,” they said.
“Current police data – comparing financial years 2024/25 to 2023/24 – shows an increase in reported offences against the person within retail premises; attributable to improved staff awareness and incident reporting.”
WA police said they had charged more than 400 people with assaulting retail workers since lawmakers introduced the offence in July last year.
Older workers ‘more at risk of violence than Gen Z’
Scott Harris teaches resilience, de-escalation and safety for workplaces like Bunnings, Woolworths and Coles, and also presented at the symposium.
He said violence in shopping centres and against retailers had gotten worse over the last five years for a number of reasons.
“I think that people have maybe lost a little bit of kindness, empathy and respect we had,” he said.
Harris teaches businesses how to safely deal with shoplifting and irate customers, and said much of his training focused on teaching older staff against the “old way of doing things”.
“It’s the older team that have been around longer that get really frustrated when they see theft,” he said.
“It’s the older team that are used to that culture that used to exist where people tried to prevent stealing.
“A really interesting statistic is that 80 per cent of violence in retail is when people are trying to stop theft.
“That’s a really high number.”
Harris said in fact, the younger generation was better at keeping themselves safe in a volatile situation by “staying out of it”.
“What we hate to see more is violence against retail workers, and I think the younger team members seem to be quite sensible. They’re doing a really good job,” Harris said.
However, Harris said younger staff sometimes experienced a different kind of harm when dealing with crime that businesses now needed to consider.
“It’s psychosocial harm as well,” Harris said.
“When you start to look at the cost of WorkCover claim, just to do a claim can cost about $5,000 - then an ongoing claim anywhere can cost anywhere to $15,000 upwards, and something that’s long term could end up costing $200,000 [in insurance].”
Bunnings said they were experiencing the spike in violence firsthand.Credit: Louie Douvis
A study conducted by the ARA found about 41 per cent of retailers identified mental and emotional harm as the most significant consequence of retail crime, and more than 80 per cent placed mental health impacts in their top three concerns.
Australian retailers like Bunnings and Woolworths also attended the summit.
“Across the retail sector, abuse, threats and assaults in stores continue to rise, with a 50 per cent increase at Bunnings over the last two years,” a spokesperson said.
“Statistics don’t convey the real impact this has on the lives of our team and our customers, however. Everyone deserves to feel safe at work. No one should have to come to work and face verbal abuse, threats, physical violence or have weapons pulled on them.
“Our training programs have a strong focus on resilience, handling difficult or threatening situations, and knowing when and how to escalate for support, so that team members feel prepared and supported in managing the different situations that can arise in stores.”
Woolworths uses initiatives including virtual reality training to help store teams learn how to handle violent situations.
“We’ve been using this training for a number of years and will continue to do so, alongside other initiatives, to help our teams prepare as best as they can for a difficult scenario,” a spokesperson said.
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