The supermarket becomes the largest grocer to join the Retail Trust and hundreds of other businesses in campaigning for respect for shop workers ahead of Christmas
The UK’s second biggest food retailer will call on shoppers to treat its staff with respect and kindness from next month as it becomes the latest major retailer to back the Retail Trust's Let's Respect Retail campaign and raise awareness of the impact of crime and abuse on shop workers.
Let's Respect Retail is run by the Retail Trust to tackle shop worker abuse and encourage more positive customer behaviour, with messages appearing in stores, online and on receipts in the run-up to Christmas to remind customers to show simple signs of respect.
Hundreds of other retail and leisure businesses will back the campaign in November, and the Retail Trust is also joining forces with Usdaw, the Association of Convenience Stores and the National Business Crime Centre to show the scale of retail abuse and crime. More than three quarters of shop workers told the Retail Trust they faced abuse from customers last year.
The Retail Trust also provides training and tools to help workers deal with abuse, including at Landsec's 17 shopping destinations nationwide where it is rolling out support to workers this autumn.
Tracey Clements, Chief Retail, Logistics and Supply Chain Officer at Sainsbury’s, said: “No colleague should come to work worrying about abuse, threats or violence, which can have a serious and lasting impact on their wellbeing.
“We are taking action to keep colleagues and customers safe by investing in a range of measures across our sites but no retailer can tackle this alone, which is why we’re backing the Retail Trust’s Let’s Respect Retail campaign and calling on everyone to treat retail colleagues with the kindness and respect they deserve this Christmas and beyond.”
Chris Brook-Carter, chief executive of the Retail Trust, said: “Some of the UK's biggest retail and leisure businesses have been getting behind Let's Respect Retail, showing the industry’s determination to end the unacceptable abuse and violence plaguing our shops and shopping centres and provide more help to those at risk.
“Sainsbury's support will allow us to reach millions of shoppers as we work together to ensure everyone working in retail is treated with respect. A greeting or a thank you is the very least anyone serving on our high streets should expect, but too many shop workers dealing with daily hostility and aggression are being denied even those smallest and simplest acts of courtesy.”
ENDS
About Sainsbury’s
Offering delicious, great-quality food at competitive prices has been at the heart of what we do since John James and Mary Ann Sainsbury opened our first store in 1869. Today, inspiring and delighting our customers with tasty food remains our priority and our purpose is clear – we make good food joyful, accessible and affordable for everyone, every day.
Our focus on great-value food and convenient shopping, whether in-store or online, is supported by our brands – Argos, Nectar, Tu Clothing, Habitat and Smart Charge. Sainsbury’s has more than 600 supermarkets and over 900 convenience stores. Argos is a leading digital retailer, with over 80 per cent of its sales starting online and 20 million active customers. Digital and technology enable us to adapt as customers shop differently, and our profitable, fast-growing online channels offer customers quick and convenient delivery and collection capability.
About the Retail Trust
The Retail Trust has been caring for and protecting the lives of people working in retail from 1832 onwards.
We believe the health of our colleagues is the foundation they need to flourish in both work and life. It will also help create a more sustainable and successful future for retail.
We put people at the heart of everything we do, from colleagues just starting out, right through to those at the end of their careers.
We like to remember how our very first chairman, Thomas Helps, described the purpose of the charity: “To promote the happiness and interests of those engaged in the trade....” This still holds true today. In fact it guides everything we do, why we do it and what we believe in.
We believe in it so passionately, our charity has become a movement with a very clear cause: to create hope, health and happiness for everyone in retail.
We create hope, health and happiness for everyone in retail by giving them the foundation to flourish. A foundation that provides help, humanity and feeling to all our colleagues. One that gives them the opportunity to flourish, to grow and develop now and in the future. And feel happier in everything they do.