Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, most Americans only considered retail workers as frontline workers on Black Friday—those who stood between them and an unbelievable deal on a doorbuster.
That perception changed drastically during the height of the health emergency. No longer solely responsible for delivering top-notch customer service, many retail workers’ responsibilities increased dramatically. From enforcing mask mandates and adding “bouncer” to their job descriptions to adjudicating customer disputes over stock shortages and de-escalating serious conflicts, employees had more to do despite skeleton crews.
STATE LEGISLATORS WEIGH IN
While the pendulum is swinging back from COVID-19, retail remains a hard job. And with increasing industry challenges that retail leaders face, including leveling inflationary pressures and combating organized retail crime syndicates, it’s harder than ever for the customer-facing staff. As senior leaders work to solve these broader fiscal issues, every store manager, team lead, sales associate, cashier, and loss prevention specialist experiences the effects of retail’s recent trickle-down economics on the sales floor every day.
State legislators are taking notice. California’s workplace violence prevention law, the first in the nation, goes into effect July 1, 2024. It will require nearly all California employers to implement written prevention plans, provide training, and maintain incident logs.
New York’s Retail Worker Safety Act, currently awaiting Gov. Kathy Hochul’s signature, takes safety precautions a step further with mandated security guards and panic buttons. Lawmakers in Minnesota are following California’s lead with the recent introduction of the state’s Retail Worker and Consumer Safety Violence Prevention Act.
“As a retail worker in New York City, I have been harassed, threatened, and intimidated numerous times, simply for doing my job,” Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union member Sherry Perkov, who works at a large luxury retailer, said in a press release. “This is why we need the Retail Worker Safety Act: It will force employers to take my safety, and the safety of my coworkers, seriously.”
These challenges demonstrate why 86% of retail workers say they are “scared every day” at work, according to Theatro’s 2024 Retail Worker Safety Survey. And with good reason, as shoppers’ ire directed toward workers continues to increase, and, in the worst-case scenarios, escalates to fatal violence, as it did in Pleasanton, California, Philadelphia, and Chicago.
This troubling trend, backed by consequential data, suggests a substantial increase in violent incidents occurring in retail settings. In 2022, reporters at The New York Times analyzed FBI data and found that from 2018 to 2020, assaults in grocery stores rose by 63%. The increase was even higher for convenience stores (75%). Even more startling, an FBI 2021 report on active shootings stated that 32 of 61 incidents happened in “areas of commerce.”
“Retail is the most open, uncontrolled environment,” Head of Retail, Go to Market and former asset protection leader at The Home Depot Matt Kelley said. “It truly is public access and really hard to control an open environment like that.”
ADDRESSING THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM
Workplace incivility is a significant issue. A study by Harvard Business Review revealed that 78% of retail employees believe that customers’ rude behavior toward workers occurs much more frequently than it did five years ago. These findings support those of Waitwhile’s 2023 Employee Sentiment Report: Retail, where nearly 70% of surveyed employees stated that they regularly face tense situations at work, with over 20% encountering aggravated or openly hostile customers on a daily basis.
It's a concern that undoubtedly keeps U.S. employers up at night and why retail leaders are working to level up their employee security strategies. Working in retail is one of the highest-risk jobs for workplace violence, according to the CDC and the National Security Council,which makes it more difficult to hire and retain employees. Compounding retailers’ post-pandemic staffing woes, Theatro’s survey states it is only getting harder because 73% of retail workers are considering other employment options.
Despite retailers offering employee training on appropriate ways to handle customer interactions, identify potential conflicts, and de-escalate issues, a recent study published in the Journal of Service Research reveals it may not be enough to stem the tide. Policing problem customers—increasingly forced on workers because of labor shortages and economic realities—adds a heavy burden for employees, not only to their already long list of responsibilities, but on their mental health as well.
“Front-line employees are being asked to do too much, policing the misbehavior and confronting shoplifters, often without extra money or training,” said Melanie Lorenz, Ph.D., an associate professor of marketing at Florida Atlantic University’s College of Business. “As a result, they’re leaving or throwing up their hands and using the old phrase, ‘Not my circus, not my monkeys,’ and that really has a negative impact on companies and the retailing industry as a whole.”
DIFFERENCES IN OPINION
The FAU-led study also included interviews with workers who said supervisors should shoulder the responsibility to respond to shoplifting events, as well as incivility and aggression against retail employees.
This approach would go a long way to address workers’ safety concerns. However, they also say there are gaps in training, safety protocols, and technology investment that need to be resolved. This bears out sobering statistics in the Theatro survey, illustrating the disparity between retail workers’ perceptions of management’s thinking on:
Store safety technologies: While retailers invest in safety tech, it’s important to note that workers’ confidence in these tools is low. Only 66% of retail employees believe that their store’s new security solution will summon help effectively during a crisis. Employees rate existing tech lower, with 51% of respondents saying it’s only “slightly” or “moderately” effective, while 19% said it’s “not effective at all” in ensuring worker safety.
Safety protocols: Speak with retail workers and they will tell you there are serious shortcomings with existing in-store safety plans. Their recommendations? Over 36% feel their stores need discrete emergency alert systems, 36% desire frequent training and safety drills, 33% want more on-site security personnel, and 31% believe communication devices with established codes would make the difference in an emergency situation.
Personal protection: Eighty percent of customer-facing workers don’t believe their employers’ safety practices measure up, leading them to purchase safety devices, like pepper spray, to protect themselves. Of those employees who did, 73% said they had worked a shift with their devices, and 26% reported they carry one frequently. Worryingly for employees and customers, more than half (57%) who carry a personal safety device at work considered using it six or more times over the past year due to a safety or crime threat.
Staffing levels: Many workers feel there’s safety in numbers, but there aren’t as many customer-facing employees on the clock. They believe understaffing contributes to dangerous situations, as 72% of respondents said they experienced incidents where staff couldn’t respond to a threat.
On-the-job training: Over 40% of retail employees said they did not have specialized training on how to recognize suspicious behavior, have difficult conversations, manage and control confrontations or thefts, and handle emergencies. Of those who had training, 22% said it was irrelevant to their daily work—making already difficult situations even more challenging for workers.
“Ensuring employees feel safe, valued, and protected is not just a moral obligation; it’s a business imperative that drives customer satisfaction and loyalty,” Theatro CEO Chris Todd said in a statement. “It’s incumbent upon retailers to address these critical issues immediately and invest in the worker—and by extension, invest in the organization’s long-term success.”
