Shoplifting forcing stores to raise prices, says Poundland co-founder

The co-founder of Poundland says retailers are facing their biggest challenge from shoplifting in more than two decades.

Wolverhampton-born businessman Steve Smith estimated the blight was costing UK businesses £18bn a year, and forcing stores to raise prices.

He witnessed an incident in Birmingham last week of a man lifting a sandwich, drink and crisps from Greggs, returning to take more after staff challenged him.

"In certain towns where shoplifting is on the increase, you'll find that prices will go up in the town so it's costing everybody money," he said.

Official figures show police forces across England and Wales, excluding the British Transport Police, recorded 502,011 shoplifting offences in 2025-26.

This is down 5% from a record high of 525,741 in 2024-25.

But it remains significantly above pre-pandemic levels, up by 50% from 334,976 in 2015-16.

"It's been a problem ever since we opened the doors of Poundland and retailers are facing the biggest challenge on shoplifting since 2003," Smith said.

"It's reported that there's 20% increase every year, and if you take into consideration that retail sales in the UK is about £500bn, the national statistics say it's 1.6% of your retail sales that goes in theft.

"But in reality, I think it's more like 3.5%. So if you take that into consideration, the country is losing £18bn plus."

BBC reporters on Monday witnessed thieves raiding a fridge in a Greggs in the Black Country for energy drinks, swearing at a female worker who challenged them.

Staff said they were advised by the company to remain behind the counter and not challenge perpetrators, instead relying on CCTV and a retail radio scheme connecting them to police.

Businessman Smith, who now lives in Shropshire, opened his first Poundland store in 1990, and sold his final shares in the business for £250m in 2006.

Describing his morning visit to Greggs, he said: "Someone came into the store, they picked a sandwich, a bag of crisps and went to walk out.

"The staff said, 'oi you've got to pay for that'."

The customer reportedly returned and said: "'Because you've told me off I'm going to take some more'. And he picked up another three baguettes and walked outside the shop."

Smith said the government and retailers needed to go further to combat the rise in incidents.

"There's quite a few retailers not doing things about it, maybe like Greggs, because they're scared that some of these people could be violent and harm the staff," he said.

"But if they don't do something, it's going to get worse and there's going to be a lot more places closed down."

He added that some businesses had suggested fining customers found stealing, like train companies do with passengers found without a ticket.

"To try and say to customers, it's cheaper to pay for the stock than it is to steal it."

Policing Minister Sarah Jones said a 4% dip in the number of shoplifting offences this year showed progress was being made, "but we all know there is a lot further that we need to go and a lot more we need to do".

The Home Office said prolific offenders often had drug addictions or other challenges.

"We are looking at what we can do with that cohort of persistent offenders, how do we make sure they get the punishment they need, maybe the drug treatment that they need and, if they're not in prison, how are we making sure they're not coming into these shops."

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