The executive chairman of Iceland said he will pay customers to catch shoplifters as thieves cost the supermarket chain £20 million a year. Richard Walker said those who alert staff members to people stealing will get £1 added to their Bonus Card – Iceland’s loyalty scheme. He told Channel 5 News: “I’d actually like to announce that we will give a pound to any customer who points out a shoplifter.
“We will put it on their Bonus Card if they see any customer in our stores who are undertaking that offence.” This marks the first time a supermarket in Britain has offered rewards to customers for snitching on criminals. Mr Walker is trying to stem the staggering losses caused by shoplifters, which amount to over £20 million annually.
He said: “That’s not £20 million of profit. That’s just £20 million that we could pay in more hours to our colleagues or in lowering prices.
“So we’d like our customers to help us lower our prices even more by pointing out shoplifters and then we’ll give them a quid back.”
The supermarket boss said he believed the move would deter thieves “because some people see it as a victimless crime. It is not”.
He added: “It also keeps prices from being lowered because it’s a cost to the business, it’s a cost to the hours that we pay our colleagues, as well as it obviously being about intimidation and violence.”
Last year, there were 516,971 shoplifting crimes recorded – a 20% increase on 2023 – according to the Office for National Statistics.
This comes just days after Iceland announced it would be hiking food prices as National Insurance and minimum wage increases had shot up supplier costs.
Blaming Rachel Reeves, the supermarket said it “will inevitably have to pass [some cost increases] on to consumers”.
Iceland said: “We are doing our utmost to offset the growing input cost pressures caused by suppliers seeking to recover the increase in their own labour costs arising from last autumn’s Budget, but will inevitably have to pass some of these on to consumers, where we can do so without weakening our own price position in the marketplace.”
