As part of our ongoing commitment to the responsible promotion, sale and supply of alcohol beverage products, and to making retail liquor stores safe, secure and respectful environments, Retail Drinks recently released its latest research report titled Retail Liquor Industry Safety & Security.
The aim of the research was to shed new light on security issues specific to liquor retailing, including the location, nature and frequency of incidents throughout Australia. Developed in partnership with Axon and Circana, the research considered survey feedback and insights from more than 1,000 retail liquor stores across all parts of the country, from store owners, staff and importantly, their customers.
The report’s key findings reveal that:
- 11 per cent of all customers had witnessed an incident.
- Almost 50 per cent of staff experience security incidents weekly or more.
- 40 per cent of customers have changed their shopping behaviour due to safety concerns.
- Only 47 per cent of security incidents are reported to police, with many citing low confidences in response outcomes.
- Most stores operate without the necessary security measures in place, largely due to prohibitive costs.
The research was completed against a backdrop of daily security incidents occurring across the country, with Victorian and Queensland liquor stores being the worst affected. Liquor is unfortunately one of the most stolen items across all of retail due to its portability, high value and ease of consumption.
Alarmingly, when asked about safety and security in their current store environment, 45 per cent of retail liquor store owners and staff said that they did not feel safe. Of these respondents, 11 per cent said that they felt unsafe, four per cent felt very unsafe and 30 per cent said they felt neither safe nor unsafe.
Critically, the research also examined responses from retail liquor store owners, staff and their customers when faced with a security incident. Interestingly, store owners and staff were more likely to confront the perpetrators, which more often escalated the incident. Moreover, a significant number of incidents were not being reported to police. This unfortunately means that official government statistics on crime in retail liquor stores are not a true indication of the actual problem, which is widespread, national, and getting worse.
When customers were asked about their responses to incidents, 40 per cent said they changed their behaviour, including shopping on different days or at a different time of day, spending less time in the store, shifting to shopping online, or even not returning to that store at all.
The findings demonstrate a strong commercial need for store owners to prioritise security concerns as there is a strong likelihood that customers won’t come back.
Armed with this new data and insights, Retail Drinks is calling for three key steps at a state and territory government level to help address escalating liquor store crime.
- Strengthen legal deterrents including mandatory sentences for repeat retail crime offenders.
- Establish a government-funded program to help retailers install modern security measures like CCTV, duress alarms, and entry barriers.
- Improve police engagement through prioritised incident reporting and faster response times.
Taken together, we believe this three-pronged approach will make a real difference to the rates of retail liquor crime currently being experienced across the country.
This article was written by Michael Waters, CEO of Retail Drinks Australia, and originally appeared in the June-July issue of National Liquor News.