Retail crime, including reoffending, theft and violent behaviour, continues to be a challenge for shopping centres and retailers according to new research from The Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association’s (SDA) No One Deserves a Serve campaign that ran during the Christmas 2023 retail trading period.

The campaign conducted in partnership with the Shopping Centre Council of Australia (SCCA) and the National Retail Association (NRA) saw the No One Deserve a Serve ads run for free nationally. It ran for 47 days in 2023 from the Melbourne Cup until Christmas Eve, with $6 million in commercial advertising value provided to the campaign by SCCA members.

The campaign aimed to ensure that retail workers are treated with respect as a recent SDA study found that over 85 per cent of retail workers have experienced abusive behaviour from customers.

“We’re really pleased to partner with the SDA and NRA to run the No One Deserve a Serve campaign ads across our digital screens for the 2023 Christmas trading period,” Angus Nardi, Chief Executive of the SCCA, commented. I’m incredibly proud of our members’ $6 million investment to support the campaign, and that the ads were seen by more than 200 million customers across more than 275 shopping centres.”

“The central purpose of the campaign is retail worker safety, and I look forward to continued engagement with the SDA and NRA on this important issue,” Nardi added. “While most people do the right thing, unfortunately retail crime continues to be a major challenge including with reoffending, brazen theft, violence and use of weapons.

“We’ll continue to engage with Governments on this pressing public policy issue, alongside our industry’s dedicated community safety and security taskforce,” Nardi concluded.

This story was originally published on Inside Small Business.