Supermarket chain Iceland is set to offer customers a £1 reward for actively spotting and reporting shoplifters in their stores.
Richard Walker, the retailer’s executive chairman, confirmed that shoppers who alert staff to offenders will receive the payment directly to their membership card.
The move comes as the business faces an estimated £20 million annual hit from the cost of shoplifting.
He added the £20 million cost of theft limits the amount that the company can pay back out to its colleague and restrains its ability to lower prices.
Mr Walker told Channel Five news that shoplifting is not a “victimless crime”.
“I’d like to announce that we will give £1 to any customer who points out a shoplifter.
“We’ll put it on their bonus card, if they see any customers in our stores who is undertaking that offence.
“Some people see this as a victimless crime; it is not.
“It also keeps prices from being lowered because it is a cost to the business.
“It’s a cost to the hours we pay our colleagues, as well as it being about intimidation and violence.”
“We’d like customers to help us lower our prices even more by pointing out shoplifters,” Mr Walker added.
Last month, official figures revealed that the number of shoplifting offences recorded by police in England and Wales climbed to another record high.
Some 530,643 offences were logged in the year to March 2025, up 20% from 444,022 in 2023-24 and the highest total since current police recording practices began in 2002-03.
At the time, retail bosses warned that shop theft was spiralling out of control and that business owners need to see immediate results as ministers have pledged thousands more officers for neighbourhood policing by next spring.
Association of Convenience Stores chief executive James Lowman said the recorded figures show more crimes are being reported, but this is still “far too low”, with many retailers having “no faith” in incidents being investigated.
