To be shocked by what DD told me about her workplace?

What an enchanting world we live in. Time for a purge!!!

Problem is in my store the SLs steal 6-8 bottles of spirits which is £90-250, depending on what it is.

I used to work in a garage and we had to put a code lock on the door for this reason. I think it did deter people a bit but I would never stop someone from using the toilet or stop them from shoplifting as it's not worth the risk. They could become aggressive if the staff refused to give them the code. Unfortunately, I've seen it happen. We had people come into the shop (Esso garage with a spar shop) shoplifting all the time but the police would take days to come.

Your advice was very sensible. I am glad he followed it.

There was an horrific incident recently in a cafe in Belper, one of the workers was stabbed as after allowing the person to use the bathroom he wouldn’t let him charge his phone. Tory Britain just gets worse and more lawless.

I worked in a fast food restaurant in a city centre 20 years ago and we’d see it all the time then. The state that some people would leave the toilets in still makes me feel like vomiting - on the floor, smeared on the walls. I mean, who even does that?!
I remember getting a warning because I refused to unblock a backed up toilet because it was like something off Trainspotting. My £3.75 an hour was in no way enough for that!!

I should imagine that this happens in most food outlets in iffy areas or even very populated areas. The police have bigger priorities to deal with and their budgets are finite.
Your DD could regards this as discovering the real world out there and her safety is with the company she works for. Their policies she should follow.

The police don't come for shoplifting any more. The rules changed a while back and I think for thefts under £75 value there's no prosecution, just a verbal warning. People used to use a loose brick adjacent to my shop, as a drop/collect point for drugs. The police knew but took no action, so far as I was aware.

The only reason to go into Greggs is to use the toilet for a wee if you ask me.

If you pay attention, you will see that this is everywhere you go.

When my son was a 17 he worked for a well-known outdoor retailer, when they had shoplifters who left the shop, he was delegated to chase them. Considering he was once held up by gunpoint, myself and his father told him not to. We told him to wait round the corner from the store and then go back and say he couldn't catch them. All that for minimum wage.

This is why in my opinion all public bathrooms should come with needle disposal bins. It makes the whole situation safer and won’t, as so many always counter argue suddenly make more people inject drugs!

Round here it’s the massive cream chargers that are used for nitrous oxide hits. Seen a driver doing hippy crack whilst driving. Having the cream charger between legs, blowing balloons from them then inhaling balloons. He was swerving all over the place.

OP your DD is not having to dispose of the needles. And it will be because she is 17. She is legally still a child and is covered by safeguarding legislation. It is why many businesses will not employ under 18s. Once she turns 18 she may be given the training and be disposing of needles as appropriate.

YANBU but it doesn't surprise me. The UK has the highest amount of alcoholism now I think even more than Scotland (sorry Scottish MNrs) and our kids drink more than anywhere else too.

Drugs are rife, I didn't realise how much of a problem nitros oxide is with Asian men in England. That bbc drug map programme is an eye opener and not a very nice one.

Drug deaths have been rising since 2012 and it's split between opiates and cocaine (ONS stats). There's an ongoing debate about the Government setting up drug consumption rooms. If they were widely available, it would cut down people shooting up public toilets.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/jan/11/drug-consumption-rooms-could-save-thousands-of-uk-lives-study-finds

Unfortunately, shitty behaviour requires sanctions, shame and barriers to solve. Shoplifting has gone up thanks to the cost of living crisis - criminal gangs have a growing market of people prepared to turn a blind eye so they can eat. I think shops will bring in their own measures - in my town the independent stores warn each other if a prolific shoplifter or gang are in the area and they have locked their doors in some instances, to stop the thieves from coming in.

It is low paid workers who do the most dangerous jobs.

God, imagine your life if its come to shooting up in Greggs...

It's not unreasonable to want your child to be safe at work, and to have had training for things which could have potentially dangerous outcomes. But no, I'm not surprised by this at all; nor am I surprised they don't ring the police. This happened regularly in the fast food place I worked in as a teenager 30 years ago.

Sadly that seems to be the case with a great many issues / wrongs in our society. When someone dies all hell breaks loose and suddenly actions is taken, yet the cause is known and often ignored for years. Actions have consequences and can lead to far worse issues and we seem to have forgotten how early behaviours start that manifest in to far worse issues in society. Those that take drugs, whatever they may say, feed the issues / pushers / drugs industry, that then leads to the desperation to inject in a Gregg's loo. Yes, this post is about someone's daughter, but it could be any of us given the wrong time and place, that has to deal with the 'what next'.

Nothing will be done until a retail worker gets killed by shoplifters, aggressive pissed customers. Or dies from injuries inflicted by the above.

Its always too little too late

Yes.

Lol welcome to retail in a rough area. I've seen worse. Needles in the bathroom isn't unusual at all.

And people wonder why no one wants to work these minimum wage jobs.

This is a good example of what I mean. What happens when some staff member doesn't want to just accept being assaulted, and gives a guy like this a shit-kicking?

I wonder, would the police suddenly feel like they should intervene and charge the staff (rather than the guy actually causing the trouble.) Would the other staff cooperate though? Maybe they'd all just say they never saw a thing, who knows how the guy ended up with his face smashed in?

I work for Greggs and sadly can't say I'm surprised. We don't have customer toilets so no drug use to deal with but have constant (10+ a day that we see, undoubtedly more that we don't) shoplifters. All reported, I can't remember the last time we had any contact from the police beyond them coming in for a coffee.

One is particularly aggressive and routinely throws punches at us and other customers, hurls bottles of Coke across the shop if we so much as look at him, let alone confront him. Came in brandishing a length of wooden post towards the end of last year. He's banned from the entire section of market but again - police don't care. I can name 6 staff he's assaulted, including myself, might be a couple more that I'm not aware of.

It isn't just the police that don't care, the company don't either. They refuse to pay for security in the vast majority of shops - another local to us with even worse issues was just told to close 3 hours earlier to stop losses in the evening, and we're advised to minimise stock on display so 'they can't take as much' absolutely no advice regarding our safety.