M&S chairman Archie Norman has claimed faulty self-checkouts are behind shoplifting “creeping in” among the middle classes.
The former MP said customers were tempted to leave without paying when the machines failed to scan products.
The M&S chair told The Telegraph: “With the reduction of service you get in a lot of shops, a lot of people think: ‘This didn’t scan properly, or it’s very difficult to scan these things through and I shop here all the time. It’s not my fault, I’m owed it'”.
Norman added that M&S shops were less “attractive” for criminal gangs who preferred to steal branded goods to sell on, since the chain offers more own-brand items than its competitors.
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The comments come after Co-op warned actions needed to speak louder than words in order to tackle soaring retail crime earlier this month.
The supermarket’s recent data showed of the almost 3,000 occasions this year where specialist teams detained serious offenders, police didn’t show-up to incidents 76% of the time.
Rival Lidl also recently revealed it would rollout body-worn cameras for store staff nationwide amid the shoplifting epidemic.
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