Brazen shoplifters on the lookout for a model of gin warned Waitrose workers they might return when it was again in inventory.

The grocery store’s boss, Dame Sharon Lewis, says organised gangs are stealing high-value objects to order – and described the pattern as “profoundly shocking”.

Dame Sharon – chair of the John Lewis Partnership – has beforehand warned retail crime is reaching “epidemic levels”, with the enterprise going through a £12m hit from shoplifting.

Incidents rose by 25% within the yr to June, in line with police knowledge for England and Wales launched final week.

Speaking to the Policy Exchange suppose tank, Dame Sharon mentioned: “It feels within the final yr we’ve moved from ‘I’m going to place an additional six eggs in my basket, I have never paid for them however really my household’s struggling’ to organised gangs shoplifting to order in a means that I’ve discovered profoundly surprising.

“I was in a store a few weeks ago and they spoke about a gang coming into the store and they were after a particular brand of gin, and we were sold out … They said: ‘Don’t worry we will be back on Monday because we know you’re going to be replenished over the weekend.'”

Her feedback got here after the federal government introduced the launch of a brand new nationwide intelligence unit to sort out organised shoplifting gangs.

Thirteen main retailers – together with Tesco, the Co-op, John Lewis and Marks and Spencer – are contributing £60,000 over two years, and the Home Office £30,000, to fund the brand new squad.

Police additionally made renewed commitments to attend the scene of extra shoplifting incidents the place there’s violence or safety workers have stopped a suspect.

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Dame Sharon mentioned that whereas there was “more conversation” and “good intent”, this hasn’t made any “material impact on the ground” but.

She instructed the viewers {that a} poor police response to shoplifting – in addition to dwelling burglaries and automotive break-ins – represented a “profound break in the social contract”.

Dame Sharon has backed the introduction of a regulation in England and Wales that will make it a particular crime to assault or abuse a store employee – much like laws enforced in Scotland.

The former Ofcom chief, who joined the joined the employee-owned enterprise firstly of 2020, not too long ago introduced she’s going to step down when she completes her five-year time period in February 2025.