‘Third world’: Coles exec fumes at crime surge

The West Australian

Nov 01

Supermarket giant Coles has placed further pressure on the Victorian government after revealing a shocking crime stat when it comes to high value items.Coles says 71 per cent of all thefts across its ...

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NewsWire/ Liam Kidston Credit: News Corp AustraliaNot mincing words, Coles’ chief of operations and supply chain, Matt Swindells directly called out the Jacinta Allan government, saying the state needs to “change legislation” to slow down the rampant crime rate.“We are repeating what we’ve been asking for over a year now …. We are asking for support from the police, from a retail task force, so we can nip this in the bud,” he said.While refusing to outline just how much the business is losing, Coles says it’s “a material loss to operations.”“Of $100 spent in Coles the net profit after tax is about $2.50, so while we are a big business and the profits we generate are sizeable, the margins are too thin to wear the cost of losses to the extent they have been,” he said.“We can’t afford as a business to have organised gangs steal in high volume and on sell … it’s like we are in some third world place where there’s no law and order.”Mr Swindells said Victoria has the largest crime due to a lack of laws preventing retail theft, unlike other states including NSW, Queensland and South Australia who have tougher crimes and dedicated retail stealing task forces.Mr Swindells said South Australia has the least number of crimes because it “doesn’t muck around” when it comes to retail theft laws.“I wouldn’t say we would allow anyone’s actions to put our shoppers and staff at risk, but clearly there is a disconnect between what we see in Victoria and other states,” Mr Swindells said.“The really sad part is, South Australia, NSW and Queensland have shown there are different approaches to this that work.”“It’s time the government steps up frankly and introduces legislation that we know works.”However, he stopped short of blaming the police themselves pointing out whenever crime does occur they do a “very good job” of dealing with a potential issue.Instead he said squarely blamed Victorian law.“There is no consequence, and when I say no consequence, someone can come in and steal from a store, be arrested, be taken away and out on bail and back in the store again within hours,” Mr Swindells told 3AW Drive.“If that’s the outcome, for all the effort, nothing is going to change.”Camera IconColes says its margins are thin and cannot afford rampant crime. NewsWire Credit: News Corp AustraliaMr Swindells said in a separate interview with ABC drive’s Ali Moore that the supermarket had reverted to playing opera music at a “challenged” Prahran store to deter anti-social behaviour nearby.“We have a lot of technology we’ve invested in and a lot of training to keep our staff safe but we have to do more,” he said.“We know from the residents’ feedback that they’d like us to do more, and one of the team members came up with the innovative idea of playing music and we thought opera would be the least popular for the cohort out the front of our store.”Mr Swindells said the problems are not unique to Prahran.“We have high levels of crime that’s both threats but worse than those threatening situations towards our staff and customers,” he said.“It’s been like this for 12 to 18 months where we have continued to invest in safety measures including body one cameras, headsets for the team to communicate, smart gates to stop people leaving without paying for goods,”“But these are criminal gangs, they are very well organised, they are stealing in high volume, high value items and selling them.Mr Swindell pointed out this is not just a bar of chocolate being missed by the scanners, with employees rightfully complaining to management about their safety.“It is blatantly as a result of a lack of consequences in Victoria,” he said.Coles’ call for action comes as the Victorian government faces mounting pressure over crimes in the state.The Allan government hired eleven private security guards to patrol Melbourne’s CBD streets in a fresh push to slow down horrific bursts of violent crimes in the city.The officers will target “key hotspots” in the CBD, the council said, such as Elizabeth Street South, Bourke Street and Swanston Street and also locations in Southbank, Carlton, the Docklands, Kensington and East Melbourne.","kind":"highlight","is_publish_news":true,"is_publish_highlight":false,"is_publish_live":false,"is_publish_wemedia":null,"editions":null,"column":"","sentiment":"-1","news_tag":"","news_rank":0,"symbols":[],"gpt_button":0,"need_auth":false,"code":"91000000","status":"200"}}}