PERFUME spritzed on customers’ wrists and immaculately made-up sales staff enticing you to try out exciting new beauty products.
Or, if you were really lucky, the thrill of a free makeover.
Make-up counters were once a haven of tranquillity and glamour where, under soft lighting, you could momentarily feel like a star.
But these days are sadly now gone.
The country is in the grip of a shoplifting epidemic, leaving stores out of pocket and retail workers fearing for their safety.
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Many staff now wear panic alarms and body cameras for protection.
The British Independent Retailers Association has reported a £2.8billion loss in the past year, while new figures from the Office for National Statistics show that police have recorded a total of 365,164 offences in stores.
As cosmetics are among the easiest items to swipe, the surge in stealing is sending the price of our favourite beauty buys soaring.
Commercial director of Bira, Jeff Moody, says: “We are deeply concerned about the significant rise in shop theft incidents across all sectors, including cosmetics.
“The unfortunate reality is that high-value items — including cosmetics, which are often sold in smaller packaging — have become prime targets due to their ease of conversion into cash or sale online.”
Tutorials on how to steal
Some TikTok accounts uncovered by Fabulous are dedicated specifically to cosmetics theft.
One user branded a British supermarket chain 10/10 for shoplifting, claiming the make-up aisle “doesn’t even have cameras”.
The video has amassed 30,000 views.
Some followers even post requests in the comments section asking for tutorials on how to steal from other high street shops selling cosmetics.
Another user shared footage of beauty and homeware hauls from Primark that were claimed to be stolen.
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The account owner offered shoplifting tips, including the best type of bag to take to pilfer products more easily.
A third shared a clip showing make-up they claimed had been taken from Boots and Superdrug.
Advising a follower on how to avoid detection from security alarms, they boast: “I chuck the tag on the floor.”
TikTok is not alone in hosting clips that appear to glorify shoplifting. Fabulous also found YouTube users sharing videos of allegedly stolen items.
One featured eyeshadows and lip gloss and was titled “first time borrowing haul”, alongside the tag “stealing is bad”.
When we flagged the accounts to TikTok, it removed content that violated its guidelines. Google, which owns YouTube, was also contacted for comment.
The victims of these “hauls” are high street and independent retailers across the UK, along with their horrified workers, who are witnessing shoplifting incidents on an unprecedented scale.
And cosmetic counters are at the forefront of shop crime, with staff at risk of not only losing costly stock but also verbal abuse or physical assault.
Among the victims is shop worker Domonique Woodward.
The 32-year-old is now terrified after coming face to face with violent thieves twice in the past six months.
In April, she was assaulted while confronting two men she had spotted bundling bottles of designer perfume scent worth £800 into a bag at The Fragrance House in Malvern, Worcs.
As she raced to block their exit, one of the men punched her in the ribs.
In September she called out a male customer who had slipped bottles of perfume into his bag and “shoved him towards the door”.
‘We hear daily of workers being hit’
“He tried to grab other things from the shelves but I kept pushing and screaming at him,” Domonique said.
“We got towards the door and he made a last snatch for something, then ran out, knocking over a member of the public on the way.”
Domonique has had retail jobs for 15 years but says she no longer feels safe at work.
She now carries an alarm she can trigger to notify her colleagues in an emergency.
“I’ve never known a year like it,” she says.
“You used to get your occasional shoplifter, but it would be small things and they wouldn’t assault you if you challenged them. Now they will hurt you.”
In both incidents, the suspects remain at large. Inspector Dave Wise of the West Mercia Police safer neighbourhood team said enquiries into the September robbery are ongoing.
But after being “fully investigated”, there was “insufficient evidence to identify a suspect” in the April incident.
He added: “The case has therefore been closed, but if further investigative opportunities become available, these will be looked at.”
Fears for worker safety are now widespread.
Tesco staff have been offered body cams for protection after a rise in shoplifting cases.
Pictures taken in a London store this week show security tags on relatively low-cost cosmetics including moisturisers and electric toothbrushes.
Boots is now monitoring all its stores via a 24-hour CCTV hub at its headquarters in Nottingham.
Shop floor workers can activate an alarm to alert the hub, triggering an audio warning which tells the thief the police will be called unless they return the goods.
Some staff are even quitting over fears for their safety, according to the Retail Trust charity.
Its chief executive, Chris Brook-Carter, says: “We’re hearing daily from workers being shouted at, spat on, threatened and hit.
“One person had to go home and explain to his two young daughters why he had a massive cut on his head after a shoplifter dug her nails into it.
“Another big fashion chain has said they have even had someone held up at gunpoint.
“Last year, one in six people we spoke to who had experienced this kind of abuse told us it had made them afraid to go into work. Nearly half said they were considering leaving the retail industry as a result.
“Sadly, this is likely to have increased this year as cases of shoplifting and abuse have risen.”
Retail expert Clare Bailey points out that some people shoplift out of desperation.
But, in the case of cosmetics theft, perpetrators are often “out and out criminals” looking to flog products for profit on social media or second-hand sites such as eBay and Gumtree.
“Cosmetics are expensive and they’re small,” she says.
“There are people who will steal things entirely commercially with the view, ‘I can sell this on Facebook Marketplace or to my friend’.
“You see people selling perfumes and items still in their wrapper on second-hand selling sites. It’s either fake or stolen.”
Clare, founder of The Retail Champion, which offers advice to business owners, stresses that shop theft is never a victimless crime.
“Some people might think the retailers are reporting high profits so it won’t hurt them,” she says. “In fact, it drives prices up for everyone.
Retailers demand ‘urgent action’
“The retailers have their own overheads. They have to pay their wages and their bills are going up dramatically as they don’t have an energy cap.
“If things get pilfered, that reduces their profits, and prices for everybody else end up rising.”
Sephora, Boots, Space NK, Superdrug and The Perfume Shop are among 88 retailers who signed an open letter to Home Secretary Suella Braverman earlier this month demanding “urgent action” against the rising wave of incidents.
Some have also called for tougher sentencing for shoplifting.
Under current laws, if taken goods are worth less than £200, the maximum sentence is six months in prison.
But the usual penalty is a postal fine of £70.
Theft of items valued at over £200 or more can lead to a maximum jail sentence of seven years.
Bira urged shop owners to “report all crimes promptly”.
Jeff says: “This is the most effective way to prompt police prioritisation and create a safer retail environment, particularly for high-value items such as cosmetics.”
