The checkout challenge: How Melbourne’s retailers are battling a crime wave

At Mecca in Melbourne’s CBD, shoppers don’t have to search for staff. There are dozens of them, plus unobtrusive security guards. If there’s violence or shoplifting at this store, it’s hard to find.

But even this store – which sells beauty products and services – is not immune to the record levels of theft, aggression and knife fights that plagued Victorian retail in 2025. In September, Mecca’s South Yarra store was ram-raided by a white van and robbed.

This year, the state’s 360,000 retail workers have witnessed everything from a stolen car speeding through Northland Shopping Centre, machete fights, CBD police chases and a woman allegedly smashing through the glass door of a Melbourne boutique. Police say retail staff deal with a crime every few minutes. Chris McKellar, Coles state general manager for Victoria, said in October the state had a “crime epidemic”.

The crime wave roared back into public attention on December 17 when Woolworths Moorabbin went into lockdown after about 100 people stormed the store, tearing items off the shelves and flinging them down the aisles.

“It’s called hide and seek,” said Gerry Harvey, the billionaire chairman of homewares and electronics store Harvey Norman.

“Staff are told by every employer, including us, that when the thief comes in, ‘Don’t you take them on, hide and seek, and let them take whatever they like,’” Harvey said.

“And the security man, if there is one, and there mostly isn’t, he should not engage them either because he might get hurt.

“Now every crook knows that — because they’ve done it before in most cases, it’s not their first offence. So, you now have a situation where you can go and steal, in the middle of the day, any time. The coppers don’t catch them, they have a mask so no-one knows who they are, and they get away it.”

Emboldened repeat offenders, organised crime, the cost-of-living crisis and the growth of self-checkouts have been blamed for the rise in theft. In worrying research for retailers, Monash University this year found young adults – often asset-poor, in insecure employment and priced out of housing – are much more tolerant of retail theft than older generations.

So, what are retailers doing to minimise theft and violence? The responses are many and varied.

They are removing knives from stores, giving staff body-worn cameras, boosting CCTV, moving registers, introducing security guards, putting desirable products out of public reach, and placing more employees around high-theft products.

“Just as importantly, retailers are investing in staff training around de-escalation and early intervention, which is helping prevent incidents from escalating and reducing risk for workers and customers alike,” said Australian Retailers Association chief executive Chris Rodwell.

Retail bodies are also pushing for repeat offenders to be banned from stores; statewide retail crime taskforces comprising government, police and retailers; and the controversial use of facial recognition technology.

Then there are more subtle, higher-tech methods. Crime hot spot Highpoint Shopping Centre, in Maribyrnong in Melbourne’s west, is home to Coles’ “loss innovation store”. This store has Coles’ cutting-edge anti-theft technology, such as weighted shelves and cabinets that are unlocked remotely. The tech is rolled out in other stores depending on the need.

Government, police, protective service officers and councils are responding to the surge in crime too. Facing political pressure over record crime, the Labor government passed legislation aimed at curbing violence and abuse against retail workers, with maximum penalties ranging from six months’ imprisonment to five years.

But Sarah Gooding, operations director for Victoria and Tasmania at Woolworths, called for the Allan government to ban repeat offenders from stores as soon as possible. “Our team’s safety is non-negotiable, and we’ll continue standing up for that,” she said.

In the CBD, police officers from the Public Order Response Team gather to detect and deter crime. The City of Melbourne’s new Community Safety Officers also wander city streets, on the lookout for anti-social and unsafe behaviour.

Police – equipped with wands to detect knives and other dangerous items – and protective service officers (PSOs) have been patrolling Northland in Preston, Highpoint in Maribyrnong, Eastland Ringwood and Fountain Gate in Narre Warren. So far, daggers, batons and knives have been seized and more than 100 people arrested.

In addition, industry groups including the Australian Retail Association are spending $7 million on advertising at retail precincts, cinemas, supermarkets and online to remind customers to be respectful to staff. The Shopping Centre Council said a similar campaign had improved customer behaviour last festive season.

Unfortunately for merchants, the battle against theft and aggressive is far from over, said retail expert Trent Rigby.

“If you’d asked me a few weeks ago, I probably would have said it had peaked. Now I’m not so sure,” said Rigby, who is director of RC Advisory.

“Unemployment has ticked up, household costs remain high, and expectations around rate cuts seem to have shifted back to the possibility of further rate rises in 2026.”

He said changes to store layout, register placement, product visibility and staff positioning tend to reduce theft while avoiding the customer backlash that come with increased security measures.

“You’ve also got the growth of self-checkouts over the last few years, which have been a big contributor to higher shrinkage across supermarkets and discount department stores, and many are now reassessing how heavily they rely on them,” Rigby said.

He said Kmart was reassessing its decision to put registers in the middle of the store, and security staff at exits, after customer feedback that they resented feeling like criminals.

“Retailers are learning that while hard security measures can reduce theft in the short term, they often come at the expense of customer trust and loyalty,” Rigby said.

“The best responses focus on subtle deterrence, smarter layout design, better staff coverage and fewer high-friction exit controls, rather than turning stores into ‘high-security’ environments.”

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