Shoplifting and attacks on retail staff have registered the highest levels, because bosses require urgent action to tackle lawlessness.
Violent and offensive incidents touch more than 2,000 a day during the 2023/2024 financial year, according to a study.
And retailers have 'little confidence' that the police take shoplifting seriously as the costs for companies rose from £ 1.8 billion to £ 2.2 billion.
There were more than 55,000 incidents of theft per day, equal to more than 20 million in total.
The alarming figures show that the problem is getting worse, with cases of attacks and shoplifting of last year's record to be a fresh high since the surveys started in 2001.
Retail crime has 'got out of hand', according to Helen Dickinson, Chief Executive of the British Retail Consortium, which has produced the research.
This is despite the fact that companies pay a record of £ 1.8 billion on prevention tactics such as CCTV, more guards and cameras worn through the body.
About 61 percent of retailers say that the police response to calls for help 'poor' or 'very poor' has been.
Retailers report unprecedented levels of violence against their staff, with the number of incidents with a weapon that more than doubles to 70 a day.
Shoplifting and attacks on retail staff have registered the highest levels, because bosses require urgent action to tackle lawlessness (stock photo)
Shown: A man in Oxted squats down and hastily pushes four candles in an open Sainsbury's bag before he leaves the store in a recently presumably case of shoplifting
Violent and offensive incidents touch more than 2,000 a day during the financial year 2023/2024, has found a study (stock photo) (stock photo)
Alarming cases are, among other things, staff who 'spits, racially abused and threatened with machetes' and the perpetrators 'become more brutal and more aggressive', according to Mrs. Dickinson.
She added: 'With little confidence in the police -presence, it is no wonder that criminals feel that they have a permit to steal, threaten, mistreat and abuse.
'Retailers spend more than ever before, but they cannot prevent crime alone. We need the police to respond and handle it in the correct way in every reported incident. '
As a result, the industrial group repeated calls for attacks on store staff to make a specific crime in England and Wales, such as in Scotland.
Labor has promised to do this in the upcoming law on crime and police, which the industry hopes will be introduced in the coming weeks.
It marks a victory for the post, which led first when exposing abuse against store employees and shoplifting and called for authorities to take the issue more seriously.
The campaign started after Tesco -Baas Ken Murphy revealed that every front line worker had to be offered a camera to Body because of an increase in attacks.
Keir Starmer insisted that the country could not tolerate a situation in which shoplifters can walk in, shoplifting and walk outside again and nobody can do anything about it 'last year
Shown: Images shows a woman who steals a beauty item and then fled the store after he is confronted with a staff member in a recently presumably case of shoplifting
Almost 444,000 shoplifting was admitted by troops in England and Wales in the year until March, an increase of 342,428 in the previous 12 months
Ministers have also sworn to remove a threshold of £ 200, which means that many shoplifting affairs are deported by the police.
The current laws mean that theft is 'decriminalized', according to Lord Stuart Rose, the former boss of Asda and Marks & Spencer.
But Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer insisted that the country could not tolerate a situation in which shoplifters can walk in, make a shoplifter and walk back and nobody can do anything about it 'last year.
The frequency of attacks means that many of the 3 million people who work in the retail trade are terrified of coming to work, according to Retail Trust.
“People contact our helpline in their thousands to report horrible incidents of abuse and violence and many say they are now about to,” said Chris Brook-Carter, the Chief Executive of the organization.
