The toughened glass screens, which fully enclose the staff side of the till and stand above head-height, have already been installed at more than 110 branches
Tesco is introducing hundreds of protective screens in its smaller stores in a bid to protect staff from assaults by shoplifters.
Violence and abuse towards shop workers has doubled in the past four years, according to British Retail Consortium figures. The toughened glass screens, which fully enclose the staff side of the till and stand above head-height, have already been installed at more than 110 branches. They are designed to protect against physical assault and also liquids or other items thrown at workers.
The screens are now being rolled out to more than 250 Express stores and petrol station kiosks as part of a multi-million-pound investment. It follows several reports of retail employees being threatened with weapons including knives, hammers and firearms.
Tesco UK CEO Jason Tarry said: “The rise in retail crime has been widely talked about in recent weeks, but the most troubling aspect is the surge in assaults and abuse we have seen against our colleagues in stores. This is something impacting the whole retail industry, and something too many of my colleagues have had to endure first-hand, with incidents of violence against our colleagues up by a third year-on-year.