Britain’s high streets have become unhappy, dangerous places
From our UK edition
Supermarket staff in London are now serving customers from inside glass and metal cages. The unveiling of such desperate security measures, including at a Sainsbury’s store in Battersea, should shock us. Yet in Britain, we've become so accustomed to shoplifting and crime on our streets that its introduction generates barely a murmur. Our supermarkets and shops have morphed from places where customers can be trusted, to environments where they are watched like hawks and treated with suspicion Sainsbury’s says the crackdown has been implemented to ‘protect’ staff serving vape bars, tobacco and alcohol to customers. It's hard to blame the supermarket for its logic.