Nearly half of retail workers experienced customer abuse in the past year

Almost half (48%) of frontline retail workers have experienced some form of customer abuse over the last 12 months, and 27% have avoided particular shifts out of safety concerns, according to a new survey of US and UK workers commissioned by Halos, a workplace-safety technology company.

The most common type was verbal abuse, including shouting or swearing, which 34% of retail respondents experienced. Threats or intimidation followed at 17%. Another 16% experienced discriminatory comments or abuse, while 10% experienced physical aggression.

The company’s findings are in a new worker safety report; much of the retail-specific data in this article comes from the full questionnaire and detailed results tables the company shared with Retail Brew.

Asked what measures would help improve their safety, the top choice among retail workers was clear consequences such as removing or banning customers (52%), followed by clear backing from management when associates enforce policies or refuse service (44%).

As is often the case with company-funded surveys, the report underscores a problem that Halos has a commercial interest in addressing: The company sells body-worn cameras for frontline workers.

Its findings jibe with those of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which reported that 57% of respondents to a member survey had experienced verbal harassment or intimidating conduct from a customer, coworker, or manager in the previous year.

Thirty-five percent of retail workers said they had felt unsafe at work, up from 27% in 2024, according to a 2025 Harris Poll survey for security-equipment company Verkada and the Loss Prevention Research Council.

The survey also found that 61% of retail workers believed their employers placed a higher priority on inventory safety than worker safety.