Nearly Half of Retail Workers Report Customer Abuse in the Past Year—and More Than 1 in 5 Have Skipped Shifts Over Safety Concerns
Key Takeaways
- •48% of frontline retail workers in the US and UK reported experiencing some form of customer abuse over the past 12 months, according to a survey commissioned by Halos.
- •Verbal abuse was the most frequently reported form of mistreatment at 34%, followed by threats or intimidation (17%), discriminatory comments or abuse (16%), and physical aggression (10%).
- •27% of retail workers said safety concerns led them to avoid particular shifts, indicating that safety issues extend beyond individual encounters into scheduling decisions.
- •Retail workers' leading safety requests were clear consequences such as removing or banning abusive customers (52%) and clear support from management when enforcing policies or refusing service (44%).
- •A separate 2025 Harris Poll survey found 35% of retail workers felt unsafe at work, up from 27% in 2024, and 61% believed employers prioritized inventory safety over worker safety.
Nearly half (48%) of frontline retail workers say they have experienced some form of customer abuse over the last 12 months, and 27% say they 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.
Verbal abuse, including shouting or swearing, was the most commonly reported form of mistreatment, cited by 34% of retail respondents. Threats or intimidation followed at 17%, while 16% reported discriminatory comments or abuse and 10% reported physical aggression.
The findings are laid out in Halos' new worker safety report; much of the retail-specific data comes from the full questionnaire and detailed results tables the company shared with Retail Brew.
Asked which measures would help improve their safety, retail workers' top choice was clear consequences, such as removing or banning customers, at 52%, followed by clear backing from management when associates enforce policies or refuse service, at 44%. Both leading asks center on store-level enforcement—what happens after an incident and how much institutional support workers can expect when they refuse service—while the 27% who say they have avoided particular shifts indicates that safety concerns already extend to scheduling decisions, not only to individual encounters on the floor.
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.
The results are consistent 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.
A separate 2025 Harris Poll survey conducted for security-equipment company Verkada and the Loss Prevention Research Council found that 35% of retail workers said they had felt unsafe at work, up from 27% in 2024. That survey also found that 61% of retail workers believed their employers placed a higher priority on inventory safety than on worker safety.
Taken together, these findings come from organizations with different vantage points on retail operations—a body-camera vendor, a labor union, and a security-equipment maker working with a loss-prevention research group—yet they converge on the same picture of widespread reported mistreatment and unease among frontline retail staff.
The report was originally published by Retail Brew, and the story was originally featured on Fortune.com.
