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Tesco threatens to leave town over shoplifting and abuse |
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Monday, 02 February 2009 |
British supermarket leviathan Tesco announced that it is considering closing down its supermarket in the town of Sarkad, close to the Romanian border, due to shoplifting and attacks on staff, the local newspaper Békésmegyei Hírlap reported last week.
“The Sarkad Tesco will be closed down if the situation is not rectified,” said Zsolt Bai, the regional safety officer for Tesco Hungary. “This has nothing to do with the economic crisis: the decision is strictly a consequence of the customary level of theft,” he said.
In a letter to the local council, Tesco complained of 40 to 50 regular “customers” who take goods without paying for them, cause damage, disturb honest customers and insult and abuse staff.
Tesco management said that, with such appaling working conditions, it was having difficulty retaining staff.
All this despite a team of five security guards, some with dogs.
‘the ethnic side’
Tesco spokeswoman Mónika Hackl added specifics: the closure of the store was being considered because of “serious atrocities experienced from the ethnic side,” she said, according to the index.hu news website.
The manager of the Sarkad Tesco told Békésmegyer Hírlap that of a shining fleet of 200 shopping trolleys lined up when the store opened in 2007, only twenty remain. “There have been cases where washing powder and coffee was thrown through the door, trolley and all,” said Gyöngyi Kesztyus.
‘one should not generalise’
Károly Oláh, a representative of the local Gypsy Council, denied that “all hell has broken loose in Sarkad,” adding that “one should not generalise”. “The authorities apply strict laws in dealing with criminals,” she said.
The local council begged Tesco not to abandon Sarkad. “It cannot be that a tiny minority should attack and intimidate staff and scandalise the majority population,” said local mayor Imre Tóth at a crisis meeting to discuss the matter.
The managers of the local Penny Market and Reál supermarkets said at the meeting that they were experiencing similar problems.
“The criminals will be punished and the strongest possible measures will be brought to bear to show them how to behave lawfully,” the council said.
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