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The Retail Trust said 77% of shop staff have experienced intimidating behaviour in the last year and 23% were physically assaulted according to a new anonymous survey of 1,000 UK retail workers. The charity said it was a rise of 10% on last year, when 33% told the trust they were experiencing weekly verbal or physical assaults. The trust said 45% of those surveyed felt the abuse had worsened in the last two years. Cliff Lee, the charity's director of wellbeing services told BBC Good Morning Scotland that abusive behaviour towards shop workers was "becoming normalised." He said: "The reason for our campaign is that we want to start to address that through encouraging shoppers to think about the person that is serving them. "Ultimately behind every statistic there is is a person like Michael that is being adversely affected and the impact is far-reaching. "People's mental health is deteriorating, people are leaving the retail sector. "As a nation of shoppers and shop owners, ultimately the retail sector should be a really vibrant place for us." Mr Lee said he hoped the new campaign would make a difference to people's attitude to shop workers. He said: "We should really enjoy that Christmas experience in store. "And certainly all we're encouraging people to do is think about their behaviour in store. "You know, even simple acts, such as a smile, a thank-you, hello to the person that's serving them, can go a long, long way to make a real difference."
