If they’re not careful these price gouging supermarkets will be spoken to firmly * Sign up here to get an email whenever First Dog cartoons are published * Get all your needs met at the First Dog shop if what you need is First Dog merchandise and prints Continue reading...

Who is actually footing the bill? * See more of Fiona Katauskas’s cartoons here Continue reading...

Public-facing staff in shops and frontline services are donning cameras to help fight abuse and theft When you work in security it can be a battle to stop people stealing. Most thieves know that they have the same legal power as guards, and it’s not easy trying to decide who gets to dole out “reasonable force” when a teenager’s cutting through a bike lock in front of you. My shift mates and I recently observed a heroin user cutting through our car park repeating a shopping list into her phone: shampoo, school uniform, other low order goods. She’s part of a growing number of people stealing for others, focusing on stuff that people need but don’t want to pay for. When to press buttons isn’t my only fear around BWCs. My job’s starting pay is £11.44 per hour, the current minimum wage; the camera I wear retails for £534. I don’t want to think about what happens if I damage it. Sometimes I feel my uniform’s more valuable than I am. Continue reading...

Shoppers can use technology to advise them on outfit choices based on their body shape and style preferences Marks & Spencer is using artificial intelligence to advise shoppers on their outfit choices based on their body shape and style preferences, as part of efforts to increase online sales. The 130-year-old retailer is using the technology to personalise consumers’ online experience, and suggest items to buy. Continue reading...

Increase will lift minimum rates by 9.8% and comes after online retailer defeated GMB union bid for bargaining rights on pay Amazon has announced a pay rise worth nearly 10% for tens of thousands of UK employees, after defeating an attempt by the GMB trade union for bargaining rights over pay and conditions. The online retailer said the increase would lift minimum pay rates by 9.8% to between £13.50 and £14.50 an hour, depending on location. Staff with at least three years’ service will receive a minimum of between £13.75 and £14.75 an hour. Continue reading...

TUC insists fight will go on after GMB fails to secure right to represent retailer’s staff by just 29 votes * Business live – latest updates The TUC has insisted the battle for union recognition at Amazon will go on, after workers at the US retailer’s Coventry warehouse rejected the right to collective bargaining by a majority of just 29 votes. In a historic ballot that could have forced Amazon to recognise a union for the first time in the UK, 50.5% of the workers who voted chose to refuse the proposal for the GMB union to represent them. If 15 had switched sides it would have gone the other way. Continue reading...