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But the Co-op is not happy at becoming the appointed meeting place for the next generation.  For them, teenagers spell trouble with trolleys, football means broken windows and, as a result, staff get distracted from their jobs.

 So the retail chain has invested thousands in equipment and speakers for playing music outside their stores – classical, you understand – in the hope it will be so unwelcome to the youngsters’ ears that it will move them on to Youth Clubs, recreation grounds, or wherever. 

Yes, unbelievable thought it may sound, Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, Bach’s Violin Concerto and other familiar classics can now be heard wafting outside many a Co-op.

 “Gone are the days of shutters and cameras,” says Andy Pope, one of their Regional Loss Prevention managers.  “We have got to try new ideas for sorting out anti-social behaviour.”

Apart from one or two cases of criminal damage, where speakers were damaged and wires cut, a trial with 13 stores has been deemed a success.  So much so that the supermarket is now rolling out their musical experiment to another 43, at an installation cost of £647 each.  And with reported crime in some trial stores down by 20%-40% as a result, other retailers are quietly tuning in. 

“The kids don’t hang around the doorway like they used to, or mess with the trolleys, or shout abuse,” says Naomi Smith, Duty Manager of the Co-op in Dines Green, Worcester - all of which used to divert Naomi and her colleagues from serving customers. 

Views on the street are more mixed.  Neighbouring residents such as Bob Clarke say the kids still hang about outside, and the music has not really helped.  “It’s a summertime problem – we did the same when we were young.”  And some neighbours complain about the choice of music, and that it’s too loud.  But Jo Hyatt and other regular shoppers say they now feel happier about going to the Co-op in the evenings and the area is not as intimidating as it used to be.  “Maybe they are all ‘inside’,” several people laugh in explanation.

 Which brings the area’s Youth Development Worker, Sian Gray, to their defence.  “Young people know that hanging around in gangs is unpopular, but they are not going to harm anyone.  They got the message and quickly moved on.”

 So far it is music by Tchaikovsky – Swan Lake, The Nutcracker Suite and Sleeping Beauty – that has proved the most effective.  But the monitoring continues.  Fourteen of the new stores will be playing music by only one composer – Tchaikovsky, Mozart or Vivaldi – to see which does the job best.

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