Walk into any corner shop and look up. There is a fair chance the camera above the till has not recorded anything for months: the hard drive failed quietly, or the time and date are wrong, or the one camera that mattered is pointing at the crisps. Small shop CCTV fails silently more than it fails visibly, and owners usually find out on the day they need the footage.
Design it from the till outwards
A small shop rarely needs many cameras; it needs the right ones. The till is first, positioned to show the transaction, the customer's face and the drawer, because most disputes that ever reach footage happen within a metre of it. The entrance is second, at head height or angled to catch faces on the way in rather than the tops of hoods. Then the stockroom or back corridor, which is where stock walks out unwatched, and finally any blind aisle the mirror was supposed to solve. Four thoughtful cameras beat ten careless ones, and they cost less to record and store.
Recording matters as much as glass. A recorder holding a couple of weeks of continuous footage covers the common case where a discrepancy surfaces days later. Check the date stamp monthly; footage with a wrong timestamp makes every later conversation harder, whether with police or an insurer.
The signage question
Business CCTV is expected to announce itself. Clear signs saying that recording is in progress, and who runs the system, are a standing expectation for commercial premises under UK data protection rules, and a sign at the door is also free deterrence. A shop that records people covertly, with no signage, is in a poor position if anyone challenges it, and hiding the cameras wastes their best effect anyway. Deterrence only works if the person at the door sees it.
Staff are on camera too
This is the part owners skip. The moment your cameras cover the till, they cover the person you employ to stand at it, and your staff are entitled to know the system exists, what it is for, and where it does not reach. Cameras in a staff room or toilet area are off the table. Be straightforward in writing, a line in the staff handbook is enough for most small shops, that CCTV covers the shop floor and stock areas for security. Handled openly it protects staff as often as it checks them; the till camera clears an honest worker of a customer's accusation more often than it catches anyone.
Keep access tight as well. Footage should be viewable by the owner or manager, not by anyone with the shop wifi password, and clips should leave the building only for a proper reason, an insurer, the police, a genuine subject access request.
Getting it fitted properly
A commercial installer will have opinions about mounting heights, lens choice for aisles and lighting over the till that no amount of reading replaces. There are 335 CCTV system installers listed on this site, and the listings show which ones handle retail and commercial premises near you. Start with installers in your area, or describe the shop and let firms quote. Before any of that, though, go and check the recorder you already have. If the date is wrong, that is today's job.
