Shops crack down on theft of butter
Andrew Ellson, Consumer Affairs Correspondent
Thursday November 24 2022, 12.01am GMT, The Times
Glasgow North police said this week that two people had been arrested and charged for “numerous thefts of milk”
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/shops-crack-down-on-theft-of-butter-kj70l2bmf
A growing number of everyday groceries are being security-tagged as shoplifting increases amid the cost of living crisis.
Reports are emerging from across the country of items such as butter, cheese and meat being tagged or locked in security boxes to discourage people from stealing. One Co-op store in Manchester has locked £3 washing machine tablets in security boxes, and even bottles of milk were tagged in one Tesco this week, although the retailer later said this was a mistake.
Theft of everyday groceries is a growing problem for stores and the police. Glasgow North police said this week that two people had been arrested and charged for “numerous thefts of milk”. Last month the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported that shoplifting had increased by 18 per cent in the year to the end of June compared with the previous 12-month period.
The tags or boxes can be removed only at the checkout once the customer has paid. If anyone tries to remove a tagged or boxed product from a shop without paying, it triggers an alarm.
The security measures have raised concerns on social media that some people are so desperate for food that they are being forced to steal. However, others, including some people claiming to work in stores, have said that products are often stolen by small-time criminals who then sell the items door to door or in pubs.
One commentator on Twitter, discussing Co-op’s use of security boxes for £3 boxes of Daz, wrote: “Anybody who thinks shoplifters are desperate people stealing to survive has never been in a rough working-class pub on a Friday night and seen them flogging cheese and packs of bacon.”
One of the reasons stealing food has become more attractive is the pace at which prices have been rising. Over the past year grocery costs have risen by almost 15 per cent on average, according to the ONS, although this masks wide variations, with some items going up by much more.
Recent research by the consumer group Which? found that some branded items, such as Dolmio sauce, had doubled in price in some stores.
Supermarkets are reluctant to talk about the precautions but one senior industry figure admitted that more tags were being used. “Supermarkets are trying to take a measured approach but they are making big losses from theft,” he said. “The growing use of tags is partly a reflection of prices rising, so more items are falling into the price band where it makes sense to tag them. Often the choice of what products to tag is left to local store managers’ discretion.
“Tags are only being used in certain areas because they have a cost. There is little point, for example, using them in a village store where people generally don’t steal anything.