Shoppers face cost of living clampdown: Now Office stores only allow customers to try on one shoe at a time, while essentials like coffee, milk, meat and even baby formula are locked up by shops as inflation spirals
- Expert says retail theft increased over last year amid ‘severe’ cost of living crisis
Shoppers are facing a cost of living clampdown with extra security measures in place including only allowing customers to try on one shoe and locking up essentials like milk and coffee.
As experts say retail theft has increased over the last year amid a ‘severe’ cost of living crisis, customers have been noticing security tags on everyday food items amid soaring inflation figures.
It comes as desperate parents are turning to extreme measures such as stealing baby formula from UK stores.
Yesterday it emerged a Co-op store was putting ‘display only’ coffee jars on it shelves.
And one Office customer vented her frustration after only being allowed to try on one shoe.
Jessica Studdert tweeted: ‘I tried shoes on in Office yesterday and they would only let me try on one shoe of each pair I was looking at, their policy now apparently – had similar feelings of bleakness.
Staff at a Co-op franchise in Walthamstow, north London put ‘display only’ coffee jars on it shelves after a 200g jar of Kenco Smooth instant coffee rose 13 per cent in price
Nescafe Gold Blend was also removed from shelves after rising to £9.35, locals claim
‘My feet are slightly different sizes and there is zero chance I’d buy a pair without trying both shoes on and having a little walk around to check they were comfortable.’
The shoe shop told Sky News a ‘few stores that periodically follow this procedure by exception,’ but insisted: ‘This is not our policy, and we have instructed all stores to immediately cease this practice.
‘At Office/Offspring we aim to provide our customers with a great shopping experience, whether in-store or online. We listen to our customer feedback and regularly review and adapt our policies accordingly. It is customer feedback that helps us to improve,’ it added.
MailOnline has reached out to Office for comment.
Speaking about retail theft due to soaring food costs, Joshua Bamfield, Director of the Centre for Retail Research, told MailOnline: ‘There are some people who feel that [it’s] the only way they can have a good lifestyle, but they didn’t steal before.
‘Retail theft has increased terrifically over the last 12 months as the cost of living crisis has become more severe.
‘Has retail crime increased because people are hard up? I think the answer is yes.
‘There may be a small number of people doing this but if you can make it difficult for them, from a store manager’s point of view, this is a success.
‘If you put electronic tags on some of the most stolen products you make it difficult for the thief to be successful in the hope they will go elsewhere.’
Many supermarkets have introduced security tags on baby formula products in a bid to prevent thefts
A Co-op has put dummy coffee on its shelves and placed security trackers on jars as product prices soar amid the cost of living crisis.
Staff at a franchise in north-east London put ‘display only’ coffee jars on it shelves after a 200g jar of Kenco Smooth instant coffee rose 13 per cent in price. Staff at a store in Walthamstow placed a note on shelves where instant coffee was once stocked that read: ‘This product is a dummy, not for sale, please ask a member of staff for help.’
Nescafe Gold Blend was also removed from shelves after rising to £9.35, locals claim, noting how the security measures are ‘heartbreaking’ and a ‘sign of the times’.
The GPS tracking cases were spotted on shelves at the Co-op food and petrol shop at Harborne in Birmingham yesterday.
The GPS tracking cases were spotted on shelves at the Co-op food and petrol shop at Harborne in Birmingham yesterday
Photos from the Birmingham shop show a £9.85 jar of Douwe Egberts and a jar of Kenco Smooth retailing for £10.50 – both in cases to deter shoplifters.
The measure is not a nationwide policy and each franchise has the autonomy to remove a product from its shelves if there is a believed risk of theft, it is understood.
A Co-op spokesperson told MailOnline: ‘Protecting the safety of our colleagues is a priority and we know shoplifting can be a flashpoint for violence against shopworkers so whilst this is not a nationwide policy, a decision to implement product security measures at a local level can be made, if a store is experiencing a particular issue’.
Last month shoppers spoke of inflation is ‘going mad’ after a 600g tub of Lurpak worth £5.35 was seen locked up in security netting in Aldi.
A dumbfounded customer shared a video of the protected product on TikTok after spotting it in a store in Kidbrooke, south-east London.
The clip shows a tub of the spread sitting on a shelf in the store, encased in a thin black string net, with a black security tag latched on to the end.
She picked up the netted bag by its security tag to inspect it the butter — which was priced at an eye-watering £5.35.
More tubs can be seen behind it on the shelf, all protected by the same measures.
After the video was uploaded, one user wrote: ‘Why is Lurpak butter being held hostage?’ Another said: ‘They can afford the extra protection cost but cant reduce the price.’ A third added: ‘£5 for a bit of salted and shaken milk is a bit nuts.’
MailOnline has contacted Aldi for comment.
Since last year, a 500g tub of Lurpak butter has increased by around 37 per cent in price in Aldi stores, from an initial £3.65
In January a Tesco store locked its bacon, sausages and ribs in a fridge to prevent theft amid a surge of shoplifting prompted by the cost of living crisis.
The sign, shared on Twitter by local site @SE1, had been stuck on the chilled meat section of a Tesco Express on Tower Bridge Road in Southwark, central London.
It read: ‘To protect stock and availability this door is locked. Please ask a member of staff for assistance.’
The sign was later removed, it is understood.
Tesco puts security protection on certain higher value items in individual stores, but it is not a universal policy.
MailOnline has contacted Tesco for comment.
The sign had been stuck on the chilled meat section of a Tesco Express in central London
In December, a shopper was left shocked when he discovered that £1 protein bars had been locked in security boxes in a Tesco store.
The security boxes were spotted in the Gilesgate Tesco Extra in County Durham on Boxing Day by customer Andrei Lespezeanu.
He spotted the MyProtein and Dynabars goods under lock and key, despite costing between £1 and £2.50.
Andrei said: ‘I was shocked when browsing through the store to come across cereal and protein bars worth as little as £1 locked in security boxes.
‘I am confused why the store has felt the need to do this since there are other items in the store worth more that don’t have security tags or boxes.
‘The only explanation for this that I can come up with is that people are prone to stealing these cereal and protein bars.
‘I think this is one of the many examples of how the cost of living crisis is affecting not only people but business too.’
MailOnline understands that Tesco has different security policies in different stores and that introducing security protocols on goods is common across supermarkets.
The protein bars were being held in security boxes on the shelves. Customer Andrei Lespezeanu said he was confused as to why the low-value items were being locked away
The protein bars ranged in value from £1 to £2.50, with many on special offer to customers with a Clubcard
In November milk cartons in the Tesco Extra store in the village of Pool in Cornwall were fitted with individual plastic security tags.
CornwallLive reported that the store has suffered a spate of thefts of milk – especially of four-pint containers.
But Tesco denied this was the reason for the tagging, telling CornwallLive it was down to ‘human error’.
A Tesco spokesperson told MailOnline at the time: ‘We do not have a policy to place security tags on fresh milk. A very small amount of milk was incorrectly tagged today in our Redruth Extra store and these tags have now been removed. We’re sorry for any inconvenience caused.’
Security tags were fitted to four pint bottles of milk in Tesco Extra in Pool by mistake
Desperate parents are turning to extreme measures such as stealing baby formula from UK stores.
New data from First Steps Nutrition shows that even the cheapest brand of baby formula has risen in price by 45 percent in the last two years – leaving parents facing impossible choices as they seek to keep their children from going hungry.
Other brands have risen by between 17 percent and 31 percent, and the number of parents resorting to such measures has led some UK stores to security tag formula or even put it behind the tills alongside cigarettes.
Chief Executive of the British Pregnancy Advice Service Clare Murphy said parents should not be facing breaking the law or watering down their child’s food, adding: ‘This is a scandal.’
Food inflation fell to 15.4 per cent in the year to May, according to data from the British Retail Consortium (BRC). It is down from 15.7 per cent in April.
Although the food inflation rate is declining, it is still an incredibly high figure, meaning that a person who spent around £20 in a food shop a year ago would now be paying a little over £23 for the same items.
This is an average so the exact number would depend on what they bought.
Although May’s figure is a little lower than the food inflation seen last month, it is still the second fastest annual increase the BRC has ever measured, it said.
The anti-theft measures come as food inflation slowed last month, but shop price inflation accelerated to a new record high.
Security tags are often used on expensive or dangerous items in supermarkets including alcohol, razors and even perfume.
The tags can only be removed by a sales assistant once a person has paid. If a person were to take a security tagged item from the shop without paying, an alarm would sound.
Tom Ironside, Director of Business & Regulation at the British Retail Consortium, told MailOnline: ‘Shoplifting remains a significant burden, costing retailers £953 million in 2021/22. Ultimately, theft pushes up the cost of operating stores and results in higher prices for everyone.
‘It’s not just the financial cost of theft which is important, customers and store staff can be left traumatised by such incidents, particularly where violence is involved.’
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