To deter stealing at Tesco, chocolate bars valued as low as £1.25 have been placed in security boxes.
Milkybars, Galaxy, and Dairy Milk have been sealed in plastic containers.
‘Ask the staff’ stickers are attached to the boxes.
Supermarket employees must obtain bars for customers; they cannot merely grab them from the shelves.
They are £1.25 for Tesco Clubcard holders or £1.55 without.
The Galaxy bars are £1.35 and the Daily Milk are £2 with a Clubcard or £2.25 without.
One of the sixteen Tesco locations in the borough of Newham, east London, is where they were sighted.
Former police officer Norman Brennan fumed: ‘Tesco now put chocolate bars behind plastic security barriers.
‘Shoplifting is so out-of-control that the cost of loss in the past year is two billion pounds.’
The ex-British Transport Police officer said: ‘And it will go up and up and up.’
Sharon Rae McGilvray joked: ‘Funny how they haven’t done it with fruit and veg.’
Luke Senior said: ‘How long before shops are forced revert to the old style with shop assistants, human or robotic?
‘Having to retrieve everything for customers like either Argos or a giant vending machine?’
Duncan Gray said: ‘At £2 they should be locked in a vault in the basement.’
Another added: ‘As a Londoner since birth, I can confirm that this place is going to the dumps.’
One said: ‘This is a whole another level of low.’
It comes after the cost-of-living crisis when there was an increase in store thefts due to excessive inflation.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has made shoplifting an issue during next month’s general election claiming the Conservative’s anti-crime policies were in effect a ‘shoplifter’s charter’.
Police will often not investigate shoplifting of items valued less than £200 under existing plans.
Addressing retail union Usdaw’s annual conference in Blackpool, Sir Keir said: ‘I am putting shoplifters on notice. You might get away with it under this weak Tory Government.
‘But if Labour takes power, we won’t stand by while crime takes over our streets.
‘We’ll put 13,000 extra neighbourhood police on the beat, tackling crime on your streets.
‘We’ll scrap the Shoplifter’s Charter – the £200 rule that stops the police investigating theft in your workplace.
‘And we will legislate to make sure assaulting and abusing shopworkers is a standalone criminal offence because you deserve to feel safe at work.’
Shoplifting rates are at their highest point in 20 years, according to recent research.
The cost of living problem is making it difficult for people to exist, which is to be expected given that the government is causing the wealthiest to become richer and the poor to get poorer.
Prices in the UK are criminally excessive, and UK manufacturers and retail giants charge inflated prices and use any excuse to do so. Shrinkflation is also rampant and before long, one mouthful of chocolate will cost you over a pound, and quite frankly I’m not surprised shoplifting is on the rise.
This has to do with corporate exploitation and greed. Supermarket costs have risen above even conservative estimates of inflation, and many are finding it difficult to provide for their families.
As millions of individuals invade our nation with little more than a tracksuit and flip-flops to their names, we look on and wonder why stealing is on the rise with fourteen years of Tory law and order that have now led us to use security tags on chocolate bars!
While I don’t support shoplifting, you have to wonder if supermarkets are providing customers with decent value for their money when they consistently report record-breaking profits.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 