WH Smith ramps up Christmas crackdown on UK's shoplifting scourge by fixing security tags to cut-price Advent calendars, £2 Terry's Chocolate Oranges and card games
WH Smith has stepped up a Christmas crackdown on UK's shoplifting scourge by attaching security tags to discount Advent calendars, £2 Terry's Chocolate Oranges and card games.
The retailer has installed anti-theft tags on items ranging from chocolates and sweet treats to toys and games, with some items costing just £1, amid theft concerns.
According to the Mirror, the high street chain has put some toys and games, such as Cards Against Humanity or Wheel of Fortune, in plastic security alarms in stores in Croydon and Redhill.
Items also have a yellow sticker attached, warning would-be shoplifters that 'CCTV is in operation in this store' and that the chain will 'always prosecute thieves'.
It comes after other stores have installed similar measures in a bid to crackdown on theft.
Earlier this year, Tesco began putting security tags and nets on boxes of Quality Street and Celebrations despite them costing just £3 and £3.75 respectively.
Other chocolate treats also faced increased security at the chain's Covent Garden store include Guylian Seashells, Ferrero Rocher boxes and even Toblerone.
Tesco supermarkets are understood to take an individual approach to security protection, and the policy on chocolate is not universal across all its 2,800 stores.
The retailer has installed anti-theft tags on items ranging from chocolates and sweet treats to toys and card games
Chocolate boxes also have security tags and nets on them at one Tesco supermarket
Boxes of £3 Quality Street and £3.75 Celebrations with security tags at Tesco in Covent Garden
Chocolate bars worth £1.25 were put in anti-shoplifting security boxes at another Tesco store
The chain also took steps to improve security on other items such as Cathedral City cheese and Dairy Milk bars, which are now found in plastic boxes.
Other chains have employed their own methods, with Asda spotted putting security tags on condoms.
The yellow alarm patches, which bizarrely states 'security protected, remove before microwaving', have been spotted on the contraception across several Asda supermarkets.
A supermarket worker at an Asda branch in Lewisham, south east London, told The Sun: 'These measures are now necessary because of how much shoplifting is going on.
'Part of it is the prices have gone up by a lot. All birth control has got far more expensive and that makes it more of a target for shoplifters.'
A spokesperson for Asda previously told MailOnline: 'Our top priority is to keep our customers and colleagues safe which is why our stores will implement policies that seek to deter shoplifting including the use of security tags on products that are regularly targeted.'
Elsewhere, Co-op has resorted to placing dummy coffee jars on its shelves while Tesco has also put heavy-duty padlocks on fridges to stop shoplifters stealing bottles of champagne.
And Morrisons brought in a 'Buzz for Booze' button that requires staff to unlock alcohol fridges for customer, while Sainsbury's has replaced bottles with cardboard cutouts, with signs telling shoppers to go to the customer services desk if they wanted to buy them.
In April, it was reported that shoplifting has risen to the highest level on record. A total of 430,104 offences were recorded by police in the year to December 2023, up by more than a third (37 per cent) from 315,040 in the previous 12 months.
Condoms are the latest products to have an anti-theft device slapped on them as the nation finds itself in the grips of a shoplifting epidemic. The yellow alarm patches have been spotted on the contraception, which retails for £18 in the store, across several Asda supermarkets
Stores have been forced to put security tags on various different types of sweets, such as these Haribo in Aldi in Catford, south London
Cathedral City cheese was spotted in a security box at a Tesco Express in Dalston, East London
Bottles of Moet & Chandon, Veuve Clicquot, Lanson and Taittinger costing from £30 to £50 are now displayed in a padlocked fridge in the Tesco Extra in Purley, South London
A 'buzz for booze' button at a Morrisons supermarket at Five Ways in Birmingham last Apri
The figure is the highest since current records began in the year to March 2003, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) has called for retail crime to be made a top priority for police.
Its latest crime survey showed losses to theft doubled in the last year to £1.8billion, and retailers had to spend a further £1.2billion on anti-crime measures.
Graham Wynn, of the BRC, told the Mirror that many business have been 'taking action to ensure [their] stores remain welcoming for colleagues and customers'.
The Association of Convenience Stores has also insisted that action is needed to tackle repeat offenders.
Some retailers have previously said they have seen a greater willingness among shoplifters to turn to violence and abusive, and that they felt there is a lack of consequences for offenders.
The Co-op said there were more than 300,000 incidents of shoplifting, abuse, violence and anti-social behaviour in its stores in 2023, and has previously called for MPs not to 'turn their backs' on shopworkers.
The boss of John Lewis said shoplifting had become an 'epidemic' with a rise in organised gangs looting stores.
In September this year, Yvette Cooper said she was drawing up powers to crack down on shoplifting and street yobbery – after being shocked that even fabric conditioner bottles are being fitted with anti-theft tags.
The Home Secretary pledged to abolish the rule that stolen goods worth under £200 counts as 'low-value shoplifting' with lighter punishments for thieves.
