Tesco locks chocolate bar at £2.25 – and people aren’t happy

On By Rgal Nv

Article from Jam Press (Choc Security Boxes) Pictured: Chocolate bars in anti-shoplifting security boxes. Bars of chocolate worth just 1.25?? placed in anti-shoplifting security boxes at Tesco Chocolate bars worth as little as 1.25?? were placed in security boxes to prevent shoplifting at Tesco. Daily Milk, Galaxy and Milkybars were enclosed in plastic containers. The boxes have stickers saying “Ask the staff???”. Customers can't just take a bar off the shelves, supermarket workers have to buy one for them. The cheapest chocolate in the boxes is Milkybars, as NeedToKnow reports. They are €1.25 for Tesco Clubcard holders or €1.55 without. Galaxy bars cost €1.35 and Daily Milk cost €2 with a Clubcard or €2.25 without. They were spotted at a Tesco store in Newham, east London, where there are 16 stores in the borough. Former cop Norman Brennan was furious: “??? Tesco now puts chocolate bars behind plastic safety barriers. ???Shoplifting is so out of control that the cost of losses over the past year is two billion pounds.??? The former British Transport Police officer said: ???And it's going to go up and up.??? Local Stephanie Hayden said: ???Disgusting.??? Sharon Rae McGilvray joked: ???Funny how they didn't do it with the fruits and vegetables??? Luke Senior said: ??? How long before stores are forced to go back to the old style with salespeople, human or robotic. ???Having to collect everything for clients like Argos or a giant vending machine???? Duncan Gray said: ???At ??2 they should be locked in a safe in the basement.??? Another added: ???As a Londoner since birth I can confirm this place is going to the bin.??? One of them said: ? That's a whole other level of weak. ??? This follows a rise in store thefts amid high inflation during the cost of living crisis. Last month, thefts were committed at Greggs in Archway and Boots in Chingford. Tesco has been contacted for comment. ENDS

A Tesco store has taken drastic measures (Photo: Jam Press/@CrimeLdn)

A branch of Tesco in east London has placed a selection of popular chocolate bars under lock and key to try to deter shoplifters.

Photos shared online this weekend showed a variety of sweet snacks carefully placed in locked crates at a Newham store, with the plastic boxes ensuring shoppers cannot make their choice without first informing a member of staff .

The bars in question include Dairy Milk, Milkybar and Galaxy – although the slice-sized bags of chocolate are not kept in plastic cases unlike their sister products.

The locked boxes all have a sticker reading ‘ask staff’, with the most expensive chocolate bar locked being the £2.25 Dairy Milk Creations bar, a popular treat which combines popping sweets with fruit-flavoured jellies and sugar-coated cocoa candies. .

However, the price of the Clubcard ensures that customers can acquire it for 25p cheaper at £2.

Elsewhere, Tesco lists the price of a Milkybar as £1.55, with the Clubcard priced 30p cheaper thanks to the loyalty scheme.

General view of a Cadbury'S Dairy milk chocolate bar.

However, the sharing bags were not locked (Photo: John Phillips/UK Press via Getty Images)

In today’s economic climate, in which almost everything seems to be skyrocketing, the UK has seen an increase in shoplifting.

When it comes to food, data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that the overall price of food and non-alcoholic drinks increased by around 25% between January 2022 and January 2024. In comparison, Prices increased 9% in the 10 year period preceding this one.

So in 2024, the Association of Convenience Stores’ crime report showed that shoplifting was on the rise, with figures showing 5.6 million incidents of theft from stores recorded over the course of 2024. Last year. Notably, the 2023 report reflected 1.1 million.

Similarly, in April 2024, further ONS data showed that recorded offenses had reached their highest level in 20 years.

And in 2023, more than 430,000 offenses were recorded in England and Wales, an increase of a third on the previous year – the highest figures since police records began in 2003 .

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Milkybar was also under lock and key at Tesco in Newham (Photo: Bloomberg via Getty Images)

While stealing is obviously not encouraged, social media users have claimed that the prices of the candy bars are incredibly high.

“£2.25 for a chocolate bar. £2 if you sell them all your personal information,” wrote @ZahZay1922. “Who is the thief here?”

Others argued that the measures themselves were extreme. “This is a whole other level of depression,” wrote @ludwig05269026 on X, formerly Twitter, while @Brit_banter added that it symbolized “the point of no return.”

This is not the first time supermarkets have locked up valuable products. Last year a Co-op store in Norwich made headlines after hiding its olive oil stocks following a series of thefts.

The store’s bottles, found on Sprowston Road, were on display in security crates which could only be opened by staff on request, with the extreme measure introduced after seeing a dramatic increase in shoplifting.

At the time, a Co-op spokesperson said: “Protecting the safety of our colleagues is a priority and we know that shoplifting can be a flashpoint for violence against store workers.

“So while this is not a national policy, a decision to implement product safety measures at a local level will be made if a store experiences a particular issue.”

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