TESCO has started locking entire shelves of booze in high-tech cabinets that have to be unlocked using touchscreens.
The supermarket giant ramped up security by shutting away all alcohol and spirits – even on the shop floor – following a spike in shoplifting across the country.
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Footage taken from a Tesco in Perivale, west London, shows a raft of alcohol bottles on shelves locked behind electronic glass doors, with shoppers required to use a touch screen device to request access from staff.
Bottles caged behind the locked shelves were also electronically tagged for extra protection, as customers have begun branding the security measures as a “new norm”.
Tesco said it has been trialling a new cabinet for spirits and sparkling wine in a very small number of large stores, as an additional security measure to help reduce theft.
Britain’s largest supermarket chain added that these new doors remain locked until a customer needs to access the product, at which point they press a button on a screen for a few seconds until it opens.
Popular brands including Smirnoff Vodka and Tanqueray Gin were filmed behind locked shelves by one punter, who posted the footage on TikTok.
One of the video captions read: “The new ‘normal’ for buying alcohol in London”.
The video has circulated on X, where users agreed that these methods could become more widespread.
One wrote: “Society only has itself to blame for this. Will become the norm so long as shoplifting continues to be widespread.”
Another posted: “Much of this is because self service tills lanes have made it easier to steal. .. just walk in and walk out. This is cheaper than paying more staff.”
It comes as some of the supermarket giant’s branches have begun adding security tags to shopping baskets in yet another unusual move.
One Tesco branch in Theydon Bois, Essex, attached security tags to shopping baskets following a spate of basket thefts.
In April, a different branch in Bristol went to the extreme of checking every individual on CCTV before allowing them into the shop, in response to the shoplifting epidemic.
Shoplifting On The Rise In England And Wales
Levels of shoplifting have increased to a new 20-year high in the last year.
443,995 offences were logged by forces in England and Wales in the year to March 2024, equivalent to 50 thefts every hour.
This is up 30 per cent on the 342,428 cases in the previous year and the figure is the highest since current Office for National Statistics (ONS) records began in 2003.
Ministers have vowed to tackle low-level shoplifting, which will ensure police officers investigate crimes even when the stolen goods are worth less than £200.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the thefts were hurting businesses and communities across the UK and damaging public confidence.
New legislation will reverse the “shoplifters’ charter” introduced in 2014, which allows police to deal with thefts of £200 or less by post.
The cost-of-living crisis triggered a surge in food theft, with supermarket shoppers witnessing items including milk, butter, meat, and chocolate bars being security tagged in stores.
