Is this really a sign of the times?
Not that long ago, every time we purchased bananas in one particular supermarket, a member of staff had to approve it before we could continue. Why? Because thieves were selecting joints of meat, especially pork would you believe, and processing them through the self operated tills as ‘bananas’ which were sold by weight.
When the price of butter and margarine began to rocket last year, some stockists had them in lockable cold cabinets and you had to ask a member of staff to get one for you.
Today I have read that baby formula has been put behind tills in some Co-op stores to deter theft (source).
It is indeed a sad day when families cannot afford to buy food for their families and now formula for their babies. Last year, one of the larger supermarkets had placed security tags on formula and a variety of lower priced items to deter theft. The government should be clamping down on this particular line of extortion, especially as the cost of living in respect of food prices now stands at 16.7% (source), and people are desperate.
I am, or try to be, a canny shopper. I have got to the stage when I dread going through the door of a supermarket now because I don’t know how much food has gone up by since I last shopped. Our ‘cheap’ bread has gone up by 5p, and no doubt in another month it will increase again to catch up with everything else. Most of what else I buy has also increased by at least 20p over the past four months.
Yesterday when I did my little bit of shopping (and still spent over £22), I put my purchases through one of the manual tills. A member of shop staff came scurrying over as the light above my till was flashing and I hadn’t noticed. Luckily I knew her and I was a familiar face to her too as she told me it was the chicken breasts. Apparently they are all being flagged now as some are security tagged. They did the same with cheese in recent months too.
Is it really to deter theft, or another way of monitoring what consumers buy so that they can hike those prices the most?
pensitivity101 
Probably so they can hike prices even more. Jo winder people are forced to steal, no one can afford to pay the exorbitant prices they’re charging. Somebody should be monitoring them, they’re the real crooks.
I agree there Fransi
It’s endless. I just saw a news report that Meta (Facebook and Instagram’s parent company) are going to charge a monthly fee to users who want more security on their accounts. Can you imagine? They want to charge up to $15 a month for security (and some perks that who gives a damn about) that every user should be entitled to? A secure platform where people should not be afraid of getting hacked and having their identity stolen should be a given for heaven sake!! Mark Zuckerberg can kiss my you know what!!!
They’ll get away with $15, then it will rise to $20, then $25. It’s the same with banks……….. you can opt to pay a monthly fee and get a better interest on your savings and some travel perks you’ll never use or discounts in shops you never go in. The thing is, the interest doesn’t cover the charges applied unless you’ve got hundred of thousands on deposit………… and the taxman takes a chunk out of that!
It’s a total rip-off. I will not be paying it. If I don’t feel secure on facebook or instagram or any other social media platform I’ll stop using them. I will not pay them a dime for something they should be providing to everyone as part of their platform.9’e has every right to expect a platform to be safe.
I agree Fransi. It’s just another way of making a buck for nothing.
Exactly.
Probably. It’s like big brother everywhere now. I’m just reading a new series that starts with “Scythe” and I’m on second book “Thunderhead”. Thunderhead is the ultimate big bro😂
Thanks for commenting Cheryl.
As I thought a bit more I got angry. Baby formula? The basis of religions and good governing is to be of, for and by the people – here in US at least and the latest going’s on are opposite of those tenets🤨
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Everything is nuts. I’m sure every older generation has said that, but UGH IT IS NUTS! I too have seen baby formula locked up here, but so far I haven’t hear about people trying to steal meat by pretending it’s bananas. Today I saw that the price of gasoline has increased significantly (again), while at the same time we read that the giant petroleum corporations have made more profit this past year than any other. But they NEED to raise prices?!?!?! Sure…
Same here with energy companies. Billions in profits, yet prices are still on the rise.
In Australia we have a huge issue with formula. People buy it and send it overseas. At one stage you had to prove you had a baby to purchase, supply was so crucially low
It just gets worse doesn’t it.
Unfortunately 😞
I hate dishonest people.
A few years ago, the Co-op closed the doors that opened up to the car park in the summer months because thieves were loading up trolleys and running them outside to a waiting van with ramps!
Everything you scan is already linked to you by either your loyalty card or your debit/credit card. So..IDK any answer seems pretty whack.
We discovered that with Tesco when our neighbours had different ‘special offer’ vouchers to us.
I have not seen that here and hope it doesn’t happen. We have been experiencing constant price rises and shortages. Sometimes the supermarkets limit the number of products that we can buy. It’s happened with frozen veg and recently with eggs. It’s been going on since Covid. I don’t know why it is still a problem.
I never use the automatic checkouts. I don’t like them and prefer to be served by a person. It keeps those people in jobs.
Actually I really don’t like doing the full grocery shop in the supermarket any more. I don’ t like people who block the aisles with their trolleys chatting but most of all I don’t like not knowing how much I’m spending. I do my main shop online where I can track prices better. Between fortnightly shops we pop in to the local supermarket for fresh fruit and veg and anything else we run out of.
We’ve had restrictions on some items but prices are going up out of all proportion and we are sick of hearing it’s because of Brexit, Covid or the energy crisis. It is profiteering at its worst. I was paying £1.39 for 15 eggs, now, after a shortage there is a ‘new line’ of 10 eggs for the same price.
Oh, that’s just highway robbery!
Tell me about it…….. sigh
I just decided to currency convert that and GPB1.39 + $A2.42. Eggs here range from about $4.50 a dozen for 600g up to around $7. We generally like to buy free range eggs at about $5-6 for a 700g box. Barn laid and cage eggs are cheaper but I won’t buy cage eggs on principle. I have seen boxes of 18 eggs but never 10 or 15. I guess eggs are no longer cheaper by the dozen.
Ha. Exactly. Free range eggs are something like £2.60 for 6. The eggs I buy are barn eggs. It would be cheaper (excuse pun) to keep chickens.
Crumbs! That is expensive. I’d probably have to go for the barn laid at that price too.
It’s daylight robbery. You can buy fresh free range eggs from the roadside for £1.30 a half dozen.
I remember thinking on my previous visits to England 1977 & 1990, that English people seemed to eat less meat than we did. That’s probably doubly true now although it’s getting very expensive here too.
In the 34 years Hubby and I have been together, I have never cooked a Sunday joint, and if we had meat, it would be pork chops, minced beef, or chicken though at one stage I would buy 100g of stewing steak for our stew, which the butcher thought was for the dog!
We don’t have roast lamb often now. It’s just too expensive. i can’t believe that when I was a kid we had it every Sunday. We didn’t have a lot of money then but we could afford lamb. We eat pork a lot more now. as well as minced beef, stewing beef in cooler weather and sausages. I did buy a 1kg piece of boneless pork to roast recently. It was on special and we got a dinner and a lunch out of it and have some left for sandwiches so good value for money.
That was good value! In the ’80s, I used to buy a 4lb chicken for Sunday dinner and would get three meals out of it for a family of 4 plus 2 dogs for the scraps: Sunday roast, Monday curry and Tuesday sandwiches. With Hubby, a chicken breast will do us one meal, either curry, with roast veg etc as I did at Christmas, or ginger and pineapple.
food is definitely gone up so much in the last year hasnt it? Its crazy!
IMO Half of the obesity problem is because people cannot afford a balanced diet and have to buy what they can afford……… which is not necessarily good as most of it is processed or high in fat and sugars.
Yeah I know. Totally agree with you.
My goodness. Not something I have experienced at the moment. But it shows sad times we are in with how price increases are affecting everyone. Well everyone accept those in Government.
Exactly. Our so called leaders don’t give a toss about the general public. After all, with their salaries, they don’t have to worry where the next penny is coming from……… especially our Prime Minister.
I totally agree. They certainly don’t give a toss.
This is really worrying.
It should not be happening and the government should be clamping down on this. Prices are going through the roof and they are doing NOTHING.
Yes, they have excuses but no action
I just buy ‘own brand’ items now. I can live with mostly dust at the bottom of a cheap box of corn flakes!
We buy a lot of own brand or store specific, but sometimes it’s false economy so we stick with buying Plenty, rather than own brand kitchen roll. It’s probably the only thing we are brand loyal with, that and Surf tropical washing liquid as Hubby has no reaction to it, but I only buy it when it’s on special offer.