Tesco forced to introduce 'drastic step' over advent calendars in stores

Tesco and WH Smith bosses have been forced to take a drastic step to stop shoplifters nicking £2 advent calendars. Tesco and WH Smith are slapping security tags on advent calendars worth just £2 — as shoplifters gear up for Christmas.

The Sun on Sunday spotted the yellow deterrent stickers on Bluey advent calendars worth just £2 and Dairy Milk and Maltesers versions for £2.75. Boxes of After Eight chocolate mints priced at £3.50 have also been slapped with yellow stickers.

Martyn James, Sun Squeeze Team member and consumer champion, said to the nwspaper: “It’s incredibly depressing retailers are having to attach security tags to even the cheapest Christmas advent calendars thanks to thieves.”

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The British Retail Consortium’s Retail Crime Survey 2022-2023 highlights that the cost of retail theft doubled to £1.8 billion, with upwards of 45,000 incidents occurring each day. According to the BRC, this is now “a crisis that demands action”.

Helen Dickinson OBE, CEO of the BRC, said: “Despite retailers investing huge sums of money in crime prevention, violence and abuse against retail workers is climbing. With over 1,300 incidents every day, Government can no longer ignore the plight of ordinary, hardworking retail colleagues including teenagers taking on their first job, carers looking for part-time work or parents working around childcare. While the violence can be over in a moment, the victims carry these experiences with them for a lifetime. We all know the impact doesn’t stop there, either. It affects their colleagues, friends and their families whom they go home to every day and night. This is a crisis that demands action now.”

Dickinson added: “Criminals are being given a free pass to steal goods and abuse and assault retail colleagues. No-one should have to go to work fearing for their safety. The Protection of Workers Act in Scotland already provides additional protection for retail staff, so why should our hardworking colleagues south of the border be offered less protection? It’s absolutely vital that Government takes action and brings forward the new standalone offence of assaulting or abusing a retail worker.”