Aldi staff told to refuse to serve customers if they decline new bag rule
Shoplifting rose by 22 per cent in the year to September 2022.
PA
Aldi staff have been instructed to rifle through customers’ bags in order to catch out and perturb would-be shoplifters, an Aldi worker has revealed.
Should the shopper refuse to divulge the contents of their bag, new rules mean they will be prevented from completing the sale.
Bag checks apply to the carrier bag the customer has used to pack their shopping, rather than a personal bag such as a handbag.
An Aldi shop worker told the Grocer Magazine that the new policy had been rolled out in their store last week.
Aldi store on the Old Kent Road in London.
PA
They said: "We are asking that they allow us to look in the bags to see if they are empty.
“We have been asking to look in the bags to make sure none of our items are in there”.
The worker noted that the searches were being carried out by employed security guards rather than Aldi staff.
The bag search whistleblower, who remained anonymous for fear of getting the sack, disclosed that shoppers leaving the store could also be stopped by security should they be suspected of theft.
A member of staff directs queuing customers outside a branch of Aldi in south London.
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In a post on an Aldi Facebook Group, one social media user who claimed to be an Aldi worker said: "New policy at Aldi, all empty shopping bags must be on the belt plus all shopping."
Bag checks have been rolled out in “some stores” across the country, though there is no “national policy” in place, an Aldi spokesperson told the Mirror.
The spokesperson pointed out that some Aldi stores had been deploying bag checks since May, and reassured customers that checks were only ever carried out with their consent.
Aldi is one of several supermarket chains to have introduced more stringent measures and checks in its stores, in a bid to clamp down on shoplifting.
SHOPLIFTING LATEST:
Lurpak have explained that rising prices are there to protect farmers facing their own rising prices in the supply chain PAShoplifting rose by 22 per cent in the year to September 2022 in England and Wales, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Meanwhile, the British Retail Consortium estimated that there were 8million ‘theft incidents’ in British shops last year.
Shops have resorted to extreme measures to cut down on shoplifting
A Co-op store in London has started putting empty coffee jars on shelves in a bid to deter shoplifters, said Metro.
Meanwhile, Marks & Spencer has ‘resorted’ to limiting the number of steaks on show in some of its fridges to ‘try to curb shoplifting’, according to The Telegraph.
As the price of Lurpak reaches new dizzying heights, supermarkets have taken the extreme measure of security tagging to combat the rise in shoplifting.