WHSmith has been forced to resort to extreme measures in security for their stores as part of a desperate bid to stop people shoplifting.
The high street chain has had to put security tags on £1.50 handwash and keep their 80p Peppa Pig stickers behind the tills after stores up and down the country have been plagued by thefts.
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Items as low as £1 have had to be protected and staff are now forced to tag everything with a sale ticket over £10.
Experts believe the spate of attacks comes as more shops ditch customer-staff interaction and add self-serve tills – as brazen shoplifters take advantage.
At one branch alone this week, employees tagged the £1.50 bottles of Carex soap, calculators costing just £6.49 and even boxes of Maltesers.
And at a store in Croydon, south London, Peppa Pig and Premier League stickers, worth 80p to £1, were kept locked away behind the cash desk.
One WHSmith staff member said everyone feels like they’re “fighting a losing battle” and they’ve had no choice but to take these drastic measures.
They told the Mirror: “Shoplifting is out of control. We do the best we can, but it is hard when the thieves are so determined.”
It comes after the British Retail Consortium reported around eight million thefts from March 2022 to March this year.
Retail experts have since called on the Government and police to do more.
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Jane Moore recently wrote in The Sun that cops are giving the green light to criminals to shoplift.
The journalist and presenter said it’s “depressing” that forces won’t get involved in shop theft unless more than two hundred pounds worth of goods are taken or there is decent CCTV of the crime taking place.
And shoplifters aren’t the only epidemic high street stores and supermarkets are having to deal with.
Tesco workers were this month offered body cameras after a rise in violent attacks.
The supermarket chain revealed around 200 of their staff members are assaulted each month by customers.
