MSN.com | Sept. 11, 2022
Supermarkets have enlisted staff to protect expensive cuts of meat due to increased shoplifting sparked by the cost-of-living crisis, according to a new report.
The upmarket stores in Maidenhead were forced to act after losing ‘thousands of pounds worth of stock’ every week.
The Berkshire town’s manager Robyn Bunyan said the significant spike in thefts suffered by major retailers is thought to have been brought about by rising food costs.
A combination of the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine has caused staggeringly high inflation, which has sent the price of groceries rising at the fastest rate since the global financial crisis in 2008.
Ms Bunyan said supermarkets had been forced to employ ‘meat monitors’ to watch over expensive cuts, with the town’s larger stores such as Waitrose and Marks & Spencer said to be most impacted.
Ms Bunyan told a town meeting this week the shoplifting issue was becoming ‘huge’, according to the Maidenhead Advertiser.
Why not just go back to a Butcher? Meat used to be behind refrigerator cases and you waited for the Butcher to give you your cut.