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Supermarkets' controversial step to avoid shoplifting of meat

The Australian supermarket giants have taken a controversial step in their ongoing war against shoplifters by fitting expensive meat cuts with security tags.

A photo recently shared by one Coles customer showed a pre-packaged container of lamb cutlets with the security tag attached. The Coles brand chops had a retail value of $40 per kilogram.

The shopper shared the image to a Facebook group with the caption: “The things retailers have to do to stop theft and protect profit”.

Opinion was divided over the store’s use of the tags, with some pointing out that the security feature was not new.

One woman who claimed to be a former Coles employee said she had “lost count” of the number of empty containers she’d found stashed around the store after they’d been raided of the meat inside in order to get around the security tag.

“Well if it wasn’t so expensive it wouldn’t be a target,” one person said.

Another added: “I’m not really surprised at $30 for 12 bites of meat … it’s bloody ridiculous …”

Many disagreed that the high cost of meat was justification for people stealing it.

“It’s ridiculously expensive but there is NO excuse for stealing! There are heaps of charities running grocery shops. Some people are too lazy to look for bargains/markdowns and don’t know how to budget,” someone else wrote.

A Coles spokesperson told Yahoo News Australia the supermarket had introduced the Electronic article surveillance (EAS) tags to combat the “small number of people” doing “the wrong thing”.

“Like a number of retailers, we work with police to reduce shoplifting. There are also trained covert security officers in our stores nationally and they’re catching hundreds of thieves every week and reporting them to police,” the spokesperson said.

“Electronic article surveillance (EAS) tags are one of a range of security measures we have in place to reduce theft from our stores.”

Woolworths told news.com.au they had also implemented the tags on some meat packaging as a security measure against theft. Yahoo News Australia contacted Woolworths for comment.

The photo which was uploaded to a Facebook group showing the culets with as security tag. Source: Facebook / Markdown Addicts Australia
The photo which was uploaded to a Facebook group showing the culets with as security tag. Source: Facebook / Markdown Addicts Australia

Earlier this year a new survey found retailers had seen a rise in shoplifting.

The Australia and New Zealand Retail Crime Survey reported that the incidence of customer theft had seen a spike of 16 per cent in less than two years, with meat, baby milk formula and face creams being the most commonly stolen items from supermarkets.

The survey found retail theft during the 2017-18 financial year had cost the sector $3.37 billion.

“Many people think that retail crime is a victimless crime – that the large retailers build expected losses into their profit margin – but it couldn’t be further from the truth,” the survey’s lead researcher, Dr Emmeline Taylor, said in a statement.

“We calculate that $3.37 billion is enough to employ 85,000 supermarket checkout staff for a year.”

However, according to Queensland University of Technology (QUT) professor and retail expert Gary Mortimer, the increase in shoplifting activity needed to be read in context with the rising cost of living.

“[There are] many reasons for this spike in theft — increasing household costs, less disposable incomes or unemployment will motivate some to steal, in order to provide for their families,” Mr Mortimer told business news site, SmartCompany.

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