Boots has been forced to remove a vital everyday product from its shelves over fears it is being sold abroad by gangs. Baby formula and other products have been moved out of reach of shoplifters, who are reportedly selling them abroad or using them to mix with drugs.
At one branch in Purley, south London, it was revealed that products costing as much as £19 have been taken off the shelves and replaced with paper photocopies which can then be taken to the counter and exchanged for the real thing.
Crime experts say high street shops are creating “fortress stores” to prevent shoplifting incidents suggesting it is “naive” to say it is the cost of living crisis alone which has caused an uptick in the crime.
Boots has recently been calling for tougher action on shoplifters and violence against staff.
Emmeline Taylor, professor of criminology at City, University of London, told The Sun: “Some retailers are creating what I call ‘Fortress Stores’ in some of their hardest hit locations.
“Their tactics include dummy displays, locked cabinets, and more sophisticated tagging, as well as investing in staff training and more sophisticated guarding.”
Just last month Boots confirmed it was making changes in the way it operated in order to make stores safer.
It said: “To prevent theft, we often use security tags on products or remove items from shelves and replace with empty boxes or cutouts.
“The decision on which items to protect in this way is made at a store level and is based on what is most at risk of theft in that area.
“In some locations, baby formula is stolen with the intent to resell, so we take steps to protect our stock to ensure it is available for our customers when they need it.”
The Project Pegasus scheme, which is used by a number of retailers, says consumer shoplifting in 2023 rose by between 25pc and 37pc compared to 2022.
While the Centre for Retail Research added that the police were failing to respond to a large number of incidents.
It said: “Thieves have become aware that retail crime is fairly risk-free and that shopkeepers cannot detain a thief unless there is a good prospect that the police will turn up and make an arrest.
“The Coop estimates that the police failed to respond to as many as 71pc of their serious crime cases.
“The patterns of bad behaviour that originated during Covid and the sight on TV screens and online media of organised looting of stores in the US have made them realise that the same conditions apply in the UK.
“Retailers are responsible for the safety and welfare of their employees and do not want them to be harmed by contact with aggressive and often violent shoplifters.”
