The cost of living crisis is having massive direct and indirect consequences in the market. With shoppers experiencing unprecedented financial pressures, supermarkets are also having to evolve their pricing and packaging strategies to cope with the changing socio-economic situation.
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As reported by Daily Mail, a supermarket giant was found instituting a major change in their packaging, leaving their regular shoppers surprised. The Tesco Extra store in the village of Pool in Cornwall was found to be using security tags on their milk cartons earlier this week.
Tesco introducing security tags on milk?
Customers shopping at Tesco’s Cornwall store were shocked to find that milk cartons there were all fixed with security tags. The report quotes one customer as saying,
I couldn’t believe it at first and thought it was some kind of joke or a mistake, but I overheard a member of staff tell a customer that there had been a lot of thefts of milk and this was their way of trying to stop it.
It would not be the first instance of the supermarket adding extra precautions to deter thieves. Tesco had earlier security tagged baby milk cans in another store and also started using security barriers to deter rogue shoppers from snatching reduced yellow sticker items from the hands of Tesco employees.
Is it going to be Tesco’s policy henceforth?
As per the report, Tesco has responded to the news saying that it is actually not a current store policy to put security tags in milk, and the supermarket has no intention of putting any such policy in place.
The Tesco Extra milk tags were apparently just an error on the part of the store. The report quotes a Tesco spokesperson as saying,
We do not have a policy to place security tags on fresh milk. A very small amount of milk was incorrectly tagged today in our Redruth Extra store and these tags have now been removed. We’re sorry for any inconvenience caused.
Sources used:
Daily Mail: 'Now Tesco puts security tags on MILK: Supermarket fits devices to four pint cartons after it tagged meat and cheese as cost of living crisis drives shoplifting of everyday items'