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SUPERMARKETS HAVE STARTED adding anti-shoplifting security tags and visors to branded chocolate at some of their Irish supermarkets to deter shoplifters.
The move comes ahead of supermarkets stocking shelves with treats for the traditionally busy time of Easter.
Aldi has attached the tags to chocolates including Cadbury’s Dairy Milk, Kit-Kats and Milky Way, while Tesco has began placing branded chocolates behind plastic screens in recent weeks at a number of its stores.
German-based retailer Aldi has previously added security tags to staples such as butter and meat at some of its Irish stores.
A spokesperson for Tesco told The Journal that they have started installing ‘Invisi-shield’ screens at a “small number of stores” on a selection of products.
The spokesperson added that there’s “no link to Easter products specifically” and that it’s being done as a “loss-prevention solution” for the company’s goods.
Donna Ahern – who is editor of Irish retail publication Shelf Life – told The Journal that the move is unsurprising given a “really clear shift” towards efforts to combat shop-lifting from stores.
Recent years, particularly post-pandemic, have seen retail groups complain of a marked rise in shoplifting.
Figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) found that theft and related offences increased by 18% over the four-year period stretching from 2022 to 2025.
Ahern added that we may see more such measures at supermarkets due to the rise in self-service checkouts.
“When staff are tied up helping another customer, items can sometimes be missed or not scanned properly, meaning genuine shoppers may leave the store with an item they never intended to take,” Ahern said.
“Unfortunately, some offenders appear to have cottoned on to this and are deliberately taking advantage of the situation, using busy self-service areas as an opportunity to steal such items.”
The intensifying security measures also come at a time of ever-increasing prices for chocolate, spurred by inflation and extreme weather in key cocoa exporting African countries.
For Ireland, chocolate prices have jumped by 11.5% in less than two years according to the CSO – with this week also seeing the confirmed sighting of a bag of Mini Eggs for the sum of €10.
A Cadbury’s spokesperson told The Journal this week that food companies are continuing to experience “significantly higher” input costs across their supply chain, with ingredients such as cocoa and dairy costing “far more” than they have done previously.
“This means that our products continue to be much more expensive to make and while we have absorbed these costs where possible, we still face considerable challenges,” they said.
With reporting by Valerie Flynn
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