Morrisons shoppers anger at pressing security buzzer to buy champagne

Shoppers in an affluent town have slammed Morrisons for installing a buzzer if they want to buy champagne.

Bottles for as little as £31 have been placed in a glass security cabinet. Other more expensive brands include £47 Veuve Clicquot and £50 Bollinger and Moet.

Yet bottles of slightly cheaper Prosecco costing up to £25 have been left out. No other alcohol like pricey wines and spirits have been given the same measure.

There is a button on the cabinet which reads 'Press here for help.'

A sign above it adds: 'Buzz for booze! To purchase Champagne or spirits from the cabinet, ask one of our colleagues or press the call-point.'

It was spotted in Fleet, Hampshire previously voted the healthiest, happiest and wealthiest place in the UK to live.

The town, with a population of 37,794, also has a very low crime rate with just 19 cases of shoplifting in August according to the most recent published figures.

The average house price in the commuter town is £530,923.

Bubbly-loving local shoppers reacted with bemusement.

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How high-tech Romanian Mafia-style 'champagne gang' is shoplifting from stores across Britain

Claudio said: 'Alcohol sales will drop for sure. No one will be a*sed to wait for lazy staff to come round.'

Karen added: 'Good luck with getting anyone to answer the buzzer.'

But others said it was in keeping with shoplifting across the country.

Daniel said: 'Well, if people will be d*cks, actions must be take.' 

Kenneth added: 'Some idiots spoil it.'

Anne said: 'Sad sign of the times.'

Morrisons has been approached for comment.

It comes as a Romanian crime ring known as the 'Champagne gang' are believed to have stolen at least £73,000 of goods from supermarkets across the UK before sending it overseas in a 'mafia-style' operation.

The group usually operates in threes, with gang members wearing Bluetooth headsets to communicate with each other during the shoplifting operation.

While blending in with other shoppers, the members are able to warn each other if security guards are watching them as they casually take Champagne bottles off the shelves.

While one gang member sets off the alarm to distract security staff, the others walk out the store with the stolen goods, the BBC reports.

The gang exploited a post-Covid Champagne shortage in mainland Europe 18 months ago to target bottles of fizz in UK shops and then smuggle them to Romania to flood the black market. 

Earlier this year, Tesco installed artificial intelligence-style locked security cabinets in the alcohol aisles to stop shoplifters nicking booze.

The technology works by asking shoppers to use a digital touchscreen and complete a 'four-step process' to open the cabinets, which contain premium spirits.

Believed to be called the Freedom Case, the anti-thieving gadgetry has the ability to track when items have been removed, how often the cabinet has been opened and for how long.

It can also send alerts to staff if 'suspicious behaviour' is detected. 

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Organised crime gangs targeting high-end supermarket Waitrose, says company boss

Earlier this week, the boss of Waitrose said that organised gangs of shoplifters are targeting high-end supermarkets in a new wave of attacks.

James Bailey, 50, revealed there has been a 15 percent rise in the number of assaults on staff members involving weapons in the last year.

Mr Bailey told the Mail On Sunday his employees are facing attacks by 'brazen and  aggressive' gangs.

It comes amid a nationwide surge in the prevalence of shoplifting gangs, who can steal tens of thousands of pounds worth of goods in a matter of weeks.

Mr Bailey told the Mail On Sunday his employees are facing attacks by 'brazen and aggressive' gangs. 

It comes amid a nationwide surge in the prevalence of shoplifting gangs, who can steal tens of thousands of pounds worth of goods in a matter of weeks. 

The government has pledged to crack down on shoplifting and make assaulting shop workers a specific offence.

In London, shoplifters are particularly targeting stores close to Tube stations to give themselves an easy escape route. 

The new offence, which is yet to be put into place, would see perpetrators sentenced to a maximum of six months in prison. 

Britain is currently in the midst of a shoplifting crisis, as police figures recently showed offences have soared by 30 per cent in a year to the highest level in two decades.

Almost 444,000 crimes were recorded by forces in England and Wales in the year to March, up from 342,428 in the previous 12 months. This is the highest figure since records began in 2003, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The Mail on Sunday previously revealed that as few as 12 gangs are behind a quarter of all shoplifting in England and Wales, with some foreign offenders flying in to steal and flee the same day on budget flights. 

And retail experts have repeatedly warned that the rise of shoplifting is being driven by the perception that it was a risk-free crime. 

Just 431 shoplifters in the year to March received fixed penalty notices - the lowest form of punishment for goods under £100 - down 98 per cent from 19,419 a decade ago.

The use of cautions, which are added to an offender's criminal record, has also plummeted from 16,281 in 2014 to only 2,077 in the last year - a drop of 87 per cent.

There has been a significant decline in the number of retail thieves pursued through the courts, with 28,955 convictions over the last year versus 71,998 a decade ago. 

Reacting to the figures, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper vowed to 'end the shameful neglect of this problem' that has 'allowed it to become an epidemic in our society'. 

Outlining her plans, she told The Times: 'We will remove the £200 threshold, bring in stronger powers to ban repeat offenders from town centres, make assaults on shop workers a specific criminal offence, and, through our neighbourhood policing guarantee, we will put thousands more police onto our streets to crack down on shop theft, antisocial behaviour and the other crimes that blight our communities and make people feel unsafe.'