Basket theft rife in supermarkets

MANY supermarkets are experiencing a chronic shortage of shopping baskets because shoppers too mean to buy plastic bags are stealing them, it emerged yesterday.

Some stores have bought as many baskets in the first half of this year as they did for the whole of last year.

The massive upsurge in basket theft is being put down to the new Government levy on plastic bags, introduced four months ago.

Colm Walker, manager of Tesco in Tallaght, Dublin, said at least 70 baskets had been taken from his store, and that he lost 20 baskets a week.

Mark Murphy, Tesco manager in Mallow, Co. Cork, said: “We have gone through more baskets so far this year than in the previous year-and-a-half.”

Mr Murphy said the store had lost between 60 and 70 baskets since the plastic levy was brought in.

“The supplier is out of them because the demand is so high, that’s why we have none,’’ he said.

He said shoppers typically said they had forgotten their bag and did not want to buy another, taking baskets.

“We have put signs up asking people to leave baskets behind. But unless you grab the basket off them and insult them, they’re walking out the doors with them.”

Baskets cost 4.50 to replace.

Tesco manager in Wicklow town, Darren Coates, said the store had lost between 40 to 50 baskets since the plastic bag tax was brought in.

“When customers come in looking for them, we tell them straight out that people are robbing them on us,’’ Mr Coates said.

“We’ve no baskets now. We’ve ordered some in, and we should have them in a couple of days.”

A spokesperson for a Dunnes supermarket in Dublin’s north side also said it was a major problem.

“You should have looked at our stock of baskets this morning. It’s unbelievable. Certain shoppers are just walking out the door with them and not bringing them back,’’ they said.

However, the trend seems to have hit some supermarkets more than others, with many stores reporting that they were relatively unaffected.

But Shop Equipment, the country’s main distributor of shopping baskets, confirmed the theft was occurring nationwide.

“It varies from area to area, but there’s no doubt there’s been a huge increase in loss of baskets as a result of the bag tax, that’s what it’s been put down to,” a spokesman said.

“In the first six months of this year, we have certainly sold more than for the whole of last year, when we would have sold around 15,000 baskets,’’ he said.

He said he did not see the situation changing for some time.

A Tesco spokesman, however, insisted there was no problem and that all stores had adequate basket numbers.