Tesco to attach security tags to meat products
The small grey security tags, similar to those attached to clothing in other stores, have not only been secured to the packaging of expensive meat products, such as the €25.20 pale ham fillet, but also cheaper items, including €3 packets of Irish beef burgers.
Other tagged items include €4 packets of bacon and Irish pork chops retailing at €5.49.
Tesco Ireland communications manager Seamus Banim said the security scheme, which is being implemented at Tesco Express stores in the Dolphin’s Barn area and in two stores in the north inner- city, was “only a trial”.
Mr Banim said it was one of a number of new security methods the company would be piloting.
However, the move has been condemned as “further stigmatising” already economically troubled parts of the capital.
Dublin Central Labour TD Joe Costello said he was appalled by what he termed Tesco “discrimination towards the heart of the city”.
“The quality and product range of products stocked in Tesco’s stores in the heart of the city and those in other areas is often inferior. Placing security tags on meat products is just another example of a lack of respect to shoppers in these areas,” Mr Costello said.
Dolphin’s Barn regeneration worker Rory Hearne said the local area “had enough challenges without Tesco targeting it in this manner”.
“This is doing nothing for the reputation of an area which has struggled with poverty.”
Mr Banim dismissed the criticism, saying that product range and quality was exactly the same in Tesco stores throughout the city and all sought to provide products at the best prices possible. He said: “[In] no way was the company discriminating against inner city [shoppers].”
When products are purchased the tags are removed and reattached to other produce. A sales assistant at the Dolphin’s Barn Tesco Express said she had yet to see anyone being caught attempting to rob a tagged item.
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