Chocolate Theft: Shops keep bars in anti-theft boxes amid chocolate theft warnings
Retailers have begun locking chocolate bars in transparent anti-theft boxes as they warn that chocolate theft is being organised and carried out by prolific offenders. Stores including a London branch that locked £2. 60 Cadbury Dairy Milk bars say the move responds to repeat targeting of confectionery.
Anti-theft boxes on display
Sainsbury's said it had begun using "boxes on products which are regularly targeted", and supermarkets have fitted transparent boxes that customers have to ask staff to open. Tesco and Co-Op, as well as Sainsbury's, have used these measures to keep chocolate bars behind locked trays.
Shoplifting epidemic in London
The Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) said chocolate was more recently being "sold on by criminals and is now being targeted more frequently by prolific offenders. " Some individual police forces have seen a specific trend in chocolate being targeted, and the National Police Chiefs' Council said it was working to tackle this type of crime.
Chocolate Theft and security measures
In recent months police forces have posted videos of brazen thefts to highlight the issue. West Midlands Police shared CCTV footage of a man grabbing trays of chocolate outside a shop in Stourbridge. Wiltshire Police shared a video of a man dragging a whole shelving stand of chocolate out of a shop door. Earlier last year a man was arrested by Cambridgeshire Police with a coat full of Cadbury's Creme eggs.
Retailers and police responses
Cambridgeshire Police said: "Chocolate is one of a number of high-value items thieves often target, along with products such as alcohol, meat and coffee. Retail theft has a real and lasting impact – not just on businesses, but on the staff who have to deal with related abuse and intimidation. " The ACS also said retail workers need more support from police and stronger sentences for criminals.
Local store impacts
The Heart of England Co-Op group, which runs 38 stores in the West Midlands, Warwickshire, Leicestershire and Northamptonshire, said chocolate theft cost it £250, 000 last year. The group said chocolate was its most stolen product in 2024 and was topped only by alcohol in 2025.
Chief executive Steve Browne called chocolate theft a "massive issue" and said: "In a particular shop, one individual could cost us thousands of pounds in a week. They were coming in... then literally swiping the whole shelf. " He added that a shelf of chocolate could be worth £500 and that the group had spent £3m on security and other measures to prevent thefts.
Sunita Aggarwal, who runs two convenience stores in Leicester and Sheffield, said she had reduced the amount of chocolate on display in her Sheffield store because of increasing theft. "People are just coming in, and nicking boxes and boxes of chocolate, " she said.
The British Retail Consortium's annual crime report found there were 5. 5 million detected incidents of shop theft last year, and 1, 600 daily incidents of violence and abuse against retail workers. Although the report showed a drop of a fifth on the previous year, the total remained the second highest on record.
Industry figures have warned the criminal market for stolen confectionery helps fund wider crime. Chief executive James Lowman said: "Confectionery, like other products commonly stolen from local shops, is being re-sold through illicit markets that help fund wider criminal activity. Alongside better police support and effective sentences for repeat offenders, we need action to shut down the networks re-selling stolen goods. "
Retailers and police continue to trial anti-theft boxes and other security measures as they respond to the pattern of theft, and stores across affected areas have tightened displays and locked high-value chocolate behind transparent cases to limit easy removal by offenders.
Chocolate theft remains a pressing operational and safety concern for shops, with losses, footage of organised thefts and pressure on staff cited across multiple forces and retailers.
