Chocolate Anti Theft Boxes: chocolate anti theft boxes lock up £2.60 Cadbury bars in London
Shops are increasingly locking chocolate in plastic boxes as retailers and police warn thieves are stealing items to order. The move to chocolate anti theft boxes follows a series of theft videos, arrests and warnings from trade groups and police forces.
How stores are responding
Sainsbury's said it had begun using "boxes on products which are regularly targeted", with £2. 60 bars of Cadbury Dairy Milk locked up in one London branch. Supermarkets including Tesco and Co‑Op, as well as Sainsbury's, have been fitting transparent boxes on chocolate bars that customers must ask staff to open.
Video evidence and arrests
In recent months some police forces have posted videos of chocolate being stolen to highlight the issue. West Midlands Police shared CCTV footage of a man grabbing trays of chocolate, external from a shop in Stourbridge, while Wiltshire Police shared a video of a man dragging a whole shelving stand of chocolate, external out of a shop door. Earlier last year a man was arrested by Cambridgeshire Police with a coat full of Cadbury's Creme eggs.
Retailer and police warnings
The Association of Convenience Stores said chocolate was more recently being "sold on by criminals and is now being targeted more frequently by prolific offenders. " The National Police Chiefs' Council said it was working to tackle this type of crime. 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. "
Heart of England Co-Op figures
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. It said chocolate was the group's most stolen product in 2024 and topped only by alcohol in 2025. Chief executive Steve Browne described chocolate theft as 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 a shelf of chocolate could be worth £500 and that the group had spent £3m on security and other measures to prevent thefts.
Local shop impacts
Sunita Aggarwal, who runs two convenience stores in Leicester and Sheffield, has 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 Association of Convenience Stores also called for more support for retail workers from police and stronger sentences for criminals. Its 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. "
Crime scale and workplace impact
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 this was down by a fifth on the previous year, it remained the second highest on record.
Retailers and police forces continue to adopt measures from transparent boxes to raised security spending in response to videos, arrests and persistent thefts that have left stores and staff bearing significant costs.
