Saw this at Tesco and honestly I’m confused…what exactly is this meant to do? The plastic “slide” mechanism doesn’t seem to stop anyone from just reaching in and grabbing multiple bars. Is it supposed to slow people down or something? If anyone knows the logic behind this, I’d love to understand.

by Mysterious-List-384

17 comments

  1. I can only imagine it slows down people running in with a duffel bag and swiping everything into the bag. I doubt it slows them down much

  2. Is it anti-theft, or just to stop people from knocking stuff off the shelves?

  3. Takes longer to clear the shelf and makes it more obvious.

    People stealing such things are not doing a bottle at a time. They’re going for bulk.

    Chewing gum had such things 15 ish years ago. Massively stolen item which seems unsual to people but a small case of them can be worth £40. Easy to sell on to corner shops. Take 10 cases and sell them on for £200.

  4. It’s to counter what’s called “sweep theft”, where the shoplifter sweeps the contents of the shelf into a large open bag. Anti-theft devices don’t have to be perfect, they just have to make stealing from your shop more awkward and less productive than stealing from a different shop.

  7. The real question is – where can I buy some knocked off olive oil? Not keen on paying eight quid!!

  8. I have some questions…so in the UK, people are running into stores and sweeping whole shelves of Extra Virgin Olive Oil into their waiting duffle bag and legging it, bottles clanking merrily, and heavily, at their side?!?!?

    Is there a black market for this stuff or something? I use like one smallish bottle of this per year….

  10. It doesn’t prevent theft because £8.95 for olive oil is daylight robbery

  12. I do a monthly shop via delivery and I had two 1L olive oils (Mediterranean girl here this is a kitchen basic for me) delivered in ALARMED netting devices. Delivery driver couldn’t remove them so my poor partner had to smash the devices open with a hammer. Is olive oil really that in-demand?

  13. As mentioned, they help prevent sweep theft. Some versions also create sound when moved, which draws attention and makes it harder for theft to go unnoticed. This results in more accurate reporting for insurance claims.

  14. Possibly not these, but some devices on high value items just trigger notifications/‘events’ for the security system/guards for monitoring purposes

  16. prevents the usual “open bag, arm behind products, sweep them into bag, leave shop” method of shoplifting.

  17. It’s all great until people can’t actually buy the product. I was in Tesco the other night trying to buy razor blades and it had some weird security device that just said ‘twist right’ and I was there ages trying to twist the pack clockwise, thinking maybe there’s a magic way they will come loose. Only the next day I realised I had to twist the security device right, and then it sort of corkscrewed one out.

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