Aldi employees told to refuse to serve customers if they decline new bag rule

One employee said the policy made them feel 'awful'

The budget supermarket chain recently introduced a bag searching policy, with checks to be carried out by security guards in the store on all of a customers bags to try and prevent shoplifting.

An Aldi shop worker told The Grocer Magazine: "We are asking that they allow us to look in the bags to see if they are empty. We have been asking to look in the bags to make sure none of our items are in there”.

The employee said those who do not comply with bag checks will be refused the sale, but they said this has not yet happened in their particular store.

Another member of staff posted in an Aldi Facebook Group that "all empty shopping bags must be on the belt plus all shopping," the Mirror reports.

Another worker said it was an "awful feeling" to have to ask customers to have their bags searched.

But Aldi has said this is not a "national policy" and is implemented at the discretion of individual stores.

The chain also added that the bag check policy is not a new one and has been around since May.

A spokesperson said the policy was a short-term measure and was only ever carried out with the shopper's consent.

It comes as food prices continue to rise at supermarkets across the country thanks to sky-high inflation rates, prompting a number of chains to introduce checks to clamp down on shoplifting.

Earlier this year, shoppers at the Co-op noticed security tags on jars of instant coffee to prevent shoplifting.

In March, food inflation reached a peak of 19.4 percent. Since then, the body that represents UK supermarkets has assured shoppers the cost of a food shop “should start” to come down in the next few months.

In June, supermarket executives denied they were making too much money from soaring prices. In the same month, food prices were up by 14.6 percent compared to a year earlier.

Bosses from Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons were grilled by MPs over food and fuel prices, and rejected claims they were making excess profits.

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