SHOPPERS are furious after Morrisons installed a buzzer to alert staff if they want to buy champagne.
Bottles costing from as little as £31 up to Bollinger and Moet items worth £50 have been placed in a glass security cabinet in a store in the upmarket town of Fleet, Hampshire.
But bottles of slightly cheaper Prosecco costing up to £25 have been left out.
Expensive wines and spirits have not been given the same treatment.
There is a button on the cabinet which reads “Press here for help.”
A sign above it adds: “Buzz for booze! To purchase Champagne or spirits from the cabinet, ask one of our colleagues or press the call-point.”
Fleet was previously voted the healthiest, happiest and wealthiest place in the UK to live.
It has a very low crime rate with just 19 cases of shoplifting in August – the most recent published figures – for a population of 37,794.
The average house price in the commuter town is £530,923, as reported on NeedToKnow.
Bubbly-loving local shoppers reacted with bemusement.
Claudio said: “Alcohol sales will drop for sure.
“No one will be a**ed to wait for lazy staff to come round.”
Karen added: “Good luck with getting anyone to answer the buzzer.”
But others said it was in keeping with shoplifting across the country.
Daniel said: “Well, if people will be d***s, actions must be taken.”
Kenneth added: “Some idiots spoil it.”
Anne said: “Sad sign of the times.”
A Morrisons spokesman told The Sun: “The cabinets you have seen are being used in a number of our stores as part of their security measures, as are others across the industry.
“We have received good feedback from customers and have a colleague in the area and the buzzer also goes to the store headsets so customers can expect really prompt service.”
By Dominik Lemanski
SAINSBURY’S has started sticking security tags on 85p packs of macaroni in a bid to deter shoplifters, The Sun reported in August.
The pasta was among numerous low-cost products slapped with the anti-theft stickers.
Others included £1.70 packs of Silver Spoon sugar, £2.80 jars of Sainsbury’s Gold Roast Decaffeinated Coffee and its £2.90 Rich Roast Instant Coffee Granules.
A source at one Sainsbury’s store in Purley, South London, previously said: “It doesn’t matter the value of the item, shoplifters will try and steal anything.
“The security tags are like speed cameras.
“They won’t stop them but they may at least slow them.”
Previously, we told how packs of Yorkshire teabags at a Tesco in South East London now carried yellow stickers that set off alarms if nicked.
Cases of shoplifting in the UK have surged to record levels — with 1,300 reported every day.
