Exasperated supermarket workers have been forced to put security tags on their shopping baskets at one store, after thefts sky-rocketed following the introduction of the carrier bag charge.
A third of all baskets at a branch of Tesco in Oldham were pinched in the seven days after the new charge was introduced.
According to the BBC, the supermarket giant said: "The store had a problem with people taking baskets since the introduction of the carrier bag charge.
"It is not a blanket policy, but we have introduced security tags as a result."
Other stores in London are also believed to have brought in the policy.
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Also spotted were 10p Tesco bags for life (costing 10p) with security tags attached.
Tesco later admitted that this was a "mistake".
Some shoppers seem to have resorted to even more drastic tactics following the introduction of the 5p charge, introduced on 4 October.
According to Metro, some people have gone so far as to take actual shopping trolleys, reasoning that the £1 deposit was a fair exchange.
The introduction of the carrier bag charge was predicted by tabloids to cause “chaos”, but the results were, in reality, less serious.