Coronavirus: Tesco ‘puts security tags on soap in toilets’ amid panic stockpiling

Supermarket rationing certain products after shelves left empty

A Tesco store has reportedly started putting security tags on hand soaps in its bathroom amid unprecedented coronavirus stockpiling.

The security measure was spotted by a customer in a Bedford store, according to The Mirror.

The shopper posted an image of the heavily protected Tesco Essentials hand soap — which is currently sold out online — costs to social media.

An employee at one of the largest of Bedford’s multiple Tesco stores told The Independent that although they weren’t aware of such measure being introduced, the branch had run out of hand soaps.

Tesco is one of several stores to begin rationing certain items, such as hand sanitiser, toilet roll and some long-lasting foods, after worried shoppers began to stockpiling items in preparation for coronavirus-related shortages.

Sales of such products have in some cases been limited to no more than five at a time, in order to allow supermarkets to restock after shelves emptied.

With the official advice over coronavirus centring on regularly washing your hands and avoiding touching your face, some have gone to extreme lengths to procure hand sanitiser.

As supermarket shelves were raided last weekend, a hospital in Northampton was forced to plead with visitors to stop taking bottles of hand sanitiser from “the end of our patients’ beds and from our welcome desks”.

A spokesperson for the hospital also told the Northampton Chronicle three dispensers were “ripped from walls” and visitors have been seen filling up their own dispensers with the hospital’s supplies.

Tesco did not immediately comment on whether stores had been advised to place security tags on the free-to-use soap bottles in their bathrooms.