According to the latest crime survey for England and Wales? Shoplifting is increasing 37 per cent year on year. Thr new UK Labour government is announcing in the King's Speech in Parliament today new laws to help protect staff in shops and supermarkets from abuse and violence, but some supermarkets are already trying new ideas. Back in January I wrote about the Robocop in Morrisons and I recently spoke about this to BBC Radio 4.

 That's being felt by supermarkets in particular and it’s leading many of them to increase their security. You may have noticed depending on where you shop cameras in the middle of Isles, barriers at the automatic checkouts, that won't open unless you scan your receipt bottles of spirits wrapped in metal mesh, and spirit Isles with barriers, at the end of them.

But how far can security go before it starts putting honest Shoppers off.

I spoke to You and Yours on BBC Radio 4 to talk all about what happened when I came across something I described as Robocop in Morrisons. It also looks quite like R2D2 too.

Here’s the trascipt from the interview and you can listen and watch it on youtube here too.

 Mark Powlett from Birmingham is one person who has noticed excessive security,

 Mark, so the supermarket that you use, tell us what security measures they have introduced.

Well, this was back in January. I realised because I tweeted about it, which got picked up and spoken about in the tabloids, What they've done in my local supermarket is they have kind of like a, it's a robot. It's not kind of one that moves, but I think it's got cameras that move. It's like a four-sided thing. It looks like it's all of R2D2.

Which supermarket is this? It's more Morrison's in Redditch.

 Okay, so there you go Morrison's in Redditch and there's R2D2.

Yeah, and it's still there, I actually checked again this morning. It's got like four cameras on it and it looks like it's got sirens on it. It looks like it would have flashing lights on the top and it's in front of the spirits basically.

Yeah, they do seem to be the thing that people must be nicking and I guess they're small. They're high value.

The thing is if you're trying to protect them I'm not quite sure what, I'm not a shoplifter. The only time I've ever shoplifting was accidentally is a child when I bought my copy of the Beano home and it got another one inside it and I felt terrible. So it's not it's not my thing to do shoplifting. However, I imagine if you're gonna take some spirits, you're not going to take them in front of the spirit Island, put them in your bag, are you. You're just gonna walk to a different part of the supermarket.

So who is it actually putting off? Is

Well this is not a nice environment when you get to the till you're filmed at the till. Now, there's a camera with a picture of you. A screen in front of you packing, my own groceries into a bag. I'm having to watch a video of me. It's not a nice environment.

I used to really enjoy going to the supermarket, my other half my partner. She hates it. but I got enjoy it. So I'm not hugely put off, but I think a lot of people would be and I'm not quite sure who these are supposed to deter. Now, I think really, they're trying to deter someone who's maybe never shoplifted and is trying to do it because they don't have enough money. Not that stealing Spirits is the best thing to do. I don't think any professional shoplifters can be put off by something in the spirit aisle. And the other thing is I don't, I'm not sure that they would be better off, perhaps with staff, because I was in their recently, packing up my shopping, there was a chap next to me, and he got a sandwich and some crisps and a drink and nobody came because he needed some assistance. So, he just picked them up and he walked off with them. Now, there was no member of Staff because we're waiting for someone to come. There was nobody on security by the door, so I watched him. Leave the store. Now, If I'm packing my stuff, I'm guessing, they're not expecting me to go chasing after him. I might have mentioned it, if there was a security guard, but there was no staff can ask you something though.

Do you still shopping in this same Morrison’s in Redditch has it put you off?

If I'm honest. I shop around. So, I will go to any store. I haven't shunned it. I, I haven't bought any Spirits from there. I have bought spirits from other shops, other stores now, because I find it just a bit off-putting quite frankly, but it's the nearest store, so that's why it tends to be the first one I go to. If I'm doing other things, if other parts of town, I will go to other shops. I've got as much loyalty for the shop as I think as they have for their customers.