Some UK retailers are now locking chocolate bars in plastic boxes to deter theft as the product gets increasingly targeted for organized crime, reported the BBC.
Recently, chocolate started being "sold on by criminals and is now being targeted more frequently by prolific offenders," the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) told BBC.
“Confectionery, like other products commonly stolen from local shops, is being re-sold through illicit markets that help fund wider criminal activity,” said ACS Chief Executive James Lowman. “Alongside better police support and effective sentences for repeat offenders, we need action to shut down the networks re-selling stolen goods.”
Sainsbury’s supermarket chain started using the plastic anti-theft boxes on “products which are regularly targeted,” including £2.60 bars of Cadbury Dairy Milk. Supermarkets Tesco and Co-Op are also using the boxes, which customers have to ask staff to open.
The Heart of England Co-Op group, which runs 38 stores in the West Midlands, Warwickshire, Leicestershire and Northamptonshire, told the BBC chocolate theft cost it £250,000 last year. It was the group's most stolen product in 2024 and topped only by alcohol in 2025, it said.
“In a particular shop, one individual could cost us thousands of pounds in a week," Steve Browne, CEO of The Heart of England Co-Op group, said. “They were coming in... then literally swiping the whole shelf.” He added that a shelf of chocolate could be worth £500.
Sunita Aggarwal, who owns two convenience stores, told the BBC that people are just coming in and taking boxes of chocolate. To mitigate theft, she has installed more than 30 CCTV cameras and uses AI technology to detect thieves. Her team now only half-fills the shelves to limit losses and has stopped promoting chocolate on easy access end-of-aisle positions.
Cambridgeshire Police told the BBC that “Chocolate is one of a number of high-value items thieves often target, along with products such as alcohol, meat and coffee.”
Cocoa prices rose sharply in the last two years due to supply problems in Ghana and the Ivory Coast. Since then, the price of cocoa has fallen, but it remains volatile.
Last July, some chocolate manufacturers announced they may need to raise prices to keep up. The average unit price of a chocolate bar in the U.S. in July 2021 was $2.43, according to NIQ. As of mid-July 2025, it was $3.45, a 41% increase. NIQ said unit sales of chocolate fell 1.2% for the year ending July 12.