Asda customers are stealing shopping baskets instead of paying for bags

An Asda store was left with just 30 to 40 baskets

Customers keep stealing from this Asda store (Google )

Asda customers have stolen dozens of plastic shopping baskets from a store in Cambridge, forcing bosses into ordering 100 more as replacements.

The store was left with only 30 to 40 green baskets in use due to shoppers taking the baskets home.

A Tesco store on the Isle of Lewis faced a similar issue in April and temporarily stopped providing baskets after losing 15 baskets a week due to theft.

Asda has pledged to remove plastic from its stores where possible and the retailer's 5p plastic bags will vanish from stores by the end of the year.

It is unclear if the move caused the rise in customers stealing baskets from the store in Cambridge's Beehive Centre.

“After listening to our customers and their concerns about plastic, we made the decision to phase out our single-use plastic bags," an Asda spokesperson said.

"We’re trying to do our bit to protect the environment, and would ask that the small number of customers who are taking our baskets home with them use their bags for life instead.”

The bags for life are larger than the 5p bags and cost 9p each.

Individual Asda stores have previously added security tags to baskets due to thefts according to the BBC, which reported that an Asda store in Dundee introduced tags after a number of baskets were stolen in 2014.

A spokesperson for Sainsbury's said that they were not aware of any similar issues in their stores.