Aldi shoppers were taken aback when staff started checking their bags for stolen goods.

Customers are now required to put extra bags on the checkout belt along with their shopping, to show they are empty – or to show staff the contents of any full shopping bags.

It comes as shoplifting rates increase amid the cost-of-living crisis.

A shopper at Aldi on Didcot Broadway took to Facebook to exclaim: "What is going on with Aldi??? As a customer with an extra personal bag you have to show contents of your bag.

"Fair enough to a certain degree yet I was in there today and clocked a lad filling his pockets.

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"Told the staff, there’s nothing they can do as they can search/check bags but not a person!!!"

Another shopper was similarly taken aback, writing: "I went to Aldi Sunday and as I was preparing my bags to load shopping in, the guy asked to look in the bags! First time I've had this but I don’t go in there very often. Must be a new thing?"

The German discounter is carrying out bag checks in a small number of stores where it is needed and with customers’ permission.

It is not national policy for the Aldi, meaning it does not state how individual stores should carry them out.

One Didcot customer said the searches were entirely justified, writing: "I was in the other week and a guy walked out with a basket full of stuff, including security tagged steak and probably other expensive items."

Another said: "I was there the week before last and some bloke ran out with a basket full, continued to saunter across the car park where he met his mate and filled up their rucksacks.

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"I know the cost of living is affecting some a lot more than others and we have some pockets of the most deprived in the nation in Didcot, so I do feel for families but there also is a lot of charities that are there to help with food."

"Personally I don’t have an issue. Nothing in bag, nothing to hide," agreed a third.

Aldi is one of a number of retailers to have introduced new measures in stores in recent months, as shoplifting rates soar as UK families feel the squeeze on their household budgets.

Sainsbury's and Morrisons have introduced exit barriers at the self-checkout areas in some of their stores recently.