Humiliation on the high street as security guards rob shoppers of their dignity

With budgets under pressure, stores are cutting back their security and using random spot checks to crack down on theft, as Anna Tims reportsPenny Keza was about to pay for her shopping at her local Aldi when a security guard bellowed across a crowd of customers and demanded to search her bag. “I asked why he had picked on me and his response was ‘People like you have been caught with stolen meat and alcohol’. He was unable to explain whether ‘people like you’ meant