A mum who attempted to buy a load of nappies and sanitary pads to send to refugees on the Ukrainian border claims an Aldi worker wouldn’t let her, due to a lack of stock.
The woman, from Southend-on-Sea, said she made the decision to stock up on supplies to send to Ukrainian refugees at the Polish border after seeing messages on social media about a nearby restaurant collecting donations.
She said she went to her local Aldi with a friend on Sunday afternoon to purchase sanitary pads, wet wipes and nappies to take in as donations.
She told The Mail Online the pair had been careful to leave stock behind for other people.
However, upon attempting to pay for their items, she claims they were told they were not allowed to buy “all of the stock”.
In response, Aldi claimed they offered to bulk order stock to collect in two days’ time.
A spokesperson attributed the workers’ reactions to the haul to their store policy to try to allow customers to buy “as much stock as possible” - but to ensure there is “enough stock for other shoppers”.
The woman and her friend were only allowed to buy £98.70 worth of items, she said, while the remaining stock they had intended to buy was returned to the shelves.
Footage captured by the friend allegedly shows an Aldi worker putting nappies back into a trolley to put back on shelves due to “shortages” in the UK.
The mum said the incident made her feel like a “rat” who was “looting” for wanting to buy donations for Ukrainian refugees.
She said: “I was asked like a rat to put this back on the shelves because I am looting Aldi in Southend for Ukrainian people and how dare I. This is how it felt.”
The inspiration to buy the items for Ukrainian refugees came from a Facebook post on page Polacy W Southend-on-Sea, she said.
The appeal said a lorry would be travelling to Poland on Saturday filled with stock to help refugees.
It urged people to drop off donations at Polish restaurant Domowe obiady U Babci, such as long-life food, blankets and hygiene items.
She had wanted to do what she could to help during the “biggest crisis of our lifetime”, she said.
The mum added that her parents, who live in Kraków, were taking in refugees in a bid to help.
She said and her friend had been conscious about leaving some stock behind for other people.
The mum claimed they only bought several packs of nappies in a handful of sizes.
However, she said she could sense “tension” around her from customers and staff after they loaded up the trolley.
As the pair were queueing for the till, she said there had been an announcement calling a manager.
She initially thought something had happened with the cashier and she would have to move queues, but then realised it was because of her purchase.
She claims she was then told by the manager that she could not buy the amount of stock they had selected and would have to return some to the shelves.
Explaining her confusion over the debacle, she said it wasn’t as though there was a shortage, as there had been during periods of the pandemic.
Determined to gather more stock, she said she went to Lidl afterwards, where she was told she was allowed to buy nappies in larger quantities.
She also went to Farmlands to pick up long-life food supplies and encountered no issues with buying large quantities of groceries.
She said the experience left her wanting to “cry”, and said she was just trying to do “everything” she could to help the Ukrainian refugees fleeing the country amid Russia ’s invasion.
She said: “I just felt unwelcome, I just felt like crying in the middle of that shop."
