Lidl was forced into a grovelling apology after a mum and daughter were humiliated by a male cashier while buying sanitary products. The women were shipping in the budget supermarket in Wells, Somerset, when they approached the till with a number of feminine hygience items.
But they were left mortified when a male cashier shouted loudly about their products, audibly telling the women in front of other customers that there was a limit on how many sanitary items they could buy.
One shopper who witnessed the ordeal at the Somerset store branded the situation "unacceptable" and shared her anger online. The pair were left so humiliated they had to move to another till, SomersetLive reports.
They said: “This man thought it acceptable to completely humiliate and shame a mother and daughter whilst attempting to buy multiple sanitary products. Two women living in the same household with synced periods… not uncommon at all.
“He deemed it acceptable to shout to the back of the queue, in a very hectic shop, that what they were buying wasn’t ‘allowed’ to be purchased. He kept shouting ‘you can’t buy any more than 12’, ‘you won’t be served here’.
"They did in fact not have any more than 12. He continuously repeated himself, becoming more and more aggressive, totally embarrassing the mother and daughter more and more each time he did so.
"He then began to argue with the mother over what she had, she politely told him they didn’t have any more than they were ‘allowed’ to purchase, but he just continued.
“Whilst this was happening everybody who was queuing at the other tills had turned to look at what was going on, causing yet more unnecessary embarrassment. This resulted in them going to another till to be served perfectly, no questions asked. They were, in fact, served by the deputy manager.
"The mother raised her concerns with what had just happened and she apologised on his behalf, whilst he decided to again raise his voice to defend himself. The teenage daughter said had she had been on her own she would have put down the sanitary products that she needed and left crying due to immense embarrassment and would have just 'gone without'.
“This is in no way, shape or form, acceptable. Nothing will ever change unless we all challenge the stereotypes, the stigma, the taboos surrounding menstruation. How dare this man feel it acceptable to not only question but completely humiliate a mother and daughter.”
Lidl has now apologised after the incident and said retraining was being provided to prevent future incidents.
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