We all have our favourite fruits and vegetables that we may stock up on if we're in the mood to snack on them, but one mum has taken it one step further by attempting to walk out of a shop with 100 cucumbers during a supermarket shortage.
Lisa Fearns says she was subsequently 'barred' from buying too much fruit and veg in Lidl, despite buying a huge number of cucumbers from the supermarket every week for the past three years in order to make detox drinks for her business.
The 49-year-old claimed that as she was about to pay on Sunday, February 19, when a manager rushed over and stopped her from emptying the shelf of cucumbers.
This comes as some supermarket chains have started rationing fruit and vegetables due to shortages of fresh produce due to bad weather and transport issues.
Growers and suppliers in Morocco have had to contend with cold temperatures, heavy rain, flooding, and cancelled ferries over the past three to four weeks - all of which have affected the volume of fruit reaching Britain.
The shortages could last weeks, retailers have warned, as Asda has introduced a customer limit of three on tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, lettuce, salad bags, broccoli, cauliflower, and raspberries, and Morrisons said it would be introducing limits of two items per customer across tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, peppers from Wednesday.
Other supermarkets are understood to be considering similar temporary measures, and hopefully, supplies will improve in the coming days or weeks.
However, Lisa didn't let this put her off and she continued on with her mission to buy as many cucumbers as possible, leaving Lidl and heading out to different supermarkets to broaden her search.
As a result, the mum-of-two from Merseyside says it took her two hours and five different supermarkets to complete her shop rather than the usual 15 minutes.
She hit out at Lidl online writing: "What the actual f***ity f***", as she explained she'd been 'barred' from making her purchase, but had 'moved on' from them.
"I've been going every week on a Sunday for three years. I get there at 10am because I need the cucumbers to be fresh then I make juices during the day," she explained.
"I get funny looks when I'm in the supermarket, people look at me like 'what are you doing?'
"I needed 100 cucumbers. The manager came running out of the back saying I'm buying too much fruit and veg and I can't purchase that much. They didn't want my custom so I said I'd take my custom to Aldi.
"I had to go Asda, another Lidl, and another Aldi. I'm like a secret shopper. It [now] takes me about two hours to get all the shopping rather than 15 to 20 minutes.
"In Aldi, there was a limit of three per person so I picked up six and they didn't say anything.
"I'm stressed about what I'm going to do every week. I'm going to have to find a pleasant, happy, fruit and vegetable store that would like to take my business.
"There's going to be a battle in the shops."
The personal trainer has been running her juicing business since the start of the first lockdown three years ago and says she's noticed the cost of fruit and vegetables soar, saying on average she spends £70 on cucumbers per week, before making detox juice and selling it on.
Lidl said that, unlike other retailers, they do not currently have any restrictions in place due to the national shortage and that Lisa's issue will have arisen due to the 'wholesale purchase attempt' - though Lisa says she didn't have any issues for the last three years.
A Lidl spokesperson said: "As a supermarket, we want to ensure that all of our customers have access to the products they need, and we are therefore unfortunately not able to facilitate wholesale purchases.
"We thank shoppers for their understanding and consideration of other customers."
Have you experienced shortages in your area? Let us know in the comments.
