A woman claims she was “banned” from purchasing big quantities of fruit and vegetables when Lidl personnel refused her purchase of 100 cucumbers at one store.
Lisa Fearns, 49, claims she has been buying big quantities of cucumber every week for the past three years in order to prepare detox juices for her business.
The mother of two from Kirby, Merseyside, said she went to pay as normal on Sunday, February 19, when a manager approached her and “forbade” her from taking all of the cucumbers.
Lisa said: “I’ve been going [to Lidl] 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 in the day.
“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.”
Lisa said she had to visit another three shops to get all the cucumbers she needed, adding the errand took her three hours rather than the usual 15-20 minutes it would normally take.
“I had to go Asda, another Lidl and another Aldi,” she said. “I’m like a secret shopper.
“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.”
Taking to Facebook, Lisa wrote to the supermarket brand: “What the actual f***ity f***” and adding she’d been “barred for purchasing too much fruit and veg”.
Lisa said: “I ran a ladies-only gym and I was going to set up a juice bar but then lockdown happened so I started juicing from home.
“On Sunday it was more expensive because I had to go to different shops. I remember cucumbers were only about 40p and now they’re 70p, they’ve more or less doubled in price.
“It’s stressful.”
Lidl stated that, while they do not currently have any purchasing limits, they are a supermarket chain rather than a wholesaler, where businesses would typically acquire things in bulk to sell to customers.
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.”