Pregnant shopper claims she was 'pregnancy shamed' by Lidl worker
Was she just trying to be friendly? Or should she have minded her own business?
Have you ever had a stranger come up to you in the street and touch your belly? How about ask you a really personal (and embarrassing) question about your sex life?
Well, chances are, if you have, you were pregnant.
There's something about a baby bump that throws some people into a panic. They feel they have to say something, but have no idea what. And tact usually goes right out of the window.
Well, that's what happened at the Lidl checkouts to Emily Saunders. The mum-to-be said she was left "insulted, embarrassed and hurt" by the checkout lady's comments.
Emily, 34, was at the till of the supermarket in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, when she claims the checkout worker implied her pregnancy was an accident.
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"Nothing on TV that day?" she asked. "You couldn't have read a book instead?"
She then asked Emily if she needed cash back. "You won't be able to afford cash back once it's here anyway."
Emily was shocked by the comments and said it was even more hurtful because she'd gone through IVF to conceive.
"It was one of those moments where you don’t quite believe what you’ve just heard," she told the Metro.
"People in the queue behind me were laughing. I’m not sure if they thought she was being funny or were as shocked about what she was saying as I was.
"It was so odd. I have never met this woman. I don’t mind the normal questions about my bump as it’s very visible, but this was just unprofessional and rude.
"She took one look at my bump and said: ‘Nothing on TV that day?” At first I was too shocked to speak or make eye contact."
Emily and her husband Craig, 44, had been trying to conceive for 2 years before they turned to IVF in December 2014. She's now due to give birth to her first baby on 2 February.
A Lidl spokesperson said: "We expect the highest standard of customer service from all of our employees and were very sorry to learn of this incident.
"We are investigating it as a matter of priority and will be taking the appropriate steps.
As a matter of course we will ensure that employees of our Wellingborough store receive additional training, to avoid anything like this from happening again."
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