Marks and Spencer has come under fire for an incident at a store in Blackburn involving a cookie-eating pensioner.
Thelma Williams, an 86-year-old widow, said she was left humiliated and very distressed when staff at the M&S branch called security to stop her eating a 39p biscuit she’d bought from the food section of the store.
Mrs Williams decided to take a bite of her cookie while having lunch with her daughter and two grandsons in the store café, but was promptly told by a member of staff that she could not eat the product due to the VAT difference on cafe-bought and shop-bought food . The employee then summoned a security guard.
“This woman from behind the counter came up and said, ‘You can’t eat that here. You didn’t buy it here, so you have to put it away. Unless you put it away, we’ll call security,’” claimed Mrs Williams.
“I thought it was petty and ridiculous. I realise they have rules to stick to but it was so silly, I felt stupid. The staff made me feel like I had committed a crime, yet all I was doing was eating one of their biscuits .”
“I didn’t realise I would be ticked off for eating it in the wrong place,” she added. “The fact is I like their chocolate cookies and I wanted to eat one there and then – but the way they made such a big song and dance about it, you would have thought they had captured a shoplifter.
“All the customers were looking at me, it was so embarrassing and very distressing. I couldn’t sleep that night.”
A spokesman for M&S apologised for the incident, which was witnessed by other customers in the café, but stressed: “Our policy is that Marks and Spencer cafe customers must only consume items bought within the cafe area.”
