Supermarket Restrictions when are individuals not individuals ?

[RealRubyBee]

This was on our local spotted group ive edited the post but this still conveys the story, Basically when are individuals not individuals ?

** supermarket tonight, Went in with my son who picked up 6 Easter eggs for 60p to buy with his pocket money. I also picked up 6 for extended family members then a staff member stops me and says only six per family and that she'd seen my son walk in with me.

I pointed out that the sign clearly states 6 per customer and that we were clearly 2 customers. I then went back and picked another 6 up, when getting to the till another member of staff said I couldn't have them because I'd already had 6.

Then followed the same conversation that I hadn't had 6 my son had and therefore a completely different customer.

The staff member disagreed so I walked back to the shelf took the sign down and showed it to her at the till she still wouldn't serve me, I was just trying to point out I was a different customer and hadn't had 6.

I understand why they limit sales but the sign did say per customer.

This is my question:

For those that have more experience why is when the sign did say per customer and not per family ? as strictly speaking an individual is a customer and the sign did say 6 per individual/Customer ?

Asda

You really can

My partner and 2 kids each bought some today. The cashier knew they were together and didn’t say anything. It seems you just got an over enthusiastic staff member.

They should amend their sign if it’s per household. How they would monitor per household when you might not live together, could go separately and meet up back at the car etc, shows that would be stupid though.

yesterday....I just haven’t been too sleep yet!

Depends if the child was 10 or older and perfectly capable of shopping alone or if they were a young child under direction.

The Covid thing was worse... it was the same limit for a family of 6 as it was a single adult. So family members standing separately might have been justified.

Easter eggs... I don't see how they can say shopping together makes you the same customer. Would they say the same yo s group of adult friends?

Ok if it wasn't chocolate, would anyone try to get their 6yr old to put through say chicken breast packs three per customer to get 6.cannot stand greed.

Was it a young child then? I missed that. I occasionally took my teen during covid to shop for my grandmother because of the limits. It could be necessary if buying for extended family.

That I understand I think it's fair to say that we all witnessed greedy behaviour during COVID.

I think some staff are jobsworths. I was in Aldi and the lady in front was buying prime. Cashier said limit of 3. Customer said no sign to that effect. She had a colleague go check the shelf. Apparently you can buy as many as you like nowadays.

On a lighter note ,the 60p eggs have the sweets inside the egg ... just like when us of a certain age were kids.😋
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So it's Asda and the medium ~100g boxed eggs then. Six does seem like a generous limit already that would cover, say, three kids plus three nieces or nephews. I was thinking it was smaller eggs. A child buying six is a lot, were they to give to family?

Haha. I love the way you say that as of you're some sort of whistle blower.

What do you think they're going to do by drawing attention to the signs they put up in their own shops?

These type of restrictions are a very loose way of preventing lazy people from sweeping the shelves in an individual store. As long as they do that, then the rest is pretty much out of the shop's control. Determined customers can go round several stores and buy their limit in each, families can split up and pay separately etc. That stuff is inconsequential compared to someone coming in and buying all the stock in one fell swoop, which is what they are trying to prevent.

Asda.

The cheap eggs are in asda as saw them yesterday. Only bought four as that's all I needed although one mini eggs one disappeared within an hour... Very obvious it's just 6 eggs per customer as it says that. Yabu. It's to make sure everyone gets a buy some

I work in a (different) supermarket, 60p is crazy cheap...I'd have let it go personally but the staff are well within their rights not to sell it to her. To be perfectly honest though I feel like I don't get paid enough to have petty arguments with customers.

I hate the word "jobsworth". So far in this thread it has meant 'tried to follow store policy' and 'did not know policy had changed but double checked'.

I don't think the employee is the problem here.

I also think it represents a wider problem in our society that when goods and services are limited, people will do anything to get more than their fair share, no matter the consequences to others who also need it.

Yes jobsworth seems to now mean an employee that sticks to the policies of the company they work for and refuse to be blindsided or bullied by a customer.

You did miss a couple of things though @RealRubyBee in your OP, usually in situations like this where the customer is told no in line with store policy, it's commonplace to talk about how they are power crazy and how rude they were, it adds a little bit of drama and a bit of weight to how unfairly you have been treated, for bonus you can always add on that they need to use common sense as well - it's very fashionable at the moment to be a victim of 'poor customer service' but you've got to get the right mix of dramatic language at being told no and make it seem like it's a personal slight against your character rather than someone following the policy of their employer.

Would the restriction still apply if it was someone taking their elderly parents shopping whilst doing their own shop? Separate payments but arriving in the same car and using the same trolley due to infirmities?

Your son was buying SIX easter eggs?!

Why? It's not libel, and there's nothing in MN rules saying you can't name individual shops.

I worked in retail during covid and the public proved themselves to be selfish, grabbing ridiculous amounts of things without a thought for others.

Retail can't win, if they let people buy with no limits they get ripped apart for not limiting things, they put limit on items to ensure everyone gets a share and they are jobsworths.

Of course you can name the supermarket, there is a whole forum on here called promo codes and bargains for just this