Lisa was left furious after being told she couldn’t take her fruit and veg home
A shopper was barred from buying 100 cucumbers in a store – as fruit and veg rationing spreads across Britain.
Personal trainer Lisa Fearns, 49 – who filled a Lidl trolley to make detox drinks for her business – said that as she paid the manager ‘came running out of the back saying I’m buying too much fruit and veg and I can’t purchase that much.’
The mum from Kirby, Merseyside, has bought a huge number of cucumbers every week for the past three years to make the drinks she sells online.
A number of huge supermarket chains have begun to limit the amount of fruit and veg customers can buy.
Tesco stores have started rationing tomatoes after a shortage at some shops
As Tesco and Aldi joined Morrisons and Asda limiting items such as lettuce, tomatoes and peppers, Lisa warned of ‘a battle in the shops’.
Expats living in the EU, including Simply Red singer Mick Hucknall, gloated online about stocked supermarket shelves on the continent compared to shortages at home in what has been dubbed ‘Veg-xit’.
Snow and flooding in Spain and North Africa has hit exporters and left a growing number of grocers’ shelves bare. Prices for domestic produce have also soared as surging energy bills push up farmers’ costs – with some in the UK and Netherlands not powering up greenhouses.
The personal trainer from Liverpool was shocked when the staff stopped her (Picture: Kennedy News and Media)
Ms Fearns said it took over two hours to finish her usual 15-minute shop (Picture: Kennedy News and Media)
The mum-of-two has been making the detox drinks for three years (Picture: Kennedy News and Media)
Environment secretary Therese Coffey yesterday told the National Farmers’ Union conference in Birmingham: ‘We can’t control the weather in Spain.’
NFU president Minette Batters said later: ‘No, but we can be encouraging these guys to be producing here. That’s something we really need to hone in on.’
Ms Fearns, a mum-of-two said she had been regularly buying 100 cucumbers from Lidl.
She told Facebook friends: ‘What the actual f***ity f***! I’ve been barred from Lidl for purchasing too much fruit and veg.
Shoppers have been left looking elsewhere for fruit and veg after some stores have limited the amount they can buy (Picture: Guy Venables / Metro.co.uk)
‘Didn’t like their cucumbers anyway. I said I’d take my custom to Aldi.’
There, she explained later, she defied a limit of three per person by picking up six cucumbers, adding: ‘They didn’t say anything.’
She said her usual 15-minute trip took more than two hours as she had to visit five stores to stock up.
‘I’m stressed about what I’m going to do every week,’ she added. ‘I’m going to have to find a pleasant, happy, fruit and vegetable store that would like to take my business.’ Tesco and Aldi last night announced shoppers would be limited to three each of tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers.
A day earlier Asda restricted tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, lettuce, salad bags, broccoli, cauliflower and raspberry punnets to three.
Morrisons put a cap of two per shopper for tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce and peppers.
Lidl said: ‘We want to ensure all of our customers have access to the products they need. We are therefore unfortunately not able to facilitate wholesale purchases.’
Shoppers also faced rationing of some goods during the Covid crisis.
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Personal trainer Lisa Fearns, 49 – tried to filla Lidl trolley to make detox drinks for her business.
