It's Just As Well She Didn't Ask For A Spoon To Eat It With...

Following on from this, it appears it's not just Tesco's that hires idiot staff.

Sainsbury's have a few too, and what's more, they feel inclined to tell the customers what is and is not good for them:

A pregnant woman was forced to lie and promise supermarket staff she would not eat a certain type of cheese before they would sell it to her.

Now, two things here.

One, the serving girl was wrong on the facts - the cheese Mrs Lehain wanted to buy was not the sort that has any health implications for pregnant women:

Janet Lehain asked for some Canadian Cheddar while she was shopping at Sainsbury's.

But the member of staff serving her on the deli counter said she could not have it because it was made from unpasteurised milk.

It isn't, of course. The Cheese Counter Gaulieiter was thinking of soft cheeses of the Brie and Camembert types.

But more than that, what the hell business is it of the serving girl in the first place whether she eats the cheese or not?!

Luckily, Mrs Lehain decided not to take this lying down:

In a letter of formal complaint, Mrs Lehain said: 'What followed was the most patronising encounter I have had the misfortune of experiencing in a long time and made worse by the fact it was entirely unexpected given the seemingly simple task.

'The member of staff told me how lucky my generation of pregnant women are to have such information available to them because this was not the case "in her day".

'I could only respond by saying that I thought pregnant women in the past were probably a whole lot less stressed and guilt-ridden as a result.'

I'm guessing from that 'in my day' there that this wasn't, as in the Tesco's case, one of NuLab's poorly educated morons unable to use their common sense whenever their bleeping scanner overlord incorrectly says 'No'.

This was a lady d'un certain age who had felt emboldened by the constant hectoring of the health and safety cretins and medical fascists to bring this attitude to work with her and begin hectoring the customers.

I'd have paid for that cheese at the checkout, then returned to the Cheese Gauleiter and eaten the whole lot, rubbing my belly all the while, and putting on a performance not unlike Meg Ryan's in 'When Harry Met Sally'. I might even uncork a bottle of red too...

And what did Sainsbury's have to say? Well, they did 'fess up about the incorrect info (they could hardly do anything else), but there was no mention of action taken against the Cheese Gauleiter:

A spokesman for Sainsbury's said: 'It is not our policy to refuse sale of goods on grounds that they may be unsuitable for pregnant women, although we do ask our colleagues to make customers aware if there are any safety concerns.

'Customers should always refer to the product packaging for the most accurate and up to date information. In this case, our colleague made a mistake unpasteurised cheddar does not pose a risk to health during pregnancy.'

She did indeed.

But more than that, she refused to sell cheese until she'd humiliated the customer. Is that what Sainbury's wants to see in its stores?

I hope Mrs Lehain got one hell of a lot of Nectar points in compensation...

Update: Man Widdecombe can't quite believe this isn't a 'Daily Mash' spoof either..