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16th February 2024
05:15pm GMT
A mum has responded to criticism after she was called out for letting her child eat food before paying for it.
The shopper says that the staff member was judgemental and rude but others are saying that she’s in the wrong.
In a four-minute video shared to TikTok, Samantha, who goes by the name Proud Mama on TikTok, said: "I cannot tell you what a bad experience I have just had in our local Tesco.
"I feel a mix of both really cross and really upset. The way I’ve been spoken to by one of the customer service, representatives on the till that just served us.
"I’ve never felt in in one moment, so judged by somebody. And I’ll be honest, I snapped, and I very rarely snap back at anybody.
Samantha explained: "We went to Tesco to get a few bits. Jack [her son] has not been very well. He’s not eating for basically a week, pretty much properly.
"And on the way round the food shop, I bring snacks with us. He wasn’t interested in any of the snacks that I bought. He took a shine to one of these baby pouches that I put in the trolley."
@samanthamary1989 I’m still feeling so cross about this whole situation and I still cannot believe this lady actually said what she said. I intend to put in a formal complaint if possible. Unfortunately I didn’t see her name as I was so upset at the time. The judgement put on me was unbelievable and totally unacceptable #tesco #badexperience #mumjudgement #poorcustomerservice #motherhood #mumsoftiktok ♬ original sound - Samantha Mary | Proud Mama
Samantha explained that she was delighted to see her son take a liking to one of the products so she let him eat it before they paid for it.
She said: "I said to the lady serving us, ‘I just want to let you know, Jack’s eating these two on the way around here. Here they are so that you can scan them. I didn’t want to just leave them amongst the shopping.’"
The mum claimed the cashier gave her "the most disgusted look".
"She didn’t say a word. Scan them through them in the bin. They weren’t actually finished. I hadn’t passed them to her to have them put in the bin. I passed them to her to try and be polite so they could be scanned.
"So I said to her, ‘I’m really sorry, but we haven’t finished with them. I just wanted to pass them to you so that you could make sure they were scanned’.
"She tutted, huffed at me, got them out of the bin, put them on the side anyway, and carried on scanning.
She then claimed the cashier didn't say anything to her and just gave her "awful looks".
Samantha said that she then addressed the situation with the cashier saying: "Hello, I’m really sorry. I haven’t meant to upset you or put you out. I just passed them to you because I wanted to make sure you could scan them, and I just wanted to let you know that we’d had them on the way around so that you understood."
The woman then told her that she doesn't think it's right for children to eat food before it's paid for.
The mum explained that her child wasn't well all week so she was thrilled to see him eat something.
“He’s not eating properly for a week. He wanted something in the shop, so I jumped on that opportunity for him to have something to eat."
She said she ended up in tears after the incident, but many people said she was in the wrong.
"You're not supposed to open the items as you go around what if your card wasn’t working at the till? How would you pay for it then," one user pointed out.
Do you think the mum was in the wrong?
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