Get a grip, Lidl!

I was in the queue at the check-out in Lidl, with all my shopping on the belt, before I realised what was happening up ahead: a man was daring to bring stuff back. Decision time: load everything back into my trolley and join the queue at the only other open check-out (there's never any more than two check-outs open in Lidl) or wait it out? I chose wrong, of course, but as I waited I got to listen in on the conversation between the customer and the assistant and then with the manager.

I like Lidl for certain things: their Polish salami is brilliant, as are most of their cooked meats; the living lettuce is cheap and tasty; and their wine - if you poke around the shelves - is very good: they do a very nice Chablis at £5.25. Avoid their instant coffee though, unless you're looking for a slow and lingering death. I also avoid their baked goods counter but that's because the stuff is so delicious.

But this is a horrible company to deal with if you want to do more than sling a few things in a trolley and go on your way, as the man who dared to bring things back was about to find out. He and his wife had bought a few items last week: 2 doormats, 2 clip-on trays for inside a cupboard door and a large electric fan. He was bringing them all back, he said under close questioning, because his wife wasn't happy with the quality of any of them. He had the till receipt and his credit card slip. Ten minutes later, he was still there, being glared at by the manager ('And why exactly are you bringing all this back?'). It all had to be examined in case any of it was damaged - the fan wasn't even out of the box - and still the manager stood there examining the receipts.

Of course, I cracked: 'Excuse me,' said I, 'could we get on?' The two women behind me made that kind of 'yeah' noise people make when they want to agree but not too loudly. The manager avoided my eye but got the assistant to open the till so he could refund the man - wait for it - £32. Then just to finish it all off, the manager didn't moved the stuff off the check-out out of the way. No, he walked off, having instructed the assistant to put it all under the counter in the next (closed) check-out. More delay, with profuse apologies from the assistant. By the time he was serving me, I was so aware of how curtly the manager had spoken to him I was falling over myself to be his BFF.

Imagine working for these people. Bad enough you're on minimum wage, and on crap shifts, with long queues of grumpy customers at the check-outs, and your manager treats you like the dirt under his nails. But why do they treat customers this way? I'm sure the man who dared to return stuff today will never cross the door again. I felt like that myself, slightly dirtied by having been there. I have the same feeling in Superdrug and Primark. And there's a bit of me thinks: this is where poor people shop - you can treat them any way you like.