A pregnant woman with severe morning sickness was forced to throw up in an Aldi car park after staff refused to let her use their loo.
Chloe Brock, 24, begged to use the staff loo when she was struck by extreme nausea but was point-blank refused and ordered outside.
She had to dash to the car park and find a bush to squat behind to preserve her dignity.
Chloe, who is six months pregnant, suffers from hyperemesis gravidarum, the same extreme morning sickness as the Duchess of Cambridge.
She said: “It was one of the most humiliating things that’s ever happened to me.”
She felt ill while shopping in an Aldi maternity sale with her sister and knew she had moments to find a loo. “I suddenly came down queasy and light-headed,” she said.
“My sister said I went white as a sheet. I rushed to the cashier with my hand over my mouth and said, ‘I’m really sorry, please can I use your bathroom?’
"I wasn’t expecting a no. Despite me being visibly upset, unwell and pregnant the woman just looked at me and said I’d have to go outside.
“I only just made it out into the car park, which was packed, and couldn’t even make it to the bins. I had to squat between a bush and car for a bit of privacy. Everyone was staring including people inside the shop.
“It was really upsetting. It was a genuine shock to be treated so unkindly.
“It’s really disgusting but I got some sick on myself and couldn’t tidy up because I wasn’t allowed in the toilets.”
Chloe says no one from the store even checked on her, and her partner Damien Willcock, 24, a diamond driller, was furious.
Aldi has since apologised to Chloe for the incident at its branch in Newbury, Berks, but told her customers cannot use staff toilets for “safety reasons”.
She said: “I don’t understand how forcing a pregnant woman to be sick outside is the safer option. I’d been anxious about going out but I thought I’d be OK at a sale targeted at pregnant women.”
Chloe, of Thatcham, who has been signed off her job as a teaching assistant, returned to collect her £30 of baby items, but said: “I won’t be returning in a hurry.”
Aldi said staff would try to assist in emergency situations but “this may not always be possible”.
It added that new stores would have customer toilets.
