A toyshop banned a little boy from buying a toy with the pocket money he had saved up and told his mum to go to a cashpoint instead. Emily White, 26, says her two-year-old son was stopped from buying a toy airplane at Smyths Toy Superstore after he had saved up for it.
Emily says she found the experience 'disgusting' afer being told her son could not use his own money to buy a toy airplane and a tea set. She says she was told she needed to pay by card or with a note as there is a limit of £10 for people trying to use coins to buy items.
She explained to staff that she had taken her son to spend money he had saved in a money tin, and wanted to treat him. She added that she had gone through the tiring job of separating the money out beforehand "so it wasn't just small change".
Emily told Nottinghamshire Live: "I took [my son] to Smyths to pick what he wanted. We were walking round, he was fishing what he wants, we get to the till.
"My mum pulled out the bag with the money in and the worker is like 'I can't take that'. We said 'what do you mean?' "She said it again and said she'd get someone over to explain it to us. So someone came over and said 'sorry, we can't take that but there's a cash machine at the Sainsbury's'."
Emily was left completely stunned at this statement, as she said that the supermarket was a fair distance away from the toy shop. The mum said: "They [Smyths staff] said 'come back, pay for the toys, and then it's all sorted'. Well obviously at that point my mum was questioning what was happening.
"We were told there was a £10 limit on how much you can spend in coins. So I just got my card out and paid for it on my card, as you would because I didn't want my child to go without. I just think it's a bit disgusting that my child is three in February and he needs to learn the value of money and that's how they dealt with it."
Emily's stepdad Peter Kirk, 52, said that the money the young boy had saved consisted of mainly pound coins and 50ps.
Smyths Toy Superstore has been contacted for a comment.
