A store manager refused to serve a Good Samaritan customer when he tried to purchase a milk shake for a hungry homeless woman standing outside.
Shopper Daniel Heard, 40, from Lincoln, was in the city's Tesco Express store on Sunday, May 19, when he attempted to buy the drink for the woman.
But he was taken aback when a senior manager at the store refused to serve him.
He told Lincolnshire Live he goes into the store “three or four times a week” and will buy the reduced items to give to homeless people who are sitting nearby.
As he was walking to the shop he saw a homeless couple near the shop and asked them if they were hungry.
“I think they said yes, so I said I’d get them something nice,” he said. “I walked down the aisle looking for something for myself and then the woman ran across and popped in the shop to say she wasn’t hungry, but she’d love a milkshake.”
He said the woman was confronted by a member of staff who told her to get out as she could be stealing.
However, he said what happened next was “absolutely disgusting”.
“The chap then turned to me and said don’t purchase it for her,” he said. “I said I’ll spend my money on what I want and he said if I did they wouldn't serve me.”
He said the woman did get a milkshake in the end, as a friend of his went to the shop afterwards and bought it for her.
But he was left furious by the incident - and later complained to Tesco.
“Every time something like this happens it scratches away a bit of my humanity,” he said. “A lot of them are just in a bad way and just need a bit of compassion.
“These people are starving and at the end of the day, they’re only going to put it in the bin.”
A spokesperson for Tesco said the incident did take place and apologised.
“The [homeless] individual in question is currently banned from the store due to threatening behaviour towards one of our colleagues,” he said.
“However, we appreciate that we should not have refused to serve the customer buying items in this instance and apologise for the error we have made.”
