Dispute over sunflower oil escalates - and ends with supermarket employees being sued
Created: 05/18/2022Updated: 05/18/2022 09:05
By: Stella Henrich
Annoyed customers and overwhelmed employees - the situation when shopping is sometimes tense.
Now even a heated discussion at Lidl in Lüdenscheid escalated.
It was about the delivery volume of sunflower oil.
Munich – Sunflower oil has been largely sold out in supermarkets and discounters for weeks.
And when customers come across a few more bottles, the desire to stock up on multiple bottles is high.
The dispute over the liquid gold has now escalated in a Lidl branch in Lüdenscheid, according to a statement from the police in the Märkisch district.
Symbolic picture: empty oil shelf in a Lidl in Brussels.
© IMAGO/Zheng Huansong
At first, two customers argued about the amount of oil to be sold.
A Lidl employee intervened to settle the dispute between the two customers.
Whereupon the customer and the employee got into an argument.
A heated argument ensued.
The police had to come.
Because the employee allegedly grabbed the customer's arm and pushed him to the exit.
The result of the dispute over a bottle of cooking oil: the employee is threatened with a charge of bodily harm.
Sunflower oil: Lidl branch even requires customers' ID cards
While sunflower oil is rare in this country, it is available in Sweden and even comes from Germany.
The shortage of oil led to hamster purchases such as toilet paper in the first Corona lockdown.
The Federal Association of the German Food Trade is therefore calling on consumers to only stock up on quantities of sunflower oil that are normal for households.
A Lidl branch in Norderstedt even asks for the customer's identity card when buying cooking oil so that the oil can be distributed as evenly as possible to its customers.
It remains to be seen how the dispute over a bottle of sunflower oil will end in the case of the customer in Lüdenscheid and how her ad will go through.
In any case, customers must always expect that the quantities of food sold will be limited.
The operators of discounters and supermarkets are authorized to do this.
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