ASDA has been slammed for its "disgusting" treatment of a mum who was "asked to leave" the store while shopping for birthday cake with her young son.
Leanne Hampson, 39, and Alfie, four, visited the ASDA store on the Greyhound Retail Park, in Chester, on Thursday morning. Leanne was left mortified when she and Alfie, who is partially deaf and is being assessed for ADHD, were approached by security staff after Alfie made "loud, screeching noises".
Leanne, from Ellesmere Port claims that the security guard told her to "either leave the store or control her child" following noise complaints from other customers. The mum-of-five told the ECHO that she "wanted the ground to swallow her up", and the same staff member later added to her fury when, as the pair left the shop, they "patronisingly" gave Alfie a high five and said: "Aw see, you can be quiet".
READ MORE: Mortified mum 'asked to leave' ASDA while shopping for birthday cake
And now ECHO readers have had their say on the incident, with a number of people slamming the superstore for its actions.
Kim Marie Chalenor said: "I can't believe I'm reading this!!! ASDA should be totally ashamed of themselves... clearly they have no idea of the hurt they have caused this little boy and his mum, shame on every single one of you involved."
A number of readers who have children with disabilities have been particularly incensed by ASDA's behaviour.
Commenting on the ECHO Facebook page, Heidi Billingham said: " I'm sorry but this is disgusting. One of my boys makes noises due to high sensory needs and stims. It's something he does all the time, everywhere even nursery, it's unpredictable too and can come out of nowhere.
"Although we try to divert his attention, you can't really avoid self regulating behaviours like this, you can't stop them if they're helping keep the child regulated, no matter how annoying it can be to some people. He doesn't just do this, he hums, rocks, bangs his head, flaps his hands etc. I won't stop him unless it's unsafe or he's a risk of injury."
Elaine Groves said: "Shocking way of treating a customer whose child has a disability. I shop in this store and I have children with learning disabilities, I think I might go elsewhere now."
Nicki Maguire said: "Disgusting. Not accommodating disabled people at all. My son's autistic and makes loud noises luckily up to now this hasn't happened while shopping but we have had some funny looks off fellow shoppers."
Yesterday, a spokesperson for ASDA disputed that Leanne was asked to leave and said that colleagues didn't intend to offend anyone.
They told the ECHO: "Despite receiving complaints from other customers about her son making loud noises, colleagues at our Chester store decided instead to try and make light of the situation by joking with Leanne and her son. If these comments have upset Leanne that was never our intention, and we look forward to welcoming them both back to our store very soon.’’
But the supermarket's response has not been well received by some readers.
Donna Steele said: "To say they decided to make light of the situation and joke around with them is sick....would they joke around with someone in a wheelchair, by doing cartwheels and handstands, stating something just as ridiculous?"
Gary Robbo agreed: "Making light of a child's disability will never be the right way to tackle complaints about it!"
However, some readers jumped to the defence of the supermarket chain.
Kathryn Davies said: "My asda Cardiff bay are great with my girls they always help if my daughter's are having a meltdown as they both have adhd."
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