A young mother claims her confidence was shaken after a Sainsbury's employee scolded her for breastfeeding her four-week-old daughter, telling her it was "inappropriate."
Beth Coles, 25, says she was completely covered up while feeding baby Rosie in the car park of the Kidderminster branch of Sainsbury's when the staff member approached her.
The new mum says her child had a "meltdown" during their shopping trip, so she'd taken her out to the car to feed her, never imagining this would be an issue.
It was then she saw the female staff member, who didn't have a name badge, walk right out of the store and towards her car. Beth attempted to smile at her but says she received only glares in response.
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Speaking with The Mirror, Beth, who says the car park was pretty much empty at that time, recalled: "She knocked on the window, so I opened the door, moved the child. She said, 'can you stop that, please? It's inappropriate'.
"My reaction was to just burst out crying. I didn't know what to do. She just gave me a funny look and walked off, and I was like, 'oh, okay your goal was to make me cry'."
For Beth, this moment felt like a particular setback due to her mental health difficulties. She has post-natal depression and borderline personality disorder (BPD) and hadn't been feeling good in the two weeks prior to the incident on Friday, June 24.
That evening, she'd finally felt well enough to take Rosie out shopping with her partner James, having been experiencing difficulties feeling able to leave the house. She says the incident has made this struggle even worse.
She added: "It sort of solidified my view of maybe I shouldn't be leaving the house because when I do things like that happen."
Beth decided to share her story on a breastfeeding Facebook page, including a picture to show just how covered up she'd been.
She never imagined it would draw such traction, but pretty soon her post was being widely shared on social media, with one of the group members tweeting directly to Sainsbury's.
The supermarket chain asked the group member to DM them with more info, but Beth says they stopped responding to her after a number of other people laid into them online.
Beth then emailed the supermarket herself and was offered a £40 gift card and the promise that members of staff would be spoken to. She felt this wasn't a valid response and emailed them back, telling them they had "to be joking."
She said: "I don't want the money. I just want an actual apology, which they don't seem to want to give."
A Sainsbury's spokesperson has given the following statement to The Mirror: " We have apologised to Ms Coles for this unacceptable experience and we have reassured her that breastfeeding is very welcome in our stores.
"We are investigating with the store and further training will be provided to our colleagues where necessary."
However, Beth still claims she's yet to receive an apology, with her and her partner claiming to have found no evidence of one at any point in their communication with the company.
Beth said: "Unless they sent it by carrier pigeon, and it got lost, then no there has been no apology at all."
Although unimpressed with the situation, Beth has been touched by the support she's found online, with many people empathising with her situation.
Beth said: "It's been lovely to see the response. It's just the fact that the lovely response is being ignored by Sainsbury's themselves.
"Even somebody from Tesco has messaged me saying 'we're sorry on Sainsbury's behalf, even though we're Tesco, you're more than welcome to come into our stores, we will happily accommodate you'. So another large store has responded to me, but the store in question hasn't."
Considering what she'd say to those who respond negatively to breastfeeding mothers, the mum added: "If you have a personal preference or opinion about it if you are in uniform especially representing a supermarket.
"Not only is it damaging for your workplace, but it is majorly damaging to the person that you've said it to. You really got to be careful about what you say in general nowadays, but to come up and knock on the door of somebody who's very covered up.
"And I really did try. I had a muslin and blanket over me and still had all my clothes on. How damaging that is. And for somebody who's still fairly young and has BPD and postnatal depression. They're lucky that it didn't tip me over the edge in a sense, and cause a much bigger issue.
"All I want is an apology. That's all I want. I don't want money. I don't want anything silly. I just want an apology."
Sainsbury's has now given the following updated statement: “We have apologised to Ms Coles for this unacceptable experience.
"Our store team is meeting with Ms Coles to reassure her that breastfeeding is very welcome in our stores and that further training will be provided to our colleagues where necessary.”
Beth has confirmed to the Mirror that, following the original publication of this article, she has now received an apology from Sainsbury's.
Have you experienced a negative experience while breastfeeding in public? Email us at julia.banim@reachplc.com
