A mum was left feeling mortified when ASDA staff "asked her to leave" the store while she was picking up a birthday cake with her young son. Leanne Hampson, 39, and Alfie, four, set out on a shopping trip to the supermarket on the Greyhound Retail Park, in Chester, on Thursday morning (23 June).
The pair were approached by security staff after he made "loud, screeching noises" and 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.
Alfie has a glue ear - where the empty middle part of the ear canal fills up with fluid - and was last year made to wear a hearing aid as he is partially deaf. Leanne says he is also being assessed for ADHD.
She told the ECHO that Alfie's hearing condition means that he is "quite loud" and that she had asked him stop making "screeching noises" while she was shopping. She added: “When I was at the checkout, the security guard came over to me. I wanted the ground to swallow me up. I’ve never been so ashamed in my life."
But her humiliation didn't end there. As the pair left the shop, the security guard gave Alfie a high five and said: "Aw see, you can be quiet". Leanne felt that this was "incredibly patronising" and thinks that big chains like ASDA should be better equipped to deal with customers with disabilities.
She said: “The whole experience was an absolute shambles. It’s awful to be discriminated against, and I want to make people aware that people have disabled children in this day and age, and it's hard work. For a giant superstore like ASDA, they should be used to this, and for the security guard to come over to me in front of other people - it’s embarrassing and quite shocking.
“I’d like them to just keep an open mind in future and maybe staff need extra training in this area. I do understand that it can be upsetting for other customers, but what am I going to do, put a sticker on his back saying 'I’m sorry about the noise that I make'?”
Following the incident, the mum-of-five, whose four other children are on ADHD medication, lodged a complaint with ASDA, but says she's been "put off" shopping there again. She said: “I do shop around quite a lot and I’ve never had this problem. But to be targeted like that in full view of other people, I felt like I’d robbed something or done something bad.”
However, a spokesperson for ASDA has said colleagues didn't intend to offend Leanne. The company said: "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.’’
Read next:
-
"Like a pack of animals": Pensioner, 70, among four spared jail after 'disgraceful' brawl
-
'I started out singing on TikTok - now I'm performing at Glastonbury
-
I raced against Uber Eats to pick up my McDonald's - this is what happened
-
Man says he wasn't allowed to book restaurant without a female in the group
