A former Poundland worker has revealed the complaint customers regularly made when she worked at the high street retailer. Holly Laing said people at the tills were often shocked when their shopping came to more than expected.
She explained that - due to the name of the discount retailer - some shoppers assumed that every item was priced at £1. Poundland customers will know that while some products are on sale for £1, others can cost a little more.
The Mirror reports that Holly worked at her local store for three months in 2015 as a Christmas temp. The 22-year-old, from Northampton, shared her experiences in the form of a sketch on her @holly_laing account on TikTok.
She plays out an interaction between herself as a Poundland employee, and a customer who had tried to purchase one item that was priced at £3. In the clip, Holly tells a customer her shopping totals £3, to which the shocked shopper responds: "What’s £3? Have you scanned it three times? This is the pound shop, is it not?"
Holly then attempts to tell the customer that not everything is a pound, but the woman interjects: "Well, that's very misleading. I'll only pay for that if it's a pound."
Holly also acts out the disgruntled shopper demanding to see the manager, as well as her boss coming out to talk to the unhappy customer. She claimed that even managers found customers who question the prices irritating.
In her TikTok, the customer tells the manager: "I'm in the pound shop and your employee is trying to charge me £3 in the pound shop." Holly said her manager confirmed the item was £3, and then told the shopper that they don't make the prices so it's out of their control.
The video ends with the customer fuming: "Disgusting, what a rip-off."
Holly's video has been viewed over a million times - leading to people who have shopped at Poundland admitting that they also get confused about the prices.
Emma wrote: "Customer has a point, I can't lie." Kenzie said: "I mean she kinda has a point. Why call it the pound shop if everything isn't a pound each?" Luke Appleton went one step further, suggesting: "I have no idea why Poundland did this! Change the name of your stores."
Skylar-Rose Dempsey said: "Worked there for a total of 2 months and dealt with this multiple times daily." And Chards had some advice for shoppers: "Right I work for Poundland everything is not a pound look at the labels first before purchasing."
A Poundland spokesman said: "Great video! We've actually sold items above and below £1 for about five years, but whatever the price, what we sell is always amazing value and hard to find elsewhere for less."
