A young mum says she was told off by a Sainsbury's employee for breastfeeding her four-week-old baby in the supermarket's car park. Beth Coles, 25, says she was covered up while feeding baby Rosie when the staff member approached her.
Beth had been shopping when Rosie started crying, so she went back to her car to feed her. But a female staff member walked out of the store and towards her car. Beth told The Mirror: "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'."
Beth has been suffering with post-natal depression but had finally felt well enough to take Rosie out shopping, having had difficulties feeling able to leave the house. 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. Beth emailed Sainsbury's and says she was offered a £40 gift card and the promise that members of staff would be spoken to.
She said: "I don't want the money. I just want an actual apology, which they don't seem to want to give."
Beth says she's yet to receive an actual apology from Sainsbury's (Image: Beth Coles)
A Sainsbury's spokesperson said: " 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."
Beth has been touched by the support she's found online. She said: "It's been lovely to see the response. 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'."
Beth 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 Borderline Personality Disorder and postnatal depression. They're lucky that it didn't tip me over the edge in a sense, and cause a much bigger issue."
