Wednesday, April 24, 2024
NewsHorrified Lidl customer discovers "s***e pattern" smeared on toilet wall

Horrified Lidl customer discovers “s***e pattern” smeared on toilet wall

A HORRIFIED customer discovered a “s***e pattern” smeared on the walls of a Lidl toilet.

The walls appears to have been fingerpainted by a punter in their own poo.

Alyson MacConnachie had finished her shopping and nipped in to use the facilities at the Lidl store in Elgin, Moray, and was horrified by what they discovered.

The 41-year-old’s photographs show the “disgusting” conditions, with faces smeared on walls and behind the toilet – as well as thick dirt and dust.

Alyson said she was repulsed and couldn’t touch anything for fear of getting an infectious diarrhoea or EColi

The childminder, from Elgin, said the pictures do not do justice to how “manky” it actually was.

Social media users claim the toilet is frequently found in that state, and blasted the store for “minging” and “disgusting” facilities.

Lidl have apologised for the conditions and say they have “escalated the matter”.

The revelation will not help the store’s image after middle-class residents in Giffnock, East Renfrewshire, fumed online that the store would “bring down the tone of the whole area.”

Alyson took to the supermarket’s Facebook page to vent their frustration in a lengthy post, writing: “I visited your Elgin store this evening and I was really bursting for the loo.

“Now, I’m not one of those clean freaks who’s bog you could eat off of, I mean I only clean stuff when I notice it needs cleaned, but this was pretty darn nasty. I couldn’t believe my eyes.

The customer was disgusted at the state of the Ladies toilets in the Elgin store.

“There was what appeared to be a pattern of excrement along the wall, a smidge on the loo itself. The dust and dirt was so bad it has clearly not been cleaned in a long time.

“There are none of those hourly checks going on in this store that’s for sure. My phone camera didn’t even pick it up to be as manky as it was.

“I’m sure you can imagine my bladder ache by the time i got to my car and had driven home. You really need to sort this out.”

She also added photographs to show the disgusting conditions of the facilities.

The rest of the facility was also filthy.

The first picture clearly shows what appears to be faeces smeared on a white tiled wall. The individual marks appear to have been drawn in a pattern.

It is not clear whether this was done by hand or by another method.

Other photographs show dirt smeared surfaces covered in hair and grime around the back of the toilet seat, the sink and other flat surfaces in the bathroom.

Speaking today, Alyson said: “I was repulsed. I couldn’t understand how there could be excrement on the wall. I mean who does that?

“I can’t think of a single reason of how it may have got there to be honest, it’s in a pattern for goodness sake.

“When you use the toilet in Tesco or Asda there is an hourly checksheet on the wall that is initialled by the attendant. I was aware that this just wasn’t even a thing here. It was very obvious that it hasn’t been cleaned that day, nor for several days prior to that.”

Lidl said they were ‘extremely disappointed’ to hear about what Alyson discovered.

She added: “I couldn’t touch anything for fear of getting an infectious diarrhoea, EColi or some other foul thing. It’s a public health hazard.

“People let their kids nip into loos regularly, the thought of one of my children touching a surface in there is just awful. This is an establishment that sells food, the risk of cross contamination in there is high.”

The pictures have caused a stir online with locals, who were horrified and complained that the toilet is usually in that state.

Sarah Ogston wrote: “The one and only time I needed to use the loo in Elgin Lidl it was in a very similar state. Appalling.”

Amy Farquharson added: “It’s always like this. Pretty sure it can’t even be cleaned once a day, let alone hourly. Disgusting.”

Claire Dunbar commented: “The photos are disgusting, made me feel sick.”

Hazel McHardy said: “That’s just minging.”

While Susan Munro said simply: “Feckin filthy humans.”

A spokesman for Lidl UK said: “We always aim to provide our customers with a pleasant shopping experience and, as such, were extremely disappointed to learn of this matter.

“We would like to reassure our customers that we exercise a strict cleaning rota in all of our stores, to ensure that they meet the highest standards of cleanliness.

“We are therefore very sorry that these expected high standards have not been met on this occasion. As a result, this has been escalated to management and the store team will work together to ensure that this does not happen again.

“We encourage customers who become aware of any incidents of this nature, to immediately notify store management, so that the situation can be swiftly resolved.”

Middle-class Giffnock residents yesterday let loose online after finding out Lidl would be taking over the former Whole Foods site.

The residents were outraged after finding out there would not be a Marks & Spencers on the vacant lot as they had hoped.

One post, which has since been removed, braned the store’s opening “disgraceful” and said it would “bring down the tone of the whole area.”

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