It's no secret that at the moment, times are tougher than ever and even basic day-to-day tasks such as buying groceries is a challenge - especially due to recent fruit and vegetable shortages in supermarkets.
But Lisa Fearns was faced with one hell of a challenge recently when she tried to buy 100 cucumbers, finding herself 'barred' from making the purchase at her local Lidl - despite having bought large amounts of them for her detox drinks business for the past three years.
She realised something was wrong when a manager at the store rushed over as she began her purchase of 100 cucumbers on Sunday (19 February).
She later wrote on Facebook: "What the actual f**kity f**k.
Advert
"I've been going every week on a Sunday for three years. I get there at 10 am because I need the cucumbers to be fresh then I make juices during the day," she explained.
"I get funny looks when I'm in the supermarket, people look at me like 'what are you doing?'
"I needed 100 cucumbers. The manager came running out of the back saying I'm buying too much fruit and veg and I can't purchase that much. They didn't want my custom so I said I'd take my custom to Aldi.
"I had to go Asda, another Lidl, and another Aldi. I'm like a secret shopper. It [now] takes me about two hours to get all the shopping rather than 15 to 20 minutes."
Advert
But while Lisa might not have been able to understand why she was suddenly stopped from buying so many cucumbers, it is very much a reflection of ongoing shortages in UK supermarkets at the moment.
Certain fruits and vegetables are temporarily being rationed by British supermarkets because of bad weather and transport problems.
In a bid to ensure that people get what they need, Asda has now started rationing certain vegetables including tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, lettuce, salad bags, broccoli, cauliflower, and raspberries.
Advert
Morrisons also announced that it was planning to do similar by introducing a two-item limit on tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, and peppers from today (22 February).
But while the situation when it comes to rationing appears to be only getting worse, Lisa wasn't put off by what happened at Lidl and simply went to other supermarkets to get what she needed.
But unfortunately, she revealed that this meant what she planned to be a 15-minute job ended up taking over two hours as she had to go to five different supermarkets.
Advert
"I'm stressed about what I'm going to do every week," she said. "I'm going to have to find a pleasant, happy, fruit and vegetable store that would like to take my business.
"There's going to be a battle in the shops."
A spokesperson for Lidl told LADbible: "As a supermarket, we want to ensure that all of our customers have access to the products they need, and we are therefore unfortunately not able to facilitate wholesale purchases.
"We thank shoppers for their understanding and consideration of other customers."
Featured Image Credit: Kennedy News and Media / Greg Balfour Evans / AlamyTopics: Food And Drink, UK News