Staff repeatedly called her ‘darling’, ‘sweetheart’ and ‘babe’ (Picture: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

A woman is boycotting Tesco. Why? Because the staff are too friendly.

Yes, really.

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Beth Bellamy said staff repeatedly called her ‘darling’, ‘sweetheart’ and ‘babe’ when she was in the store, something she found to be both ‘patronising and offensive’.

Despite declining to name the location of the supermarket, and failing to make a complaint directly to Tesco, Ms Bellamy said she has now changed where she shops.


She was one of five people who spoke to the BBC about issues they have had with customer services in supermarkets.

She claims she left Tesco after a cashier called her ‘babe’ (Picture: Getty Images)

Speaking to the BBC, she said: ‘I was fed up with being called sweetheart, darling and babe by checkout operators at my local Tesco.



‘So I told the young checkout lady that I would rather she didn’t call me that as it was patronising, and that I found it offensive. She replied that if I didn’t like it I was free to use a different checkout operator.

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‘The checkout operator I chose was one at a completely different and cheaper supermarket.’

Tesco said it has not received a complaint from Ms Bellamy.

A spokesman added: ‘If this customer would like to discuss how we handled this situation, we’d ask them to get in touch so we can look into what happened.’