Margaret Hemstock

A kind-hearted care home manager said she would never use Morrisons again after its Newark supermarket refused to sell her 60 Easter eggs for her residents and staff.

Mrs Margaret Hemstock had filled a trolley with eggs at the store but said she was made to feel like a fraudster when it was alleged she could be intending to sell them on for 20p an egg more than she would pay for them.

Mrs Hemstock said she was told by a supervisor the store had a policy of selling a maximum of eight eggs per customer and the only way that she could have so many was if she made a formal written request on headed paper as proof of who she was and why she wanted them.

Mrs Hemstock, the manager at Southwell Court Care Home, suggested she could buy the eggs in separate transactions until she had enough but was told she would be escorted off the premises if she tried.

"You couldn’t make it up."

Mrs Hemstock, who went to Morrisons on Friday, said: “I told them I needed 60. I’m from a care home.

“They said ‘we don’t know where you are from. You could be buying them for £1 and then sell them for £1.20.’

“They made me feel like a fraudster.

“By then I had an audience. It was so embarrassing and I was really getting upset.”

Mrs Hemstock said the member of staff on the till she was using knew her and that she ran a care home because she had looked after her mother, but that made no difference.

“You couldn’t make it up,” said Mrs Hemstock, who has made a formal complaint.

She said common sense should have prevailed.

“Easter eggs are no use anyway after Monday and the 60 I took didn’t even make a dent in their display. You couldn’t tell where I had taken them from,” she said.

“I have shopped at Morrisons since it opened in Newark. I’ve spent thousands there but I’ll never set foot in there again.”

Mrs Hemstock said the store manager returned the eggs to the aisles.

She has bought Easter eggs for residents and staff from home funds every year since 2006 when she became a care home manager. She has been at Southwell for 21/2 years and worked in Newark before that and always bought the eggs from Morrisons.

“The majority of my ladies and gentlemen have some form of dementia, whether it be early onset or progressive, and receiving an Easter egg makes them happy,” she said.

“It brings a smile to their faces.

“A lot of them wouldn’t necessarily get anything at Easter otherwise. They deserve a little something.”

Mrs Hemstock was able to get enough eggs from Newark’s Asda store where she asked if she could have 60.

“He just asked when I wanted them for and arranged for them to be available for collection at the information desk,” said Mrs Hemstock. “When I collected them he came down and shook my hand.

“He told me there would have been no issue if I’d filled a trolley with 60. The eggs were even the same as at Morrisons.”

A spokesman for Morrisons said: “We apologise that we couldn’t meet this customer’s request this time but we are doing our best to meet orders for large numbers of Easter eggs from community groups, charities and schools.”

The general store manager at Asda Newark, Mr Richard Terry,said: “We have plenty of eggs to go round. I am delighted we have been able to help.”

He said they would be delivering Mrs Hemstock some flowers and an Easter egg of her own for being so caring.