Photo: Pixabay License/Fresh vegetables in the store
A number of people were used to taking vegetable stock from the store, especially for their pets. Many people don’t want to take home a large pot, because it is many times bigger than the piece of vegetable itself. And that’s how cabbage leaves, cauliflower, radishes or carrots lie freely in the baskets. We thought we could take her away. But that’s not the case.
We noticed this when visiting one of the Prague branches of Lidl supermarket. In front of us was a lady with a full basket of groceries. She laid everything out on the belt and left a few kohlrabi and carrot leaves in the basket.
“Will you also buy carrots and kohlrabi?” asked the salesman. At first the lady didn’t understand why she was asking. Soon it was pointed out that the vegetable thread was not allowed to be taken out of the store.
“And why? I was used to it, I always take what’s next to me. For rabbits,” she didn’t understand.
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The cashier was unable to explain the reason. He claimed that it was simply not allowed.
That’s why we asked.
The ban does not apply in all stores
“The regulation prohibiting the harvesting of carrots, kohlrabi and other root vegetables has been in place for several years. The reason was that customers tore them off in stores, which caused the vegetables to lose their nutrition and dry out faster,” Lidl spokesperson Tomáš Myler told PrahaIN.cz.
We also encountered a similar complaint on the store’s social network. The customer also wanted to take away the broken leaves from the kohlrabi plant.
“Basically, the point is that I wanted to take (she didn’t go to buy, of course) and consume an item that is demonstrably thrown away,” he wrote.
Lidl was quick to respond. “That’s why we recommend our customers to buy vegetables with their skin on. However, if you find loose leaves among the vegetables, it is possible to make an individual arrangement with the store staff,” said Lidl.
However, the ban does not apply in all stores.
For example, they are happy in Billa supermarkets. We know from our own experience that this is not a problem in Tesco stores either.
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“I worked on vegetables for two years as a part-time worker, and I still brought it to people from the warehouse, because we threw it into the paper press with crates anyway, no one there dealt with it,” David W. from Vršovice confided to PrahaIN.cz.
“Our customers can, of course, also pick up vegetable strips when shopping for vegetables. We do not prohibit them in any way, on the contrary, we are happy if customers use them in their homes,” said press spokesperson Billy Dana Bratánková for our editorial office.
