Supermarket refuses to sell man 'out of date' flowers

Supermarket staff refused to allow a shopper to buy a bunch of flowers because they were deemed to be "out of date". The £3 bunch of tulips had already been reduced to 75p for a quick sale when David Houlgate tried to purchase them for his teenage daughters. But staff told him they could not sell them because they had past their sell-by-date.

Even when Mr Houlgate, a council worker, suggested that he could take them away for free rather than seeing them put in the bin, staff at the Co-op store in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, still refused to back down. "There was nothing wrong with them, but the manager insisted it was policy," said Mr Houlgate, 42, who wanted the flowers for his daughters Vicky, 17, and Evie, 13.



"The world's gone mad when they wont even give you a bunch of tulips they were going to chuck away anyway. I can understand not selling food which has gone past its sell-by date - but flowers? I did tell the manager that I wasn't planning on eating them, but she insisted I could not have them. It's frankly ridiculous that flowers cannot be sold to someone willing to buy them simply because they are past their sell-by date. " He was so angry he contacted the Co-op's customer care line.

In an email, Claire Wolstenholme, a customer relations officer, told him: "The Co-operative has a strict policy of not selling any products after their 'Use by date' or 'Best before date' and our tills are programmed to prevent the sale of out of date products occurring. In the case of plants and flowers, we are unable to guarantee the quality of these products after their expiry date, therefore instruct the store not to sell them. I apologise that this was not fully explained to you and that the items were still on display."