Customers at a Lidl supermarket in Croydon have been left packing their groceries into rubbish bin bags every evening for more than a week, after the store has repeatedly failed to stock adequate shopping bags for customers at the checkout.
The ongoing issue has been reported at the Lidl branch on Whitehorse Road, CR0 2LG, where staff have been handing out green bin bags to customers at the self-checkout area in place of the standard carrier bags shoppers would normally expect to purchase. Unlike a one-off stock issue, the problem has now persisted across multiple consecutive evenings, suggesting a recurring failure in the store’s stock management rather than an isolated incident.
Images taken inside the store show groceries packed into thin green bin liners at the self-service checkout, with the bags visibly unsuitable for carrying a standard weekly shop.
Shoppers have expressed growing frustration at the situation, with many caught off guard at the checkout having assumed bags would be available to buy as normal. Bin bags offer significantly less durability than standard carrier bags and are not designed for carrying shopping, raising practical concerns about items being damaged or bags splitting before customers reach their vehicles or public transport.
The fact that the problem has now repeated itself every evening for over a week has raised questions about why the branch has not taken steps to resolve the stock shortage, particularly during busy evening shopping hours when customer footfall is at its highest.
Lidl has not yet responded publicly to the reports. Customers experiencing ongoing issues at the Whitehorse Road branch are advised to contact Lidl’s customer service team directly or raise the matter through the Lidl Plus app.
