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Home > News > World News > Article > Woman unable to buy food due to stockpiling gets help from stranger

Woman unable to buy food due to stockpiling gets help from stranger

Updated on: 22 March,2020 04:20 PM IST  |  Surrey (United Kingdom)
mid-day online correspondent |

Due to shortage of stock in shops, a 34-year-old woman, who was falling short on money to pay for the items she bought, was lucky enough to get help from a stranger at a shop

Woman unable to buy food due to stockpiling gets help from stranger

This picture has been used for representational purposes

Amid the Coronavirus crisis, shelves going empty on shops have become a usual sight. People buy items in bulk to stock up their houses without thinking about people in need. Due to a shortage of stock in shops, a 34-year-old woman from the UK, who was falling short on money to pay for the items she bought,  was lucky enough to get help from a stranger at a shop, mirror.co.uk reported.


The woman Sophie Gowing, a mother of four children, realised that she extended her 60-euro limit by 22 euros as she had to spend more than usual on certain items due of the shortage of stocks in the shops due to stockpiling.


Gowing said, "I only have a certain amount of money to spend, which is not a lot. The lady at the till said ‘that’s £82, please’. I thought, what?" Saying that she never goes beyond her 60 euro limit, Gowing was embarrassed and was on the verge of tears thinking about put food worth 22 euros back on the shelf.


"Then the man came up behind me and whispered in my ear, so I wouldn’t be embarrassed, and said ‘don’t worry I’ll pay the rest – will £20 work?’" Gowing said, adding that a staff member in the shop offered her staff discount to help her buy the items she intended to.

"Then I had some change and I offered to give it to the man, but he said 'you keep it for yourself, you need it more'. And it really did help me with the rest of the day."

Although she was chatting with the man in the checkout queue earlier, she said, ""He was lovely. I wanted to get his name but I was so embarrassed and it all happened so quickly."

Gowing said that the situation with pandemic has been making life 'hard' she described the man who helped her, saying, "He looked over 60, he had told me he had leukaemia two years ago too. He mentioned his lovely grandchildren, too."

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