Show of support for Iceland staff after customer was abusive

After staff at Iceland in Lace Walk received abuse from a customer yesterday, members of the community showed up today (April 3) to offer solace - and cake!

Councillor Tony McCollum, along with Deputy Manager for TRIP, Sharon Thorne and Heather Penwarden of Honiton's Coronavirus Support Group arrived at the store at midday to show their support and say thank you for the incredible work being done by staff during the coronavirus crisis.

Cathy McCollum of The Random Kitchen, a Covid-19 community kitchen, had baked a cake with the message 'made with love' which Tony McCollum presented to Iceland store manager, Graham Dunn.

Heather Penwarden congratulated Graham and his team for providing the town with a vital service under difficult circumstances and said that 'obviously people are more stressed at the moment but that it didn't condone the treatment they had received.'

She said: "We just want to say that we are all here for each other as a community, to support one another.

"Thank you for the amazing job you and your team are doing."

Graham spoke to Nub News and explained the events of the previous day: "We have lines on the floor for where customers need to stand to remain two metres apart.

"Customers were all queuing at the end till and the lady cut in on a different till not realising there was a queue, so she was asked if she could join the back of the queue.

"She got quite angry about it, saying there should be two queues rather than just one.

"I saw that she was getting quite aggressive with the cashier, so I came over and intervened and asked her if there was an issue with anything.

"She then started swearing at me and told me to f*** off, so I asked her to put her shopping down and could she please leave the store, as I didn't want to serve her while she was speaking to staff like that.

"Then she literally picked up her shopping and threw it in my face, which was a bag of frozen chips and a loaf of bread and stormed off calling me an effing this and that.

He added: "On the whole though, our customers are fantastic and we would like to say a big thank you to everyone who has supported us.

"We have received so many gifts and cards off people, it feels a bit like Christmas."