An elderly woman is suing Aldi after she was hurt during a special buys sale at a Victorian store.
The 73-year-old woman, who does not want to be named, was shopping for discounted tellies at the Curio store last August when she was was allegedly struck by another customer’s trolley, knocking her to the ground.
The woman suffered a fractured hip, which required surgery. Per The Guardian, a statement of claim has been filed in the Victorian country court, which alleged the woman has experienced ongoing trochanteric bursitis, depression and anxiety as a result of the event.
BRB, sobbing for this poor soul.
Aldi special buys sales are notoriously nuts; hordes of people fighting for the last cheap air fryer, possibly even snatching Le Creuset-esque cast iron pots out of each other’s hands. It’s unnecessarily nasty and hectic.
Arnold Thomas and Becker Lawyers principal Jodie Harris, who is representing the woman, told The Australian on the day of this particular special buys sale, there were only six televisions available in store. Considering how wild Aldi special buys sales can get, that is most definitely not a lot of tellies to go around.
“There was no security outside and no one seeking to control the entry once the doors opened,” she said.
“There had been quite a quite a high level of interest in these particular televisions.
“The doors opened and there was a bit of a rush of some people going in, and my client was hit with a trolley by another customer and she fell to the ground in front of everyone else who was trying to enter.
“Some people just walked around her. Someone lifted a trolley up over the top of her to continue on to get their television and she sort of dragged herself up.
“There was one other customer who did assist her, but there weren’t any Aldi staff there who were providing any assistance at all.”
Yikes. My heart is genuinely breaking for this woman. I can’t even begin to imagine how traumatic it would have been.
Harris said Aldi failed in their duty of care ‘cos if it’s going to hold such a major sale and only stock a small number of items, then the store must be prepared to control the swarms of people who rock up. TBH, fair.
She also recommended Aldi introduce some crowd-management processes, like hiring on-site security and implementing a ticketing system. If it’s good enough for the deli counter at Coles, it should be good enough for Aldi.
Praying for a speedy recovery for the poor woman who was injured.
