Yahoo News Great-grandad, 64, wearing flat cap asked to leave Tesco because headwear was 'against company policy'
A great-grandad has vowed never to return to his local Tesco store after being ordered to remove his flat cap.
Graham Cattermole, 64, was shopping with wife Christine, 61, on Tuesday when a security guard said his cotton headgear wasn’t allowed in store.
The electrician refused to remove his cap and instead opted to leave the Tesco Express shop in Upper Gornal, Dudley, West Midlands.
The supermarket giant has since apologised and admitted they had implemented their policy on hoodies and crash helmets incorrectly.
Graham, who lives with Christine, a finance manager, in Dudley, said: “A security guard came up to us and said ‘sorry, you’re going to have to take your hat off or you can’t come in’. I thought ‘how stupid can you be?’
“If I had a crash helmet on or I was wearing a hoodie and looked like a hooligan, I could understand but I’m nearly 65 and I’ve got a walking stick – it’s not like I’m going to hold the place up.
“I had been in many times wearing a hat – normally a trilby. It had never been a problem at all. He said they have a no-hat policy there, so we turned round and came out.
“A couple of customers who were by us just looked on in amazement.”
MOST POPULAR TODAY ON YAHOO
Denmark becomes latest European country to BAN the burqa (and all ‘head-covering garments’)
France blocks Britain’s access to EU security system that identifies foreign criminals
Torrential rain, hail and thunderstorms lash Britain with more on the way
Three people charged over ‘suspicious’ death of three-year-old boy
Graham added: “It was a bit embarrassing because there was no way he was going to let us shop in there unless I took my hat off.
“But there was no real reason for me to take the hat off. It was ridiculous. I said to the wife ‘we’ll go home’.”
Graham, who has three children, eight grandchildren and one great-grandchild, lives 10 minutes from the store and has shopped there for years.
He said: “The family just thought it was ridiculous. It’s totally stupid – just laughable. We’ll never go there again now.”
After phoning Tesco to complain, Graham was eventually passed to staff at the local store, who apologised and invited him to come in for a face-to-face apology.
He said: “According to the local store he was an overzealous door man who had not been there for long. He took their policy of no hoodies or crash helmets to mean no hats at all.”
A Tesco spokesman said the security guard, who was new to the store – and has since been retrained – had “implemented our policy on no hoodies or crash helmets incorrectly”.
They added: “We would like to apologise to our customer for the inconvenience caused and our store manager would be happy to welcome the customer into store to discuss the matter with them.”
