Supermarket giant Foodstuffs has defended its policy that saw a 72-year-old Christchurch woman evicted from a Pak' n Save store after staff thought she was taking advantage of a toilet paper deal.

The woman was forced to leave Pak'n Save Riccarton because a staff member accused her of coming into the store three times in one day to buy discounted toilet paper, which was limited to two packs per person per day.

Foodstuffs spokeswoman Antoinette Shallue said limits were placed on products like baby formula because trade customers - people who would buy goods from the store and then resell them elsewhere to make profit - would try to take advantage of the prices.

She could not say how often people went into the store more than once to get around the limits.

"It really depends on the store and the promotion."

One Christchurch woman, who did not want to be named, had to help some fellow shoppers at a Christchurch Pak ‘n Save to explain they had not been into the store more than once to get around the limits.

“The girl at the checkout said, 'they've been here two or three times. Each person can only make one purchase. We can't sell to her'," she said.

Shallue said supermarkets under the company, including Pak'n Save, enforced limits on a "discretionary basis by the stores and staff".

"We try to manage this as fairly as possible by observing customer behaviour."

Progressive Enterprises spokesman Luke Schepen said staff usually relied on the common courtesy of customers to observe the limits.

"[Shopping limits are] probably quite hard to police. The majority of people will abide by any limits."

Commerce Commission spokeswoman Allanah Kalafatelis said it was up to individual stores to enforce the shopping limits as it was not covered by the Fair Trading Act 1986.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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