Last week I had a similar situation. I went grocery shopping at a Lidl store. After a few aisles of shopping I could hear a dog barking. As I approached the end of the aisle I could see a woman who had a white poodle on a pink rhinestone studded lease. The dog was on the leash and was barking like crazy at the customers trying to pass her in the aisle. The dog would get really close to the people's legs and bark. The woman seemed unphased by it and had her back turned looking at the items in the semi-open refrigerator case where the butter and yogurt, etc. were kept.
As I approached the woman, I could see the dog had now positioned itself with back legs on the ground but looking and licking something in the open refrigerator case. That was it for me! I found a store employee who was stocking items on a shelf and asked why are dogs allowed in the store that are obviously not service dogs. She agreed with me and asked if I wanted to speak with the store manager. I told her yes. After a few minutes the store manager came over to me and I told him about the dog barking and getting very close to all the people in the grocery aisle as they were trying to pass the woman and also about the dog licking something in the food case. During the time I was telling him, you could actually hear the dog barking. I told him it was unsanitary and it was obvious the animal was not a service dog. He told me he could not do anything about and could not ask to see credentials/license even though the store policy states only service dogs allowed. I told him then, I presume if I brought in a pet monkey or pet snake then I would be treated the same? I guess a customer would have to be bitten before some kind of action would be taken to enforce a no animals except service animals allowed. I then told him to pick his customer; me or the woman with the dog barking. Again he said, I can't do anything about her in the store with the animal. So, I left my cart, which was about half full of groceries, with him and told him he would never see me or get my business at Lidl again and out the door I went.
I just want to end this incident by saying, I am a total animal lover. I have two cats at home and have owned dogs. Love animals but they don't belong in a grocery store because you feel like taking them with you or you don't want to leave them at home. In retrospect I should have called the board of health, filed a complaint and reported that the dog was licking something in the open food case. I don't know if that would have made any difference with the store or its practice.
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