The supermarket chain Spinneys issued a statement on Thursday after a fight broke out in one of its branches in Lebanon on the same day.
The fight had started after a verbal confrontation between employees and a customer in the Hazmieh branch, during which the branch manager was physically assaulted by the customer, Spinneys’s management said in the statement.
The said customer had insisted on buying “a large amount of subsidized milk and oil without taking into account the limited quantities of available subsidized items, which must be provided to the largest possible number of citizens equally,” the statement said.
Spinneys expressed its regret over the incident and affirmed that it would continue to “ensure citizens’ food security equally.”
It also called on the Lebanese authorities to propose “a comprehensive solution to the subsidized goods crisis,” to avoid similar events that are related to “monopoly and storage.”
Throughout the ongoing economic crisis, there have been several documented incidents of misuse of subsidized items, which are considered vital products during the crisis.
These incidents include the illegal storage of over 4,000 tons of subsidized products in a warehouse in northern Lebanon and the smuggling of food and medicine outside the country.
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