For years, every so often I would visit the local Lidl, to pick up assorted goodies at what seemed good prices and, on occasion, when the draw of their South African Cabernet Sauvignon, their chocolate aisle, their prawn crackers, and even on occasion, their 3-ply loo roll and cheap but good aubergines, was enough to outweigh the thought of their overly-long till-queues, I would visit again. But then they tried to pack in more shelf space, more customers were drawn to the shop and they swapped out a couple of manned till for a bank of auto-tills, and, over the least few months, the draw has been virtually non-existent: the pros were never outweighed by the cons. Then, last night, after promising to pick up my wife from a friend's house at around 11.30pm, before seeing out to pick her up, I found we were low on milk and bread and that the Lidl en-route closed at 11pm. As I drove to near the Lidl at around 10.50pm, I then saw, contrary to its normal fullness the car park was virtually empty, so I quickly parked up and rushed about the store to by some milk, wine, bread and chocolate. The only tills pen at this time were the self service ones and the only interaction I has with any assistant was when one had to come over to confirm i was of sufficient age to buy wine. At NO point, did anyone alert me to the fact that in the previous month or so, Lidl had contracted out management of its car park to a predatory ANPR/CCTV enforcer, who was now likely to issue me a penalty because, when I drove out of that car park, I had not scanned my receipt and entered my car registration into their machine. I learned about this after picking up my wife and, overnight, it really annoyed me, especially as, this morning, instead of going for an early swim, I spent time instead talking to Lidl customer service when it opened at 8am. However, instead of saying, 'Oh, don't worry, let us sort that out for you', the woman at the other end said, 'well we do have signs up around the car park and in the store you know!'. The attitude stinks! I then contacted customer service by email and the response was about keeping hold of the receipt and what to do to try and appeal, if their contractor, Athena ANPR Ltd, issues me with a 'Parking Charge Notice'. If Lidl's attitude to its duty of care to look after customers in this area, extends to how it looks after the food customers purchase, I fear for the nation. They will know who I am. They will soon know also to regret this example of appalling management culture. Yesterday, I posted a very similar review to this one on Trustpilot, where many of the most recent reviews have been one-star, like mine. I am intrigued to find out if this review survives in this space, which seems a rather contrarian sea of positivitiy, Is this truly a fair representation or is there some kind of slant here, so as to be able to farm revenues from the reviewed entities? Whatever, corporate need to understand their duty of care to customers and, if they fall prey to feedback unfairly skewed to the positive, they will be less well informed about mounting problems and ultimately their fall from grace is likely to be sharper and swifter. Businesses need to know when they have taken a wrong turn, especially with governance and service matters and here, I think Lidl needs a massive and urgent correction. Until then, beware!