ALDI's obvious mask mistake
An ALDI customer has been left scratching his head after opening a multi pack of face masks that were missing one of the vital parts to make the mask effective against the spread of coronavirus.
A woman wrote on the ALDI Mum’s Facebook page that she had purchased a box of the face masks from her local store and her partner had grabbed a handful to take to work but when he went to put on one, he noticed one key feature was missing.
“When he went to put it on... he noticed only ONE side of the masks had the string to go around his ear, but the other side did not... has anyone else had this problem?” the ALDI customer asked.
In order for a face mask to provide the best protection against spreading and contracting coronavirus, Jessica Stokes-Parish, a nurse and researcher from the Hunter region, told Yahoo there are a few key factors to look out for.
Jessica says the purpose of a face mask is to reduce the risk of viral droplets being shared between individuals.
“This works best if you have a mask that has no gaps under the chin or the cheek. Air will always find a way to leak out, that's a reality, but the less gaps you have the less risk you have of viral droplets escaping,” she explains.
So securing your mask firmly is the best way to wear them – something that is pretty difficult to do with only one set of elastic.
‘A mask for Vincent Van Gogh?’
Wearing a mask that hangs off only one ear is not going to be much use to anyone.
Members of the ALDI Mum’s group agreed.
“Unless they’re made for Vincent Van Gogh, it’s definitely a defect,” one person suggested, referring to the infamous Dutch painter who cut off one of his ears.
“These ones are for unicorns, you grabbed the wrong box,” another person joked.
Laughter aside, many people in the group said they had found faults with their ALDI masks.
“My whole box is faulty I’m so angry. It’s the $29 box I bought a couple of weeks ago. All the strings just pop straight off,” one customer shared.
Another ALDI shopper said she found several faulty masks in her box.
“Yea it was happened to me too. But just a few of them had this problem so I just put in bin,” she said.
An ALDI spokesperson told Yahoo News Australia the original customer has reached out to them.
“We thank the customer for getting in contact with us so we can investigate the issue. We can confirm that this is an isolated incident and we encourage the customer to take the masks back to their local store for a full refund,” they said.
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