ON Saturday, I went shopping in St Helens with my granddaughter who had been saving up for Christmas to buy her mum's present that day.

Looking forward to it, we went into the market where I thought the stall holders were glad of any kind of trade as anyone can see there are quite a lot of stalls closed down.

My granddaughter purchased a present for her mum and was feeling pleased with herself as she had some money left. She saw some 'Winnie the Pooh' socks for sale on a stall, looked at the price and took her money out of her purse but the woman refused to take the money off her because she was giving her 50 pence in small change and told her she had got all the small change she needed and told my granddaughter to take it to the bank (can you imagine!)

I said to the woman: "So you are refusing a sale?" and she answered "yes".

I could not believe it -- the look on my granddaughter's face, she was so upset. It was her own money she had saved. Would the stallholder have refused the sale and change if it had come to £10.50? I think not.

If I had known that this was going to happen I certainly would not have purchased goods off the same woman the day before and definitely will never go to that stall again.

Disgusted grandmother and disappointed granddaughter, Haresfinch (name supplied).