PUSHY bargain hunters have been shoving shoppers and supermarket staff out of the way at Stourbridge’s new Tesco store as they rush to get their hands on reduced food items, according to reports.

A concerned member of the public, who contacted the News, described “scenes of mayhem” at the new Extra store in the revamped Crown Centre last Friday night as crash-strapped or penny-pinching customers scrabbled to grab newly reduced fresh goods.

A spokesman for the store said it has staff on hand to "manage the reductions" when product prices on food items are slashed at the end of the day.

But Stourbridge dad and shopper Jack Goodby said he saw customers shoving and elbowing others out of the way as they tried to grab themselves a bargain.

He told the News: "When I was there my daughter saw an older woman shoved out of the way, and the staff and guards have freely talked about having to break up fighting.

“Tesco are not, in my opinion, providing adequate security for this - either for their own staff or the public. The staff member putting out the stuff was elbowed out of the way along with the woman, and the yells from the lone security guard were entirely ineffectual.

“I think it has become a regular occurrence as Tesco has an unfortunate policy of putting reduced stock out at predictable times, and so increasingly large crowds are gathering at these times and at the moment the stuff is being put out all hell is breaking loose."

Stourbridge MP Margot James was so concerned about the matter she contacted the store and said: "I understand that it’s an issue. They had to call security on more than one occasion; obviously matters have got out of hand but the store feel they've got it under control now."

She said the offending customers are thought to have previously struck at Tesco at Cradley Heath and she said she had been reassured by Stourbridge store bosses that the marking down of product prices would be staggered "so it doesn't all go on at the same time".

A spokesman for Tesco said the scenes described on Friday were "unusual " and added: "The reduced to clear offers at the end of the day are really popular with our customers, so when the store is busy we have colleagues on hand to manage the reductions to make sure all our customers can shop safely.”