Aldi removes popular item from 500 Australian stores after a four-year-old boy with autism spotted a VERY embarrassing mistake
- Aldi were forced to remove a popular kids times tables placemat from its stores
- Melanie Kaye said her four-year-old son Oliver spotted a mathematical error
- Ms Kaye shared a picture of the incorrect times tables to Aldi Mums Australia
- The supermarket described the printed maths error as an 'awkward' mistake
Aldi has been forced to remove a popular item across its 500 Australian stores after a four-year-old spotted an 'awkward' mistake.
The German supermarket chain sold a times tables Learning Desk Mat with a major error in their May 20 Special Buys sale.
Melanie Kaye shared the mistake on Facebook and said she was 'disappointed' with the product she had bought from Aldi Dubbo for her 'number obsessed' son Oliver.
Aldi supermarkets have been forced to remove a popular children's times tables placemat (pictured) from their 500 Australian stores after a four-year-old spotted a printing error
Melanie Kaye said her son four-year-old son Oliver (pictured) noticed the placemat listed an incorrect answer in the twelve and five times tables columns
Ms Kaye told Daily Mail Australia: 'My son is obsessed with numbers, it's his biggest passion. Since going into isolation, he has really gotten into times tables.
'He was returning to preschool this week so we decided to grab him some special gifts.'
She said Oliver noticed the $3.99 placemat showed the 12 times tables incorrectly and listed '12 x 12 = 60' when it should equal 144.
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It also intersected with the five times column and the correct answer should have read '12 x 5 = 60'.
Ms Kaye said Oliver 'was absolutely stoked' but 'kept repeating '12 x 12 is not 60'.
The mum explained: 'Oliver has Autism Spectrum Disorder, we had to get rid of the placemat unfortunately because it would have kept upsetting him.'
Ms Kaye said she returned the placemat to Aldi without any problems.
'I did return the placemat the following day, it wasn't an issue at all. The man that served me was chuckling at the error,' she said.
Ms Kaye shared the mistake on Aldi Mums Australia and wrote: 'Check your placemats guys. My number obsessed four-year-old (with autism) is upset that the times tables contain a big stuff up.'
Ms Kaye said she was able to return the placemat to Aldi (pictured) and receive a refund
Her picture of the unfortunate typo quickly gained the attention of other shoppers who praised Oliver for spotting the error.
One commenter wrote: 'Wow! Well done! Took me a while to find the mistake.'
Another shopper said: 'Oh no! Good pick-up little one.'
Others noted how the mistake could be 'triggering' for a child with autism.
A commenter said: 'Unfortunately when you have a kid with autism covering up an imperfection to fix it isn't a solution. They know it's there and it'll trigger them every time the see it cause it's just plain wrong.'
An Aldi spokesperson said the supermarket was in the process of removing the placemat from store shelves.
The spokesperson encouraged customers to return the product to their local store for a full refund.
'There are at least 144 reasons why this printing error on the Learning Desk Mat Special Buy is awkward,' the spokesperson said.
'We agree, that 12 x 12 does actually equal 144. We take every effort in ensuring our products are of the highest quality and apologise to kids learning their times tables (and their parents) for this oversight.'
An Aldi spokesperson said the placemat (pictured) printing error was an 'awkward' mistake
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