A mum has demanded that Poundland stop selling 'sexually inappropriate' kids underwear after finding out what a symbol on the front meant.
Nicola Pritchard bought a four pack of the £2.50 knickers from Poundland - where due to economic factors things no longer all cost a pound to buy - for her 10-year-old daughter.
However, they were confused over what a symbol on the front of the clothes meant and after translating it the 40-year-old mum said she was 'gobsmacked' to discover what it said.
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Running the symbol through a translator she found that it meant 'cat' or 'pussycat' in Japanese and Chinese.
She immediately contacted Poundland to complain about the symbol and said the product should be taken off the shelves. Poundland said the clothes were part of a wider Japanese-themed cat range and they 'understand why' the mum contacted them.
"They were in a pack of four and you could only see the front pair was gingham," Nicola said of the Poundland pants she'd bought for her daughter.
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"None of them had anything to do with Japanese symbols apart from this random one in the pack. When I took them home, she asked me 'what does this mean Mum?' I said 'I don't know, I didn't notice it'.
"So I put into Google Translate and Google Lens and it said that the symbol on the front of her knickers is the slang term for cat. In other words, it's 'pussy, puss, moggy', something like that.
"If the pants had anything to do with cats, like pictures of cats or something like that [that would be fine] but there's no correlation as to why this symbol should be on there, especially on children's pants.
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"I was absolutely gobsmacked. These come in ages three to four in Poundland."
She emailed Poundland and claimed they told her they'd investigate the matter, but says that when she went into the shop a few days later she could see the underwear was still being sold.
Nicola said 'it seemed like they weren't taking this seriously at all' and found it 'baffling', though she reckons that 'Poundland didn't know' the mistake they were making and she doesn't 'think they've done it intentionally'.
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She's hoping the clothes are recalled before others buy them for their children.
A Poundland spokesman said: "While these are part of a wider Japanese-themed cat range that includes socks and vests, we understand why Nicola questioned one item out of the context of the whole range.
"It goes without saying we apologise for that, and we appreciate her getting in touch with us."
Joe Harker