Lidl: Men buy more from the middle aisle, boss reveals

“There are some interesting shopping habits in this aisle,” he said, adding he had known rows between couples after a man had become “intrigued by a gadget or two”.

“I would say there are a lot of men in trouble when they come in here,” he said.

There are Facebook pages, Reddit threads and YouTube videos dedicated to middle-aisle finds.

“My mum came back with a two-man canoe despite not living near any suitable body of water,” one Reddit user posted on a thread about things people had found. “A flamethrower,” another user posted. “It was for getting rid of weeds.”

Aside from the middle aisle, Mr McDonnell said there had been a lot of early spend on mince pies, party food and panettone. He said Lidl had won a lot of new customers and many were in “confident mood” despite the tough economic backdrop.