A SHOPPER said she was "flabbergasted" that her young daughter was able to pick up a packet of sex aids in a family chemist in York.

The 29-year-old woman said she was "shocked and embarrassed" when her eight-year-old daughter chose the product in Boots at the Monks Cross shopping Park and asked if she could buy them.

The mother-of-one, who lives in the Leeman Road area of York, questioned why the sex aids were on sale in an area where they could be easily found by curious youngsters.

She said the Vielle product, which costs £9.95, was in "pretty pink" packaging and her daughter thought it was a toy.

"I'm not a prudish person, but when your daughter picks up a sex toy and asks if she can have one I'm not very happy - there were no signs to warn anyone," she said.

She said: "My concern is that other people's daughters are going to go in there too. It's shocking and it's going to cause some awkward moments.

"What do you say to someone as young as that? It's ludicrous, they should have a separate section for things like this. Why is it that sex shops operate behind closed doors to over-18s but Boots can sell them willy-nilly?

"I'm outraged. There's children who are going to be shopping with their mothers in Boots. Parents should not be worried to take their children into a family shop."

A spokeswoman for Boots The Chemists said the Vielle product was sold alongside other products like condoms and lubricants which had been on sale for many years.

She said: "We consider the stock that we sell extremely carefully. This product is very discreetly packaged and it's extremely difficult to remove it from inside.

"We know this is the kind of product that customers are asking for and we have had an awful lot of interest since it was launched."

High street pharmacist Boots today said strong sales of health and beauty products had helped lift like-for-like sales by 4.6 per cent in the first quarter of 2003.

Updated: 10:41 Thursday, July 24, 2003