Morrisons refusing to remove Russian products from sale.

[Paintyourpaletteblueandgrey]

I went shopping to Morrisons last night. Wandering the alcohol aisle I found a full lit up display of Russian Standard vodka which is made in St Petersberg. Morrisons announced earlier that week that they, like all other supermarkets, were withdrawing all Russian products for sale due to the ongoing Ukraine crisis so I was quite surprised to see it there.

As I was leaving I spoke to customer services asking why the vodka was still on the shelves. The store manager came down with an email from the head office to show me. Basically Morrisons have withdrawn the vodka online but have decided to continue to sell it on their stores. Their view is that regardless of what is going on in Ukraine, they have bought the vodka and don't believe they should lose out on the profits for it (manager's words not mine). I asked why they had announced that they were banning Russian products when it was untrue and was told 'well why should we lose money?'

Am I being unreasonable thinking that Morrisons have just jumped on the Ukraine bandwagon with no actual intent to stand by their comments. They are putting money before morality. Surely we should be making a stand against Russia rather than paying lip service to them. I tweeted Morrisons last night but surprise surprise, they have ignored my tweet.

It's been paid for already.
That's like me saying I'm going to throw away my TV because it's made in Russia. The implications would not affect Russia all.

The point is to stop giving Russian companies money. If they've already been paid for the vodka then morrisons may as well sell it

I agree with Morrisons. They have already paid for the products, the money has already gone to Russia. By destroying it, they miss out and lose money. There is no benefit to be had by taking these products off the shelves. I think the morality issue would be if they continued to buy these products, which they aren't.

The vodka is already bough and paid for so why just waste it? Better to boycott shell who are still buying Russian oil and boycott American goods as the US is still buying 670,000 barrels of Russian oil a day.

It’s future purchases from Russia that needs to be stopped. What is paid for is irrelevant as it only hurts our retail if it is not sold. Better if Morrisons placed a notice next to it to describe it as the last Russian vodka to be sold as no more will be purchased until the Ukraine crisis is over.

Selling vodka made in Russia that has already been purchased, shipped and put on sale is in no way going to harm the Russian economy. Is the alternative just letting food and drink products go to waste? It isn't really anything to do with supporting Ukraine or sanctioning Russia, it is just an easy bandwagon to jump onto that results in publicity for supermarkets.

Its really not hard to work out.

Thet wont be buying more, they will seel the stock they have.

Did people really expect supermarkets to just waste all those products, that they have already bought (so the money is in the Russian economy) for shits and giggles.

Likey, all these boycotts will amount to nothing. The war maybe over before they run out of their stock and then they will order again.

Retailers have been forced to come out and say this, or have their own business threatened. In reality, it probably won't make a huge difference.

They're probably selling what they've got but not ordering more. Fair enough.

Morrison’s shouldn’t have made such a bold statement if they weren’t going to act on it, although it absolutely makes sense to sell the stock they’ve already paid for!

Maybe they should have worded their statement in a different way.

I think they should stop orders of Russian goods but letting stuff which has arrived go to waste doesn’t help anyone

They have been disingenuous about their intentions though, I agree with that. They should have just been honest about why stuff is on the shelves but hopefully won’t be soon.

It should be discounted so that it’s cleared quickly and their profits are minimised

@Hadjab

If we boycott Russian-made products, ultimately who are we harming? Let’s imagine, everyone stops drinking Russian Standard, the business goes bust - who is being penalised here? Just the company, or also the normal, everyday people who work in the distillery?

All of the above. The point of the sanctions and the boycotts is that they will hurt ordinary Russians. We need to make ordinary Russians feel the consequences and pain of their government's actions. If setting their economy back a few decades is the price for making them rise up and overthrow their corrupt, power-crazed leadership, then it's a price worth paying.

Plus what's worse, a Russian losing their job then their home and ending up on the streets because of sanctions, or a Ukrainian being shot or having their home destroyed by the Russian aggressors? Without the Russians taking the actions they have they would have not faced the sanctions they have.

Russians are the "bad guys" here. Whilst individual Russians at home or abroad may or may not not support Putin's actions, we should certainly target Russians at home or abroad with as many punitive measures as we can.

I'm glad to see so much common sense on this post of course they are going to sell products they have already purchased, not doing so and just throwing them away will make absolutely no impact upon Russia.

I'm amazed anyone wouldn't understand this basic concept and am surprised that despite the clear explanation from Morrisons the OP still thinks the store are in the wrong.

What else have you done to support Ukraine rather than moan at Morrisons- who are collecting cash donations online and in stores?

As others have said, they’ve bought the vodka and shouldn’t waste it. It’s paid for and the point of sanctions isn’t so we don’t have to look at Russian products 🙄
Possibly they pushed the wrong angle in explaining it, but the decision was correct.

I don't see the problem, the vodka has been paid for already, disposing of it would be both a waste of consumables and a waste of their money. If anyone buys it now, the money goes to Morrisons, the company who make Russian Standard have already been paid so it makes no difference to them.
As long as they don't restock it, they aren't being disingenuous. They also have the option to add a donation to the Ukraine appeal at the till, or you can donate cash.

They should put up a notice clarifying that they are still selling Russian products that they have in stock, but are not ordering more. It's environmentally unfriendly and wasteful to chuck it, and it's not the sort of thing you could give to food banks. Might be a treat for some people if you could!

I doubt that most Russian businesses are funding/funded the Russian government. I think a lot of Russian people are against this war. They are getting punished a lot already for someone else's decision. I get the scanctions, but it's the normal trying to get by people it's effecting the most.

Wow I'd be embrarrased to have a family member kick up a fuss about this.

I understand someone asking (in store/on mumsnet) but to further make a fuss/complain/ask to see a manager after getting the explanation ... eeek.

If you are boycotting Russian goods became when buying cooking oils. Russian produces around 50% of the worlds sunflower oil and a lot of supermarkets will have it in their blended cooking oil. It won’t be marked as produced in Russia as it is blended with other oils so if you can’t confirm that it has no Russia oil don’t buy it. Look for Ukrainian sunflower oil and buy that if you can.

How much if the boycott do you sent to be performative, and how much do you want it to be am actual sanction?

Performative is such an overused word, but it sums this situation up perfectly. Nobody in Russia is going to suffer financially if Morrisons ritually purge their shops of their existing stocks of Russian vodka. Morrisons bear the cost. Why should they? What is achieved?

Beware not became

There is no harm to Russia if supermarkets choose not to sell items that have already been paid for in full. If they have cancelled future orders, that will have more of an impact.

I can see why they think there is no point in losing out on their own profits just to make a statement that won't actually have any impact, but I think this could have been communicated much more effectively.

All this ridiculous virtue signalling and boycotting Russian goods is bullshit. Its making us into a target as well as making the majority of us hypocrites. We need to butt out and let this play out. The more we interfere and push putin into a corner, the more we risk him feeling that we are the enemy. As soon as that happens its game over for all of us, including the Ukraineans. We cannot get involved and people do not seem to get this. Punishing ordinary Russians is not going to make things better for anyone.

I think that's reasonable. Why should their business lose out on money for products they've already paid for? The actual test is whether they buy any further products from Russia.

Want to boycott products, don’t buy it.
Same as boycotting South African fruit.

Go buy goods to support causes that have your approval.