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 Basically Morrisons have withdrawn the vodka online but have decided to continue to sell it on their stores.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.

We are really going down a worrying path of boycotting everything Russian. The government doesn’t care. It’s the small people who are against their governments regime who are hurt by this.

The OP still hasn't told us what they have done to support Ukraine - other than try and make it all about her in Morrisons

Cross post - I can see they have donated

‘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.’

Oh, like a revolution?
Good luck with talking the average Russian into that model of change.
Been there, done that, got the T shirt.

You could always buy it and send it back to Ukraine to be used in medical supplies. Announce on social media you have done so - it would be the ultimate virtue signal.

Op- read the Julie Birchill article- Ukraine is not all about you

Having read the thread I think selling stock already purchased is ok. So my original opinion has changed due to the logical pov of the posters. Thanks

But if they didn’t have it visibly on the shelves no one would be able to do public performance boycotting OP, would they?

@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?

That’s the whole point with sanctions. Yes it’s the normal people who are affected first, but it also affects the rich people eventually, and ultimately (hopefully) forces the government to rethink whatever objectionable thing they’re doing. But vodka is no different from anything else. All the sanctions hit ordinary people. There’s no way of avoiding it.

I can't be bothered with this virtue signalling in any form. It won't matter to the makers ,they already have the money for it and if Morrisons can sell exisitng stock then good for them. If people want to buy it they will,
noone has to buy anything they object to.

Wonder if Morrisons might consider donating the existing stock of Russian labelled goods to worthy causes?

I suppose to be squeaky ‘clean’ that will include all goods & products blended with Russian goods & products, processed in Russia & transported through Russia.

Dear god really?

Is this actually happening in the real world right now, people annoyed at Russian products on shelves?!

@Hairbrush123

We are really going down a worrying path of boycotting everything Russian. The government doesn’t care. It’s the small people who are against their governments regime who are hurt by this.

We have limited options, given the negotiations have failed.

We either stand by and do nothing, allowing Russia to take Ukraine, and whoever they want to attack next.
Or we impose economic sanctions, in the hope that the government will eventually accept that the population is suffering too much, and will retreat.
Or we go to war.

Which would you prefer? Or is there an alternative I don’t know about?

You actually asked to speak to a manager to ask them why they’re not boycotting vodka? You really do have far to much time on your hands.

I see, the Covid curtain twitchers wondering out loud whether to report their neighbours have moved on to patrolling supermarket shelves

@Hercisback

They'll have already paid for it anyway. Better it gets sold and used rather than thrown and wasted.

I wouldn't expect them to buy more, but selling old stock is fine and the right thing to do.

Yep, better it gets sold and used rather than thrown and wasted.

If shops can't sell their cheap vodka, how can we expect the A&Es to remain as busy as they are on a Saturday night. Think of the poor A&E nurse who could lose her job!

What is withdrawing Russian alcohol from the shelves really going to do?
I don't even know why companies said they were going to do that because it's literally the most pointless thing ever

@HesterShaw1

You could always buy it and send it back to Ukraine to be used in medical supplies. Announce on social media you have done so - it would be the ultimate virtue signal.

I'm going to turn it into hand sanitiser. Double virtue points and you can drink it in when the nuclear text arrives. Hester you're a genius

@theglitch

Dear god really?

Is this actually happening in the real world right now, people annoyed at Russian products on shelves?!

IKR 🤦🏽‍♀️

The people in Russia can't just stand by and say it's nothing to do with them. At some people this man was elected (even if democracy has been undermined since then in Russia). The man can't stay in power if everyone in Russia stands up to him. The people demonstrating are infinitesimally tiny compared to the population size. For evil to flourish, it just takes 'good people' to sit and do nothing.

Except Russians have been told for years that the people of Ukraine have been the ones treated badly and that Putin is going in to liberate them. Media over there is very tightly controlled, it's as if the only news channel in America was Fox, or the only one here was GB News.

As I said earlier, I accept I may be unreasonable... Each to their own views I guess.

Just don’t buy it. There are plenty of products I don’t buy due to ethics. At least it is labelled as Russian and not designed In The UK , like a lot of Chinese stuff which is deliberately misrepresented.

@Paintyourpaletteblueandgrey

As I said earlier, I accept I may be unreasonable... Each to their own views I guess.

It's not unreasonable, it's illogical. It just makes no logical sense.

@theglitch

Dear god really?

Is this actually happening in the real world right now, people annoyed at Russian products on shelves?!

!!!

They could have announced that they will not purchase new stock but would let existing stock run down with proceeds of that stock going to help Ukraine

On balance I agree with Morrisons on this - why should they be out of pocket for products that have already been bought? The sanctions should apply to buying future stock - so they sell it until it runs out but then don't buy any more.