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 Basically Morrisons have withdrawn the vodka online but have decided to continue to sell it on their stores.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

Why should they throw away stock they've already paid for? Fair enough if they just want to use up the stock that they have and don't order anymore.

If it bothers you, don't buy it. Simple as.

@BasicBiscuit

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

That vodka has already been paid for - the Russiam company has that money now. What purpose is being served by Morrisons not now selling it on? Russian Standard don't care if if they sell it, pour it down the sink, or use it an an accelerant on a picture of Putin, do they?

You're far too sensible to be on MN! Imagine Putin's tears when he sees Morrisons etc destroying all the products for which they've already handed over the roubles or whatever. Are all these products actually made in Russia even, many will be made elsewhere under licence, like Coca Cola?

I think press language is important as some sites said the company agreed to delist the product and other words that suggest they would stop buying product lines from Russia. Press headline states however “Morrison agrees to stop selling…”
Be careful OP that you just haven’t fallen victim to a headline grabbing press!

It’s totally reasonable for a firm to sell the stock it has bought. Especially as Morrisons have donated £250k to DEC.
It might have been sensible for them to put stickers on the bottle stating this is existing stock and the product line will be discontinued. Just to save people shrieking at the managers

Yes, remove the vodka from the shelves. That will get Putin running scared.
Seriously, it wouldn't make any difference and would cost Morrisons money. They've already paid for it so what's the point of throwing it away?

They’ve already bought it. As long as they don’t buy anymore it’s fine. It’ll take them a while to source replacement products anyway.

Tbh im a bit worried about this ' banning of Russians' thing thats going on.

Id feel extremely uncomfortable if I was a Russian person living in the UK right now. Are they going to be scapegoated and at risk for a war that has nothing to do with them?

Regarding the vodka it makes sense for Morrisons to sell what they have and not reorder, throwing it away would be a waste and serve nobody

Tbh im a bit worried about this ' banning of Russians' thing thats going on.

Me too. Its shocking.

And it appears the guilty of doing of this seem to think they are extremely virtuous.

I'm not sure a company throwing away goods they've already paid russian companies for is going to hurt the Russians as much as you think it will.

Shops not buying any more will, but what's here is already paid for. I don't think the shops want to be the ones losing all that money. It's Russia people want to squeeze, not Morrisons

I haven't been able to find a statement by morrisons, googling skills not working today, just a reference to them de-listing which doesn't mean taking stock off the shelves immediately afaik

As others have said, its fine for Morrisons to sell stock they have already paid for. Good on them for making the commitment to phasing out Russian goods. Perhaps it needs to be communicated more clearly that Morrisons have made a commitment not to place any further orders from businesses headquartered in Russia. Assuming that's what they have agreed to do. In the meantime they will be selling stocks that are already purchased and sitting in their warehouses and stores rather than them going to waste.

I dislike this consumer attitude that changes have to happen instantly. A local business near us landfilled a huge amount of perfectly useable polystyrene single use packaging because their customers demanded sustainable alternatives. The polystyrene had already been manufactured and using it up during the transition period rather than throwing it away would have saved resources. But it was all about appearances.

@Aishah231

Boycotts can be very effective but if you're going to boycott Russian goods you should also be boycotting US goods, and Israeli etc etc. Russia aren't the only aggressive power in the world. Ask the Iraqis, afghans and Libyans. Yemen's, Palestinians. Does it matter more because it's on tv all the time?

What a load of whataboutery.

Ah now, I came back from shopping in Morrisons an hour or so ago and then sat down to read this thread. If only I'd read it beforehand I could have made a point of going down the vodka aisle and not buying any, instead of just not buying any because I don't buy vodka. Missed opportunity there. Gutted.

I can't believe there is at least a couple of people who have asked to speak to the manager of a store about this, it's like a living internet meme.

Wind your neck in and let them sell their stock of it and stop being a prat.

@AllThatFancyPaintsAsFair

I haven't been able to find a statement by morrisons, googling skills not working today, just a reference to them de-listing which doesn't mean taking stock off the shelves immediately afaik

www.thegrocer.co.uk/alcohol/sainsburys-morrisons-and-the-co-op-delist-russian-standard-vodka-as-ukraine-conflict-rages/665193.article

A spokesman for Morrisons, meanwhile, said: “We have taken action on our vodka lines today including delisting Russian Standard.”

www.mylondon.news/news/uk-world-news/co-op-morrisons-remove-russian-23284448

A spokesperson for Morrisons said it had also de-listed Russian Standard.

@Hoppinggreen

I don’t necessarily support these boycotts but if a company says they are doing it then they should

Agreed do it or don’t but don’t say your removing from the shelves if you’d not . Selling goods already bought isn’t boycott . I imagine the sales won’t be great anyway at the minute as some will feel the same . A friend of mine works somewhere that has a big Russian customer they sold stock to them this week , that doesn’t sit well with me but companies argue that refusing orders costs jobs perhaps but there has to be some sort of morality imo .

Surely if the stock is bought and paid for it may as well be sold, buying more stock is a different story

They are not restocking, but they are selling what's on the shelf. People can choose whether to buy it or not. The Russian company has already been paid remember so putting the vodka down the sink helps nobody

We should storm Morrisons and grab all the filthy Russian vodka off the shelves and smash it in the fireplace. Oh, hang on. That's a Russian tradition isn't it?

I know. We should line up the quisling managers of Morrisons, tear their uniforms into shreds, stuff the rags into bottles of Russian Standard and make Molotov cocktails except we should call them something else because Molotov was a Russian.

And we should be careful to only destroy Russian vodka. I really like that Finlandia stuff which is from Finland so we could drink it to keep our spirits up while waiting for the police. If Morrisons don't sell that then Smirnoff will have to do because I believe it isn't actually made in Russia.

A spokesperson for Morrisons said it had also de-listed Russian Standard.

I may be wrong but doesn't delisting mean they won't be trading with them in future? In which case they have not lied or misrepresented what is happening as they actually never implied or said they will be removing the products directly from the shelves immediately?

@TheresSomebodyAtTheDoorNeil

Tbh im a bit worried about this ' banning of Russians' thing thats going on.

Id feel extremely uncomfortable if I was a Russian person living in the UK right now. Are they going to be scapegoated and at risk for a war that has nothing to do with them?

Regarding the vodka it makes sense for Morrisons to sell what they have and not reorder, throwing it away would be a waste and serve nobody

Indeed. I remember the abuse Chinese people got when the pandemic hit. Ridiculous, and shows how thick people are collectively.

@BasicBiscuit

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

That vodka has already been paid for - the Russiam company has that money now. What purpose is being served by Morrisons not now selling it on? Russian Standard don't care if if they sell it, pour it down the sink, or use it an an accelerant on a picture of Putin, do they?

Exactly. And the sale is ultimately helping the company's staff put money in their pockets and feed their families. I doubt the average Russian on the street wanted to invade the Ukraine.

As others have said, they have already bought and paid for the vodka.

By not selling it on now, they would be achieving little more than virtue signalling 🤷🏻‍♀️

The shouldn't buy anymore must shouldn't have to throw away products. Gas, fuel etc come from Russia. Same as most products come from China as although many without jobs here we hardly manufacture anymore and are hell bent on 0 carbon. So we'll have to buy expensive energy from Russia and elsewhere and goods from China. Boris so close to Russia MI6 tagged him as a threat to national security. twitter.com/johnsweeneyroar/status/1181259274330214400?t=6dKWFPC4PD4lI3RhJjOV-Q&s=08 and Carrie founding member of Conservative Friends of Russia twitter.com/TheStephenRalph/status/1487848451140378624?t=N7qANcAOZJaNqTciFaPgAA&s=08 Russia heavily funds green agenda in the UK.

I very much doubt that Morrisons have paid for all the vodka yet. They probably buy on 30-60 days credit before payment. In addition they can probably return the goods and push the problem closer to Russia.

@Noshoesinthehouse

I very much doubt that Morrisons have paid for all the vodka yet. They probably buy on 30-60 days credit before payment. In addition they can probably return the goods and push the problem closer to Russia.

The stock that's on shelves now will have been bought months ago. Possible a year ago. Especially vodka, that doesn't have a short shelf life.

Do you really think paying to return the goods to Russia and breaking contracts is very easy or cheap?