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 Basically Morrisons have withdrawn the vodka online but have decided to continue to sell it on their stores.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

I agree with not buying more Russian stock, but if they've already paid for it - what are they supposed to do? It's not as if they can donate vodka to a food bank; most of them don't even touch food with alcohol in it!

Not selling stock already bought is total virtue signalling and doing no actual good

If you are appalled by their action, then you can always choose not to shop there. If you are so upset but still shopping there for your convenience, then you can't really accuse them of selling existing stock.

@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?

War is shit, even for the people who don't support it. That's pretty much the point of it really.

I'm uncomfortable with this knee jerk anti-everything-Russian attitude, too. Might look simple, but as pps say, Chinese people were attacked cos of Covid, and this happens with every group where there's conflict and sudden sanctions etc. In WWI German people in England had their businesses trashed and were attacked, with all the men put in PoW camps, no matter what their background or potential threat level. That was not okay and this situation is not okay if Russian people here end up victimised. Already students studying here are feeling isolated and afraid. Not okay, for members of any nationality. I know that's not really the point of the thread, but just remember that people are not their government and do not deserve to feel afraid because of their nationality.

i see no reason why you want russian standard removed from sale, unless you are going to stop buying wheat products,crude oil based products, gold, gems or gold containing products, coal and any electric coming from a coal burning power station, or indeed products produced in factories using said coal (like stuff from china).

then you are frankly just being silly, vodka exports are tiny, stinks of token gesture just because it has "russian" written on it.

Why don't we all ban Russian people from morrisons too, right OP? It is sad people loose all common sense and decency in the moment of crisis

If you want to do something more worthwhile you can could boycott shell fuel stations. Shell have admitted they will continue to source a small amount of oil from Russia.

@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.

I don't think this is unreasonable. It had already been bought and paid for before all this.

Continuing to buy more though is wrong if Russia are supposed to be sanctioned.

You actually went to the manager about this?

do we even know Roustam Tariko stand on Putin?

@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?

This. The vodka is already paid for so removing it from the shelves and putting it into storage would only be symbolic.

What matters is that they don't reorder until Russia stops being a corrupt warmongering dictatorship.

Do you buy good made in China OP? Or are they OK because they 'only' send their own people to concentration camps?

Why don't we all ban Russian people from morrisons too, right OP? It is sad people loose all common sense and decency in the moment of crisis

What a ridiculous leap.

Well said @SavageTomato and others.

This kind of knee jerk, over-the-top nonsense is so depressing and won't have the tiniest impact on Putin and his actions.

Racists must be having a field day.

Morrison’s are incredible virtue signallers so I’m moderately surprised they went beyond releasing a statement saying they stand with Ukraine, stopped ordering goods from Russia is an unusually proactive step for them.

Hideous company.

You may think it sounds daft but anything we cn do to make Russia a pariah state is good in my book.

Putin, his henchmen and supporters are the pariahs - not millions and millions of ordinary Russian people trying to get on with their lives under a merciless dictatorship.

That's a very good point upthread about Tony Blair - the people of the UK didn't overthrow him, however much we despised him, and I daresay that we would have significantly less to fear than the average Russian.

You might as well demand that we stop aid to the impoverished, starving, powerless people in certain African countries, as once the ruthless dictators who run them see enough poor babies dying of malnutrition, that'll show them.

I disagree that it's whataboutery to look at what the endgame could be and if we apply the same standards elsewhere. Would we really be willing to boycott all goods made in China, should their human rights and military records get even worse?

I despise that bloke who looks like Winnie the Pooh and all of his supporters, but the people in our local Chinese takeaways are lovely, decent, honest people. Why on earth would I think I was proving a point if I deliberately boycotted them (and maybe run a simultaneous racist hate campaign against them on SM for 'good' measure)?

Why are we advocating boycotting everybody in a country that might use nuclear weapons in attacks on civilians, when the only country that ever has done that is considered one of the good guys?

My mum noticed the same in her local morrisons and asked to see the manager. He refused to come down from the offices so she rang head office who told her that it should be removed from stores aswell. They asked her for the stores location.
When she went over there was a manger stood at the customer service desk so she told him he was wrong and said she put him on the picture where he had gone wrong! Love my mum

What a load of performative bollocks.

Of course supermarkets should sell what they have and just not order any more. Anything else is not doing it for the right reasons.

Maybe we should all boycott Countdown, once Rachel Riley is back from her maternity leave, until she divorces her husband. If that doesn't destroy Putin, I don't know what will....

then you are frankly just being silly, vodka exports are tiny, stinks of token gesture just because it has "russian" written on it.

I don’t agree with this. I do think companies should stop any trade with Russia. That’s how economic sanctions work and if our government is being lax on it, business should do what they can.

Vodka exports are still of value to the Russian economy, and exports of this other products have also been curtailed. It’s shit for the Russian people but better for them than military sanctions which is why we do this first.

@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.

EXACTLY THIS!

This virtue signalling has become the new "I'm triple jabbed".

Maybe we should all boycott Countdown, once Rachel Riley is back from her maternity leave, until she divorces her husband. If that doesn't destroy Putin, I don't know what will....

Riley is the ultimate virtue signaller.

Good thing the international community didn't boycott the UK when we invaded a sovereign country by force.

Maybe Russian vodka is a good investment buy right now.

Surely if they stop selling Russian Vodka they have to stop selling any Chinese-made products because of what the Chinese are doing to the Uyghurs and the occupation of Tibet? Where does it end?