Yesterday (14th Feb) members of York Palestine Solidarity Campaign made an unanounced visit to the central York branch of Sainsbury's to show the manager how much Israeli stuff could be found in his store. The response was totally not what we expected.
At around 3:30pm, members of York PSC entered the store with an empty trolley. What might have then looked like a unusually large group of people shopping with only one trolley became a search for goods from Israel, or who's companies are major supporters of Israel. The store had been picked for its central location, and because many of the groups members are customers.
First stop was the fresh produce area, where only produce marked as originating in Israel was placed in the trolley. After this, the trolley moved into the rest of the store where products from Danone, Kraft and other companies were sought out. As luck would have it, Actimel, a heavily advertised product from Danone wasn't their. The company does business within Israel even if it doesn't use the countries produce in products for British Shops.
We then returned to near the entrance, and asked to see the manager, who's name was later revealed to the group by a member of store staff who can't be named. It appears that the group had picked a bad day, as the member of staff questioned expressed negative views of his manager. These were to be agreed with by the group.
The manager called security when he gathered that this was a protest (presumably only because of the signs placed in the trolley with the goods). He was quick to attempt to debate away the concerns raised and then asked the group to leave the store. The reason given for this was that he wasn't happy with the way the group was shopping (perhaps a phrase familiar to Buy Nothing Day activists). The security guard present informed the photographer that taking pictures in the store was banned. It is believed that pictures will appear on the groups website within a day.
The manager was less than polite throughout the debate, and has even gone so far as to have the group's leader banned from shopping in the store. This seems an over-reaction given the nature of the incident. The group dispersed from the area, with discussion over future events, such as spreading to other stores. Other groups, even those outside of the PSC network are asked to consider similar actions, which are incredibly simple. The work leading upto this event included finding a few willing people and downloading some information from various websites. Another group member printed simple signs to decorate the trolley. Just take a look around, fill the trolley with tainted goods and ask a staff member if you can see the boss. You could always take more people and have a sit down to demand more action.
First stop was the fresh produce area, where only produce marked as originating in Israel was placed in the trolley. After this, the trolley moved into the rest of the store where products from Danone, Kraft and other companies were sought out. As luck would have it, Actimel, a heavily advertised product from Danone wasn't their. The company does business within Israel even if it doesn't use the countries produce in products for British Shops.
We then returned to near the entrance, and asked to see the manager, who's name was later revealed to the group by a member of store staff who can't be named. It appears that the group had picked a bad day, as the member of staff questioned expressed negative views of his manager. These were to be agreed with by the group.
The manager called security when he gathered that this was a protest (presumably only because of the signs placed in the trolley with the goods). He was quick to attempt to debate away the concerns raised and then asked the group to leave the store. The reason given for this was that he wasn't happy with the way the group was shopping (perhaps a phrase familiar to Buy Nothing Day activists). The security guard present informed the photographer that taking pictures in the store was banned. It is believed that pictures will appear on the groups website within a day.
The manager was less than polite throughout the debate, and has even gone so far as to have the group's leader banned from shopping in the store. This seems an over-reaction given the nature of the incident. The group dispersed from the area, with discussion over future events, such as spreading to other stores. Other groups, even those outside of the PSC network are asked to consider similar actions, which are incredibly simple. The work leading upto this event included finding a few willing people and downloading some information from various websites. Another group member printed simple signs to decorate the trolley. Just take a look around, fill the trolley with tainted goods and ask a staff member if you can see the boss. You could always take more people and have a sit down to demand more action.
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