Jun

27

Unwrapping predjudice…

Filed Under ASDA, Sainsbury's | Leave a Comment

A very interesting post on the Campaign for an English Parliament website. Confirming suspicions that the main reason English made produce is displayed with the Union Flag rather than the Cross of St George is to pander to anti English prejudice in Scotland and Wales.

CEP Chairman, Scilla Cullen, recently wrote to Asda to ask why they were happy to sell produce bearing the Scottish and Welsh flags but anything English has the British flag on it.

The response was much the same as that previously encountered from Tesco and not entirely surprising. In a nutshell, if the English flag were put on items produced in England they wouldn’t sell in Scotland and Wales.

Ian Campbell, a member of the CEP National Council, wrote to Sainsbury’s asking much the same question and received the same response from Sainsbury’s – if English products were marked as English they wouldn’t sell in Scotland and Wales.

For years the British establishment have painted the English a group of nasty racists and bigots, linking English nationalism with groups like the National Front and the BNP whilst encouraging, promoting and even fueling nationalism in Scotland and Wales. Yet here we have the three largest supermarkets in the UK telling us that Scottish and Welsh people won’t buy English goods because they’re English but English people will buy Scottish and Welsh goods. Perhaps the British nationalists in the Labour Party have a different definition of bigot?

Disgraceful!

Oct

8

Sainsbury’s Flags Press Coverage

Filed Under Press Coverage, Sainsbury's | 1 Comment

Tally’s mentioned this in the comments but I thought it was worthy of its own article.

It seems one of the many people who have been complaining to Sainsbury’s (independent of Fair Flags) has got himself into the local press. The article appears in the Gloucestershire Echo. Peter Granville-Edmunds, Fair Flags salutes you!

SAINSBURY’S isn’t flying the English flag when it comes to produce, says an angry Cheltenham shopper.

Peter Granville-Edmunds has complained to the store’s head office saying the company is unfair because it labels some Welsh and Scottish produce with the national flags, but not its English goods.

Mr Granville-Edmunds, who lives in Hewlett Road said: “I was in the branch on Tewkesbury Road, and also the one in Prior’s Road.

“They had the Scottish saltire on some beef and there was also some Welsh goat’s cheese with the red dragon flag on.”

Mr Granville-Edmunds, 77, said he wasn’t upset that produce from the two countries was labelled, but it was unfair that English produce didn’t carry a St George cross – having a Union Jack label instead.

He added: “All these countries are British, and we’re in Great Britain.

“I’d rather that all the products were just labelled as British and had the Union Jack, because I feel this is divisive between the countries, but if that’s not going to happen, then I think it’s only fair food from England should have our flag of St George.”

Mr Granville-Edmunds, who works as an abstract painter, wrote to Sainsbury’s customer service department with his complaint, asking why the English were being treated with contempt by the company.

He demanded Sainsbury’s change its policy.

Customer service manager John Brookes replied with an apology.

He said: “We do label some Scottish products with the Saltire, but only where we feel that sourcing from Scotland is of particular importance to the product.”

He added that it was the chain’s policy to buy British produce, but it would be labelled with the union flag because the supply may be from several regions or may change throughout the year.

“I’m pleased to say that in response to recent feedback from our customers, we’re now investigating the feasibility of applying the St George Cross to some products,” he said.

“Although this isn’t a change we can make immediately, we hope to finalise the details within the next few weeks.”

Mr Granville-Edmunds said he would be keeping a close eye on the shelves of Sainsbury’s to see if this happened.

He said: “I think they should have thought about this before now. I’ll be watching like a hawk.”

This is of course good news, and that it is getting into the press is even better. But as I said before we need to keep pushing Sainsbury’s.

Oct

6

Keep Pushing Sainsbury’s

Filed Under Sainsbury's | 1 Comment

Thanks to a lot of letters and emails to Sainsbury’s from their customers, including some from Fair Flags and our supporters, their labelling team is discussing using the Cross of St George on English produce. We have been told that something may be announced within weeks!

This has the potential to be a big breakthrough, but nothing is decided yet, so keep pushing. We’re getting lots of visitors and comments on the site, so if you can all click through and tell Sainsbury’s how you’d love to be properly labelled English produce, that’d be brilliant.

Contact Page with contact form.

Or

Telephone:
0800 636262

By post:
Sainsbury’s Supermarkets Ltd
33 Holborn
London
EC1N 2HT

Sep

30

Sainsbury’s Reply

Filed Under Sainsbury's, Shop watch | Leave a Comment

Following on from last month’s Shop Watch, we sent an offical letter to Sainsbury’s detailing the problems in labelling policy that we, and you guys who helped out, had found. The letter detailed our complaints and why we think it matters, backed up with photographic evidence! We’ve now recieved a reply, although to be honest it doesn’t really address the issues. So we may be writing back to push the point. Anyway, here is what they had to say

Thank you for your recent letter on behalf of the Fair Flags Campaign. I am sorry that you feel we do not label our products from the United Kingdom fairly. I can appreciate how concerned you must be.

We take our product labellung very seriously and review the information on our packaging, to ensure it is as clear and honest as possible. We have been committed to supporting British farming for over 130 years and our policy remains to buy British wherever we can. Of our food that can be produced in the UK, we source over 90% from Britain. Indeed we sell over £6 billion worth of British food every year. We also stock over 3,500 locally produced products.

The products we use are sometimes purchased from a number of approved sources. This means that the actual country of origin may vary throughout the course of the year, depending on availability and other factors.

I have passed your feedback onto my colleagues in our labelling team. They have assured me they are confident that our products are labelled to meet all legal requirements. That said, I am sure they will take your comments into consideration when next reviewing our packaging.

Thank you once again for taking the time to contact us and let us know your observations. We welcome all feedback as it helps us improve our products for our customers

So no answers to the specific questions we raised, but at least we have some recognition, and I assure you we will continue to push our point.

Sep

23

Is Sainsbury’s Listening At Last?

Filed Under Sainsbury's, Shop watch | 1 Comment

We have been told that following letters of complaint and an exchange of replies, Sainsbury’s phoned the complainer and informed her that the issue could be raised at the next marketing board meeting.

Although Fair Flags claims no credit for this independent initiative, I hope our offical letter to Sainsbury’s is something that will come to their attention at the meeting.

Now is the time to push Sainsbury’s as the meeting may be this week! We have all the contact details here or fill out a complaint form at your local branch. Please mention Fair Flags if you can, an organised campaign should encourage them to change more than a series of individuals. Also don’t be fobbed off with a standard corporate reply, keep on pushing that complaint.

Even if this drive isn’t succesful it shows they listen to your complaints. So your work is not in vain, if they don’t change now, maybe they will listen next time!