Muslims allow to REFUSE to sell Pork and Alcohol in M&S Stores

[Guest MattP]

The story certainly deflects peoples attention from other issues. Not everyone can afford to shop at M&S anyway.

Yep.

This just hasn't been off the news for the last 2 days.

Taken Action Homeless, DNO and Punji Pang Shing Shing radio right off the front pages.

Most taxpayers are from low income working families.

[MC Prussian]

Are people really getting their knickers in a twist over this.

 

Something like 5% of the population is Muslim, the chances of them a) working in M&S B) working on the tills and C) refusing to serve you are almost infinitesimally small.

As long as people in the UK continue reading the Daily Mail and use their headlines to make a case against whomever minority is portrayed, the onslaught will sadly continue.

[Lobsterboyuk]

As a Muslim, I've always been told not to put myself in a position where I would be required to sell alcohol, pork or any other prohibited products. I don't think it is fair to expect my employers to bend over backwards to accommodate my religious beliefs. If I can't do the job, I won't apply for it.

Is it really OK anyway for this individual to merely refuse to serve a product that offends their religious beliefs? Surely you can't be in the employ of an organisation that profits from the sale of products that are not compatible with those religious beliefs. You are surely receiving tainted money in the eyes of your spiritual leaders? To take the job in the first place is surely wrong?

[Captain...]

If we ever get a situation like that it's up to all decent people everywhere tp boycott the shop.

Obscene to even consider such warped thinking would ve tolerated in this day and age.

If they don't like it get a job elsewhere.

 

They do have a job elsewhere, if you read what was quoted from the non Daily Mail story, Muslims who can't sell pork or alcohol will normally work in the bakery or clothes department. They have not applied for a job on the food till, and M&S aren't employing them to work on the food till, but in exceptional cases they may be asked to. 

 

Would you rather queue longer and there be an unoccupied till, or have a limited service on one more till?

 

I agree it is completely ridiculous to employ someone to work on the till when they can't sell certain products, but seeing as it is the first (and only) time this has happened, I can only presume that it was to help out in a busy time, especially seeing as it is Christmas. Otherwise it is just nonsense.

[Strokes]

They do have a job elsewhere, if you read what was quoted from the non Daily Mail story, Muslims who can't sell pork or alcohol will normally work in the bakery or clothes department. They have not applied for a job on the food till, and M&S aren't employing them to work on the food till, but in exceptional cases they may be asked to.

Would you rather queue longer and there be an unoccupied till, or have a limited service on one more till?

I agree it is completely ridiculous to employ someone to work on the till when they can't sell certain products, but seeing as it is the first (and only) time this has happened, I can only presume that it was to help out in a busy time, especially seeing as it is Christmas. Otherwise it is just nonsense.

They doubt the till worker was the only one available more likely a mistake whilst very busy.

[Guest ttfn]

Yes, I would.

I would too. I'd be quite offended if somebody made a point of refusing to process items in my basket in a supermarket. I'd have gone in there to buy a bottle of wine and a BLT, not an AK47 and a crate of animal porn.

Simple solution- if you don't want to serve alcohol and meat, don't work in M&S. And if you must work in M&S, sweep floors, stack shelves, take stock - there's loads of tasks you could be doing there without having to make a song and dance about it.

Edit: I've just seen CPF's post above. I'd rather wait longer in a queue than get to the front and faff around for 10 minutes whilst a replacement assistant comes along because the first person operating the till doesn't like some of the stuff I've bought.

[Fox92]

It's ridiculous now, where will a line be drawn? 

[Guest MattP]

Would you rather queue longer and there be an unoccupied till, or have a limited service on one more till?

/quote]

I expect to be served professionally and properly by any till trained staff.

If you can't serve pork or alcohol you shouldn't be working in a supermarket full stop.

Why we keep bowing down to these warped beliefs I don't know.

[yorkie1999]

The local abattoir's must be shitting themselves with the potential lawsuits. Why don't M&S just have a non meat checkout?

[Captain...]

Would you rather queue longer and there be an unoccupied till, or have a limited service on one more till?

/quote]

I expect to be served professionally and properly by any till trained staff.

If you can't serve pork or alcohol you shouldn't be working in a supermarket full stop.

Why we keep bowing down to these warped beliefs I don't know.

 

M&S isn't a supermarket, it has plenty of departments where Muslims can work without it affecting their beliefs, warped or otherwise. Comparing them to Sainsbury's or Tesco (as the Mail article does) is ridiculous.

 

The fact is nobody knows the full details, but seeing as this has happened once in one store, we are hardly bowing down to them, this is not a new policy by M&S to employ Muslims on the food tills, it was most likely an emergency or a mistake, either she didn't consider the alcohol/pork side of it when accepting to go on the till, or they asked her to work the tills as that was the best option available to them at the time when they were busy, it is really not worth getting this worked up over.

[Orkneyfox]

So no more bacon in the corner shop. http://newsthump.com/2013/12/23/supermarket-customer-refused-pasta-purchase-by-follower-of-flying-spaghetti-monster/

[James.]

M&S essentially made one relatively minor organisational error and it happened to involve a Muslim with strong beliefs around pork and alcohol.

 

God knows how some of you lot get through your lives if you get this enraged about something like this. Talk about first world problems.

[davieG]

If you're buying alcohol and using the self service till you have to wait to be approved as over 18 before you can pay up, I was asked if I was over 18 yesterday. :xmassmile:

 

As for tills and queuing most supermarkets I visit are woefully undermanned on the tills, it pisses me off when I see lengthy queues and rows of unmanned tills, Tesco seem to be the worse culprits. Use some of your profits and employ some more staff FFS!  :xmasangry:

[Alexikokopops]

M&S essentially made one relatively minor organisational error and it happened to involve a Muslim with strong beliefs around pork and alcohol.

God knows how some of you lot get through your lives if you get this enraged about something like this. Talk about first world problems.

That was my thinking. It seems to have been one incident which M&S has since apologised for. Still, everyone loves a bit of outrage.

[Strokes]

That was my thinking. It seems to have been one incident which M&S has since apologised for. Still, everyone loves a bit of outrage.

There really wasn't much outrage, or even suprise. People were just saying its not acceptable and rightly so.

[Bert]

. Not really ransom is it?

Just means you have to wait a few extra minutes. Big deal. If you're in that much of a rush, use the self-service checkouts. That was you don't have to deal with the problem of potentially being served (or not) by a Muslim.

I do agree that it can provide some obstacle - but it's not like you can't buy the product at all. It's a bit far-fetched that it has come to this, of course. I personally think it's a bit silly because the staff aren't exactly being forced to drink the alcohol or eat the pork. But as a consumer, such a big deal does not have to be made.

Yep. Every singly Muslim is ridiculous.

I guess that makes it alright then??

Do you really think people want to stand around waiting for someone else to come and serve them after they've finished shopping? Say you've gone shopping at the only time you can that day, and you need to catch a bus home, but you miss that bus because you've had to wait these extra few minutes, then what?

It's all about being inconvenienced.

[fleckneymike]

I guess that makes it alright then??

Do you really think people want to stand around waiting for someone else to come and serve them after they've finished shopping? Say you've gone shopping at the only time you can that day, and you need to catch a bus home, but you miss that bus because you've had to wait these extra few minutes, then what?

It's all about being inconvenienced.

 

Learn to ****ing drive you ****.

[Bert]

Learn to ****ing drive you ****.

I can't drive due to a serious medical condition that could put myself and others in danger whilst I'm on the road.

Who's the cunt now?

[fleckneymike]

I can't drive due to a serious medical condition that could put myself and others in danger whilst I'm on the road.

Who's the **** now?

 

Still you.

[Finnaldo]

I guess that makes it alright then??

Do you really think people want to stand around waiting for someone else to come and serve them after they've finished shopping? Say you've gone shopping at the only time you can that day, and you need to catch a bus home, but you miss that bus because you've had to wait these extra few minutes, then what?

It's all about being inconvenienced.

I doubt that the situation is a widespread problem.

Surely if you saw the queues were that bad and you had a limited time you weren't shop there in the first place? Especially when you could miss the bus by a couple minutes then you probably shouldn't have gone shopping that day and gone another day.

You could come up with a million 'inconveniences' and put them into any situation. It seems today that people feel untitled that they should be above all. It's all rather sad.

[Guest MattP]

There really wasn't much outrage, or even suprise. People were just saying its not acceptable and rightly so.

 

Spot on. Dangerous slope to go down as well if we start allowing till staff to demand what they can and can't sell, whole thing could quiclly descend into farce.

Learn to ****ing drive you ****.

 

wtf

[Finnaldo]

Spot on. Dangerous slope to go down as well if we start allowing till staff to demand what they can and can't sell, whole thing could quiclly descend into farce.

wtf

Well no, religious tolerance isn't exactly a farce. Seeing as today most people choose to be atheist rather than follow a religion, they don't have any religious commandments to follow, and therefore no need to 'demand' anything. Pretty much no other religion, as I've already pointed out, have restraints to food apart from Jews who don't eat pork and shellfish. Not exactly a list that can descend into a farce is it?

[James.]

We can argue over the definition of outrage and enrage but the fact remains people are surprisingly vocal about what really is a very minor problem. In the comments section there's talk of boycotting M&S - brilliant

 

There's more chance of a slippery slope if "news" like this gets reported in the way it does by certain parts of the press and people don't engage their brains before leaping on it. It's not what actually happened that's the issue here, it's how it's been interpreted and communicated.

[davieG]

Perhaps people both on the left and right should be getting enraged at how easy it is for the free press to manipulate the population.

 

Unfortunately we've become a nation of headline readers and they're designed to be provocative even if the story under them tells it as it is more or less and in most cases.

[Captain...]

I guess that makes it alright then??

Do you really think people want to stand around waiting for someone else to come and serve them after they've finished shopping? Say you've gone shopping at the only time you can that day, and you need to catch a bus home, but you miss that bus because you've had to wait these extra few minutes, then what?

It's all about being inconvenienced.

 

What if you miss the bus because there is not enough staff on the tills, store is packed, as it is Christmas, long queues and one empty till, because Sandra is at home with the flu, there is this muslim chap who works in the bakery who can't sell alcohol and pork, we could ask him to jump on and help out where he can, get as many people served as quick as possible, some people might have a bus to catch you know. But boss what if Mohammed gets a customer with pork or alcohol products? Well we'll explain the situation and get it resolved as quickly as possible, people will understand that we are trying to do what is best with the resources we have available.

...

Sorry boss, there was a bit of an incident, some gentleman went to Mohammed with bacon and champagne, he refused to serve him, did he explain the problem? Was he polite, he didn't call him unclean or an infidel? Good, then what happened? Well boss, I came over and sorted out the customer, I was a little delayed as I was helping Tracy on till one, but I took over the sale. So all good then? Well I thought it was going to be ok until I got to his final item... a copy of the Daily Mail. Oh shit, we're fvcked.