General Chat

According to the newspapers. Marks & Spencer has told Muslim staff they can refuse to serve shoppers buying alcohol or pork, it has been revealed.

The chain has granted checkout workers in more than 700 stores permission to politely decline to serve customers for religious reasons.

Instead, shoppers are being asked to wait to pay for certain items at a different till.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2527820/Marks-Spencer-tells-Muslim-staff-CAN-refuse-serve-customers-buying-alcohol-pork.html#ixzz2oCwdJ2zF


Unbelievable. What about vegetarians selling meat etc? Can they be excused. PC gone mad. I know what I would do with all the stuff unloaded onto the conveyor belt!! And they are already having problems with not making enough profit. Is this going to help?

One word Ann unbelievable

the world has gone mad :-S :-S

What a bl**dy cheek
crazy world we live in

You'll be directed to another place to pay in any supermarket if the till person is under 18. I don't think it's that big a deal.

We don't get directed to another till if the person is under 18 Gwynne, they press the bell and the supervisor comes and authorises it.

bacon flavoured crisps? :-S

I reckon they'll be having Muslim only tills with Muslims staffing them - integration? I don't think so

Its little wonder their Stock Market Price has Dropped,What other Brainwaves have they got to come? If I was told that I would tell them where to stick their goods and never use that store again.

Oh for goodness sake!!!

If someone is offended by certain produce don't take the flamin' job!!!
Nobody is asking them to drink/eat it are they?

I hope they lose customers over this - and I speak as a vegetarian who drinks very little but I'd still serve customers if it was my job to do so.

I would just leave the goods in my trolley or basket and walkout, their problem as it is M&S, excuse the pun, that off their trolley not me :-D

In M&S here you have to go to customer services, it's only a little one, mind.

I really don't think it's worth getting aerated over, just use a different supermarket.

I object to Christian institutions objecting to long opening hours on Sundays but I've learned to live with it. The shops would like to be open all day.

Just thinking, M&S is jewish owned, as is Tescos, so why do they sell pork products if they are so concerned with religious reasons?

:-S :-S :-S

Perhaps if M&S in their wisdom (just to accomodate ethnic minorities) decide not to sell those items that they object to it may solve the delemma.However it is a retail outfit i/e a Shop,not a Church, Chapel or Mosque,therefore poeple who are employed there should serve what customers want,not pick and choose.M&S should remember lose your customer, lose your profit,no profit ,no jobs or Company. and another one will bite the dust.

It will take more than this to stop me using M&S. One of my favourite shops and the best for food.

I often go shopping with a vegetarian, and as we load /unload the trolley, she wont touch any meat products that I have bought whether its pre- packed, or not.............

A solution would be to have more supervisors/runners.
Just as an under 18 year has to summon an older person to 'allow' the purchase of alcohol, so someone with religious convictions not to handle that or pork can summon someone else to scan and pack it.

Having queued up to have my weekly shopping scanned, I'd be rather miffed to have to join another one for pork and bottles

As a customer, I'd choose a till where the cashier isn't wearing a head covering or has a beard. But then that's discrimination on my part as well, isn't it?

What on earth are devout Muslims doing working at an establishment that condones the selling of pig and alcohol products anyway.
Or were they not aware of that fact before they applied for the job.

Perhaps the said stores should go the whole hog and discontinue the selling of such items altogether.

I pay their wages via my shopping bill......I would leave ALL my goods unpaid for at the checkout.

Anybody going into hospital might like to check whether their meals will contain Halal meat because they wont tell you voluntarily, the same with school meals.

'Whole hog' Budgie :-D :-D

This calls to mind a secretary I knew left an extremely well paid position to take up a position at a Uni because she felt that tobacco manufacture did not fit in with her beliefs.

This was not of recent years nor was she a Muslim but in 1971 and I think she was of the Baptist faith.

On interviewing, applicants should be asked if they object to serving certain items.
If the reply is 'yes' then 'sorry, no job, we require all customers to be served with their requirements'.