2/ Tesco in St Mellons, Cardiff, had a break-in so fenced off an aisle of toiletries and other products - including tampons/sanitary pads - while police investigated.
-
-
Show this thread
-
3/ Shoppers then took photos of the cordon, quite reasonably assuming it was to stop people buying “non-essential” items such as tampons, which are most definitely essential (!!!), and were quite reasonably outraged.
Show this thread -
4/ To make matters worse, Twitter user Katie said she was told directly (I think at same store?) that she couldn’t buy sanitary pads, seemingly because they were “non-essential”.pic.twitter.com/L7OvKBypPj
Show this thread -
5/ To make matters *much* worse, Tesco then replied to Kate saying (incorrectly) that indeed, it had been told not to sell these items by the Welsh government. Cue full blown Twitterstorm, quite rightly you would think.
Show this thread -
6/ The Welsh government intervened, correctly pointing out that its guidance says supermarkets can sell anything that’s also sold at a pharmacy. Tesco quickly backtracked on Twitter, and said that was correct.
Show this thread -
7/ After a swift investigation, Tesco press office issued a statement saying the (a) its Twitter reply was a standard response that hadn't been properly checked, and (b) tampons were never actually cordoned off due to Welsh govt rules in the first place - only due to a break-in.
Show this thread -
8/ So in summary, what Tesco got wrong was an incorrect tweet to a customer which swiftly went viral. But - the supermarket claims - the tampons were never *actually* fenced off due to “government rules”. And the government rules never said tampons should be fenced off anyway.
Show this thread -
9/ None of that is to excuse the very legitimate anger and criticism of the "non-essential" items ban - which the Welsh government is refusing to abandon today. Nor is it to excuse Tesco's social media mistake. But perhaps suggests things aren't always quite as they seem! ENDS
Show this thread
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
The idea was to cut down on interaction.?..so the WG latest advice if you need something non essential, ask a member of staff, you couldn't make this up
-
..so "non-essential" will depend on a member of Tesco staff to define???
- Show replies
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.