Tesco has buckled under public pressure and withdrawn its sales of Russian products from stores across the UK. As the war in Ukraine intensifies with horrific numbers of civilian casualties killed by the invading Russian army, the supermarket giant has followed other stores including the Co-operative and Morrisons in removing Russia-linked products from its shelves.
A number of retail giants around Europe have bowed to public pressure and taken away all Russian-made vodka from sale in response to Russia’s illegal invasion, reports Cornwall Live.
“In response to the ongoing invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces and as a sign of solidarity with the people of Ukraine we’ve taken the decision to remove from sale Russian-made Vodka,” said a spokesman for the Co-op, Britain’s seventh biggest supermarket group said. “Russian Standard vodka has been taken off sale with immediate effect" as it is "overtly marketed as being Russian” and is produced in the country, added the spokesperson.
A spokesman for Morrisons, the fourth largest supermarket group in Britain, said it had also de-listed Russian Standard. On the back of the announcement by the Co-op and Morrisons, Sainsbury’s also announced that it will remove Russian Standard vodka and Karpayskiye black sunflower seeds from its shelves while Waitrose, which is part of the John Lewis Partnership, will no longer sell Russian vodka either.
Asda has made a similar announcement saying about 100 products - mostly spirits, but also fish and some sweets, will be removed from its stores soon.
Sainsbury’s said it would also change the name of chicken Kiev to “chicken Kyiv” to match the Ukrainian spelling of the capital. A spokesperson for Britain’s second-biggest supermarket said: “We stand united with the people of Ukraine. We have reviewed our product range and have decided to remove from sale all products that are 100% sourced from Russia.”
Tesco shoppers have been piling pressure on the supermarket giant to follow suit as quickly as possible. On its own Facebook page, customers have been posting messages like "still selling Russian Standard Vodka, I see" along with pictures of bottles of vodka with the words "dirty vodka" on them.
Customer Alice Grant said: “Please remove all Russian made products as soon as possible. All your main competitors are already doing so.” Shopper Thomas Wilkinson also posted a picture of Russian vodka in his local store with the comment: “Can we get rid of this please I don’t think its appropriate to advertise/make money with this vodka at the moment.”
Not all shoppers have been keen to see the booze banned with many replying that Tesco have no reason to remove the vodka as they have paid for it, while others feared the loss from removing the booze would be passed onto other products around the stores. Jeff New was not too impressed with the ban call, saying: “Maybe they should bin them all and then put prices up around the store to gain it back?”
Tesco shopper Liam McEneaney had this other idea, and asked if his Clubcard points could go towards helping Ukraine. He asked the supermarket: “Is there any chance that you could set up a ‘donate your Clubcard points’ for Ukraine, so that goods can be bought and sent to the people there, if not may I suggest you do so and that I start it off with my £20 worth of points.”
Tesco said it is also considering renaming chicken Kiev to match the Ukrainian spelling of the capital city Kyiv. While it has not yet confirmed when it will remove Russian-sourced products, from its shelves, it said it would stop importing products form the country.
A spokesman for Tesco said: "We will not be buying products from businesses that are wholly Russian owned and we are supporting humanitarian relief efforts through our partnerships with the Red Cross, food banks and other relief organisations to help those affected in Ukraine and neighbouring countries.”
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