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Tesco apologized after a customer was told that products at the time were not being sold in its Welsh stores due to the decentralized administration’s ban on selling non-essential items during the firewall shutdown.
It comes amid ongoing confusion and controversy over a ban on supermarkets from selling certain items. Some 60,000 people have signed a petition to the Welsh parliament calling for it to be immediately revoked, and the policy is now under review.
A tweet sent from the official Tesco account told a customer, who said he had been denied sanitary pads, that it was government policy that these items should not be sold in their stores.
Tesco has since deleted the tweet and issued an apology, saying: “Of course, medical devices are essential items and are available to customers in all of our stores, including those in Wales. The response to this customer was sent in error and we are very sorry for the confusion caused. “
A store in Wales had cordoned off an area due to a theft, causing the initial confusion, Tesco said. He said the tweet in question was a standard response from his customer service team when responding to inquiries about non-essential items and should not have been used.
The Welsh government was quick to confirm that vintage products were not subject to the ban, saying: “Vintage products are essential. Supermarkets can still sell items that can be sold in pharmacies. Selling only essential items during the firewall is to discourage spending more time than necessary in stores. It shouldn’t prevent you from accessing the items you need. “
Welsh Health Minister Vaughan Gething said: “The rules never prevented period products from being sold and Tesco deleted their tweet.”
Under the firewall lockdown, which began at 6 p.m. Friday and runs through November 9, non-essential outlets such as clothing stores, furniture stores and car dealerships must close. Supermarkets have been told that they should only sell essential items to discourage people from spending more time than necessary in stores and to be fair to retailers who have to close.
Data released by Springboard, which tracks footfall data, shows that the number of people entering stores fell 66% when the firewall entered compared to the previous week.
Andrew Goodacre, executive director of the British Association of Independent Retailers (Bira), said the new rules benefited online retailers like Amazon at a time when high street businesses were already struggling.
“We just brought people into the online experience, and if we can, it will take years to put them aside,” he said. “We know that Amazon, Asos and other online retailers have good business models … they don’t need help to secure their business … We have already seen a massive shift towards buying clothes online, but now we are also pushing other ranges of products. “
A Tesco spokesperson said: “Medical devices are essential items and are available to customers in all of our stores in Wales. Due to a robbery, this area was temporarily closed to a store for a police investigation, but is now open again. The response to this customer, which implied that these products were not essential, was sent in error and we are very sorry for the confusion caused. “
