Did Morrisons force an 89 year old veteran to collect poppies outside?
Rumours are spreading that popular UK supermarket Morrisons forced an elderly Royal British Legion poppy collector outside a store in Taunton.
The message asserts the veteran informed a customer he was forced outside into the cold as there was no room inside due to promotional materials by Morrisons taking up the store floor. The message also claims to detail a verbal exchange between the customer and store manager.
Whilst the message appears to be [loosely] based on a real event, it contains more false information that genuine information, and excludes important facts to make the incident appear much worse than it actually was, as we discuss further below.
It seems like every year during the weeks before Remembrance Sunday that some supermarket or shop chain falls foul of the social media bandwagon regarding poppy collecting. Isolated events regarding the treatment of poppy collectors are often twisted and given the “witch-hunt makeover” and used as a catalyst to some attempted national boycott. It’s essentially an October tradition, only not one we should really be that proud of.
Tesco’s, Sainsburys, Ladbrokes, Marks and Spencers, Poundland, Body Shop, Asda and Lidl are but a few chains that have had anti-poppy rumours spread across social media websites, and in nearly all cases turned out to be completely false, misleading or isolated incidents that could have perhaps been avoided with better staff training. However in none of the cases did any of those stores claim to not support the sale of poppies, despite what their respective rumours asserted.
In this latest case involving Morrisons at Taunton, it seems that the message above omits important facts. According to a statement by Morrisons AND a later statement by the RBL themselves, the Royal British Legion collectors were offered space either outside or inside the store next to the checkout. The collectors opted to use the outside space because, according to the RBL statement, it offered a “higher footfall”. Morrisons have also claimed that the elderly veteran in question was not there at this point and joined in the collection effort later in the day.
Of course these are all facts omitted by the penned letter spreading across Facebook and Twitter, since they do not fit in all too well with the sentiment of its message. Read both statements below.
Statement from Morrisons –
Statement from the RBL –
We are grateful to Morrisons, as we are to all commercial outlets, who permit Poppy Appeal collections on their sites throughout the UK and in doing so strengthen our fundraising efforts so the legion can continue to offer vital support and care to the Armed Forces community.
Our collectors will continue to be on site in Morrisons in Taunton until the end of the Poppy Appeal, so please do visit them to make a donation.
Thank you for the support.”
Addtionally Morrison’s have claimed on their Facebook page –
We can confirm that our manager did not know this and therefore his comment re “wrap up warm” is then exceptionally inappropriate and he is very saddened by this.
Morrison’s have since issued an apology to the veteran for the mix up, claiming they were unaware that the collector had changed to an elderly man.
Of course these statements will unlikely do anything to deter the slew of angry comments and intentions to boycott the store. Sites like Facebook and Twitter are the ideal conduit for such misplaced anger, as the social media teams of almost every national chain in the world could tell you at one point or another.
Poppy collecting is an important part of our culture as it lets people commemorate those that have fallen whilst fighting for our nation’s freedom whilst providing support for those veterans that really need it.
However, misleading or false hate-filled messages spreading across the Internet is not really an effective way of commemorating anything. Always do your research first and be especially wary of spreading rumours that only show one side of a very passionate argument.
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I spoke to the manager Stuart at the Taunton branch on Saturday and he made the comment to me that the poppy sellers have been given the option at the back of the store where they wouldn’t get the footfall so they choose to go outside so they needed to wear warmer clothing I asked about the normal position in the foyer he said they had an in store promotion for the loyalty card therefore there wasn’t any room for the seller’s in the foyer and they choose to go outside I asked about bringing Bill the 89 year old veteran in – he said that they had left now there was no remorse from Stuart however I can report that since Morrisons head office got involved through the power of Facebook and Twitter that Morrisons have issued a new statement and on Sunday Bill was back in the foyer with a table and chair and the promotional stand has been moved x
Suggest you update with Morrisons latest statement
I rang the Taunton store after seeing veronica’s post
Suggest that you get your facts right and look at Morrisons latest statement. The store manager in question was inappropriate in his statements & behaviour & was unprepared for a collecting event that he was well aware of.
Morrisons
Yesterday
We have spoken to the British Legion and we attach their post. We have also had a conversation with Veronica – The ex WRAFF lady who raised the issue. Here is our official Morrisons reply
The British Legion in the morning confirmed they wanted to collect outside as per post below. However at lunchtime their volunteer changed to an 89 year old gentleman. This changes everything. We can confirm that our manager did not know this and therefore his comment re “wrap up warm” is then exceptionally inappropriate and he is very saddened by this. We at Morrisons are very sorry at how this misunderstanding has looked, we will of course donate to the British Legion, and will be making a special gift to both Veronica and our 89 year old veteran. Veronica is a very welcome regular in the store and is known by lots of the staff and the store manager and this issue has caused concern to all of them. We spoke to the British Legion this morning and the store have removed a number of static items in the foyer to enable the British Legion to be inside the store. The British Legion and the store are managing this situation together and are both concerned regarding any adverse reaction towards the store. We can confirm that Veronica, The British Legion and Morrisons have worked together to resolve this matter and would ask you to respect their action.
Michelle Paws McClaws Syms
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https://www.facebook.com/Morrisons?fref=ts
The manager should be sacked on the spot. Morrisons should be thoroughly ashamed of the actions of a so- called manager, the trouble is these days managers have little or no experience of life and even less common sense. DJB ex- RAF