The bandit labelers struck again on Saturday 22nd November. Yet despite the emergence of a pattern in such matters, the staff of the Sainsburys in central Plymouth seemed oblivious to the labeler’s presence. Five undercover customers efficiently stickered almost every item in the cheese range, and the dairy section as a whole was liberally covered.

When all available labels had been exhausted the cavalry appeared in the form of a large pink and purple cow and a woman dressed as a mutant maize plant. They wandered up and down the store handing leaflets to customers and soon developed an entourage of shop staff, security and managers. It had been hoped that local media would have been around to capture the surealness of the moment, but it seems Saturday is a bad day for them, and we hadn’t given much notice.

While staff stood round the duo waiting for the police to arrive and remove them, several customers made a point of coming over and thanking them for what they were doing, and asking them for leaflets. And they weren’t people involved in the action! The cow and maize politely left when the police asked them to and there was no further trouble.

Meanwhile leafleting was occurring in the bowels of the multistory car park. One enterprising protester placed himself next to the car parks ticket machine. The barriers were conveniently designed so that drivers couldn’t quite reach the emerging ticket, so he stood in the gap and passed the slip to the grateful drivers, accompanied by a leaflet if they were interested. When the manager was approach by one of the more senior protesters and asked about their use of GM animal feed to the cattle that produce their own brand products he flatly denied that Sainsburys did so. Though he refused to put this assurance in writing.

From their comments to a journalist who covered the previous two weeks actions it seems their general line is- ‘we can’t ban the use of GM feed because we are “concerned about adverse economic effects on farmers” (GM free feed costs a little more than unsegregated). Which is pretty obscene when you consider the amount creamed off in profits by all the supermarkets on milk at the moment- a litre currently retails at 60p. Dairy farmers get paid 16-17p per litre. The Co op and Marks and Spencer have proved that it’s perfectly possible to provide non GM produced milk without making farmers or consumers shoulder the financial burden. They really don’t have a leg to stand on with this one.


Bandit labelers strike again!
Togg, 15.11.2003 15:08

In an escalation of tactics and counter reprisals from Sainsbury's, labelers get banned from store and shelves are immediately searched on mass for stickers. Meanwhile managers stand by in dismay as protesters decamp to the roundabout leading into the store and leaflet hundreds of shoppers queuing to get into their car park.

Four concerned consumers entered the Torquay branch of Sainsburys this Saturday (the 15th) and applied warning stickers to their own brand meat and dairy products. Three years ago Sainsburys promised to phase out the practice of feeding GM to the animals which make their own brand products, and leaving them unlabeled. Along with the other major retailers (apart from Marks and Spencer and the Co op) they haven’t yet done so.

The action followed on from a similar event last week, and security was soon overheard discussing the presence of activists in the store. Two of them were then identified and given a verbal banning from Sainsburys (although the normal procedure for banning entails completion of a form, which never materialized). Such was their level of panic that staff were called to start searching through the labeled meat and dairy shelves before all the protesters had left the aisles.

The four then regrouped in the carpark to decide what to do next. Security and management approached them and asked them all to leave, refusing a comment for the record on why they were censoring the labeling of their products. Attempts were made by one of the group to give out leaflets in the car park, and security staff became quite aggressive and pushed them off site. On seeing this a person who introduced himself as an off duty police officer, approached them and explained that the public had a right to freedom of expression in a public place and the car park, because it provides a public service, and had a different legal status to the inside of the store. On hearing this security allowed leafleting to continue. Meanwhile the others set up their banner at the roundabout entrance to the shop, and started leafleting the customers driving in and out of the car park. Being Saturday morning the traffic was heavy to the point of gridlock, and so a steady stream of shoppers were happy to wind their windows down as they passed and collect some information to read while they queued for parking space.

Apparently unnoticed by the store for an hour or so they eventually came to the attention of management, who came out as an army of seven or so flustered staff supervisors, deputy managers, and. senior management. They watched from a distance and called the police. Who turned out to be one female copper who only ate organic and wasn’t sure if the group was contravening traffic laws or not. As there were only six or so leaflets left anyway (out of an original pile of two hundred), the group decided to call it a day. They left to the gratifying sounds of the police officer trying to explain to a rather shocked and distinguished looking shopper that, although the staff were behaving rudely to the protesters, she couldn’t do anything about


See below for last weeks action...


Sainsbury’s in Newton Abbott received some help with it’s labeling today, when a couple of people from the Totnes Genetics Group used stickers to warn their customers about the supermarkets use of GM feed to rear their meat and dairy products.

Three years ago all the major retailers made promises to phase out their use of GM as a feed for the animals that produce their products. Only the Co-op and Marks and Spencer have so far done so, and because there is no obligation to label such meat and dairy products, most of their customers are unaware of the practice. Over 80% of GM crops worldwide are grown for animal feed, because of the widespread public reluctance to eat GM foods directly. The GM seeds that the government wants to approve as Britain’s first commercial GM crop are maize for cattle fodder.

The pair discreetly labeled as many products as possible with basic information, sticking them over the barcode in many cases, to ensure both the customers and the store were made aware of them. They then went outside and did an hour or so leafleting, encouraging customers to take the matter up with the manager.