Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘Asda’

Jeremy Hardy on the CofE

Posted in Church, Fun, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on 26 September, 2009| 6 Comments »

I was listening to Radio 4’s ‘The News Quiz’ on BBC iPlayer earlier this evening. As usual, it was laugh-out-loud funny, but I especially enjoyed a section about 12 minutes in. It was about the dear old Church of England and some of the activities of bishops in the run-up to Back to Church Sunday, especially the Bishop of Reading’s remark that Jesus would be more likely to shop at Aldi or Asda rather than Marks and Spencer.

Jeremy Hardy summed up the English experience of cultural Christianity quite well:

I was raised in the Church of England. I can’t say I’m lapsed. You can’t really lapse if you’re an Anglican. You don’t lose your faith, you just can’t remember where you left it.

Another panelist remarked:

He would shop at Aldi…. Jesus saves.

If you want to listen for yourself it will be available on iPlayer until Friday 2nd October.

Read Full Post »

Lads Mags in the Church Times

Posted in Lads mags, tagged , , , , , , , , , on 28 February, 2009| Leave a Comment »

For those of you who don’t subscribe to the Church Times (which I confess includes me and the Vicar), their article about my success in getting a local Asda to move lads mags to the top shelf can now be seen on the web.

I think the cartoonist has captured my furious look rather well. I did wonder when they phoned me up what they were going to do about a photo.

Don’t forget to complain to customer services yourself if you see these magazines displayed inappropriately.

Read Full Post »

Complaining – more press interest

Posted in Family, Lads mags, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on 17 February, 2009| 1 Comment »

In the midst of piling clothes into big boxes and hunting for missing library books, I had a phone call from the Church Times yesterday afternoon.

They’d been reading the article about my success in getting lads mags put on the top shelf in a local Asda store and were interested to know more about my ‘campaign’. I hadn’t had it in mind to start one, but somehow it seems to be launching itself.

One of the things I said to the CT reporter was that complaining to your local supermarket about the display of lads mags isn’t difficult. You can do it verbally or in writing in a couple of minutes at the customer services desk.

The supermarkets need to know that most people buying their groceries don’t want to see these magazines and particularly don’t want them shown to their children, or anyone’s children for that matter. The supermarkets also need to know that consumers are prepared to take their custom elsewhere if these displays are not changed.

It has also struck me that it is likely that far more supermarket customers  are mothers and others concerned with preserving the innocence of childhood than buyers of lads mags. Consumer power could win this argument.

Read Full Post »

Complaining – in the paper!

Posted in Family, Kids, Lads mags, Wolverhampton, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on 13 February, 2009| 3 Comments »

The success of my complaint to Asda about their lads’ mags display was written up in our local paper this week. The article was pretty fair, although I’d hardly call a five minute queue at customer services and a five line complaint a ‘battle’, as they headlined it.

As the Express and Star have an online version people have the opportunity to comment. The commentators seem to fall into two camps – the ‘good on yer’ set and the ‘you’re a prude, haven’t you got anything better to do with your time, you leech on society you’ group.

So far, all the ‘vicar’s wife=prude’ comments have been from men. Interesting, but sadly not that surprising.

Meanwhile, my friend Mrs Starcook has complained about the same thing in the Wolverhampton Asda. They, however, phoned her and said they couldn’t do anything about the position of the magazines because ‘head office decide where everything is placed’. Sounds like buck-passing to me. The Asda I went into didn’t have the same problem.

Maybe they just need a few more people to complain. Any takers?

Read Full Post »

Complaining – an update

Posted in Family, Lads mags, tagged , , , , , , on 9 February, 2009| 3 Comments »

The other day I had a surprising comment on my blog. I’ve not approved it for reading because it was from a reporter!

She’d read my story about my success in complaining to a local Asda store and wanted to write it up for our local paper.

On Friday night I was out with friends for the first farewell of many (we’re moving to the Vicarage very shortly). As I told them about the paper’s interest, Mrs Discoman commented that she never took her children down the magazine aisle because of the lads mags on display.

Another friend announced that she would be going into a local Asda and doing exactly the same thing as I had – putting the complaint in writing and indicating that a lack of action would affect her shopping habits ie that she would no longer patronise the store. So it seems that the campaign is spreading already!

The reporter I spoke to wanted to write about how I’d had success with my complaint, so she’s going to interview me properly in the next few days and send a photographer round.

Hence the hair appointment.

Read Full Post »

Complaining Works!

Posted in Kids, Lads mags, tagged , , , , , , , on 13 January, 2009| 4 Comments »

Asda logo

I had a letter in the post today which cheered me a little. It was an apology from the manager of the Asda store which I’d shopped in for the first time on New Year’s Eve. He wasn’t apologising about the shocking queues in there, but then I’d not actually complained about that.

I had complained about their magazine displays.

We were hurtling around the shop trying to find a few sandwiches for lunch after a morning trying to sort out things in the vicarage we’ll be moving to at half term. We took a short cut down the magazine aisle and I was horrified to see the display of ‘Lads’ Mags’.

The store had a full shelving stack of FHM, Nutz and the like, with their glossy covers of buxom naked women. Because they had so many of these mags, they had them handily diplayed right at the height where my kids could get a full eyeful.

Now, I would really prefer it if these magazines were not produced, sold or desired by their readers. However, given that this is the case, I feel strongly that they should displayed out of the eyesight of the under-18s. Hence my complaint to the manager of Asda. The over-sexualisation of children in our society is a worry to many and surely this sort of display must make a contribution.

So I was pleased that he wrote to me, apologised and told me that he has arranged for ‘the magazines in question to be moved up to the top shelf to avoid any other issues’.

Seems like it’s worth complaining. Maybe I should start a campaign?

Read Full Post »

%d bloggers like this: