Theoretical discussion on retail encounter

FutureGuy

Hi all.

Theorical situation.

I was limited to purchasing two of a widely available item (both in-store and online).

I was in the middle of a transaction when an assistant manager halted the sale. I asked him why and he said he was limiting me to 2 purchases.

There was no signage to say two per customer anywhere. No staff knew of this.

Someone else bought 10-11 earlier in the day. No other stores have the policy.

Is this discriminatory?

Claw Hammer

FutureGuy wrote: »

Hi all.

Theorical situation.

I was limited to purchasing two of a widely available item (both in-store and online).

I was in the middle of a transaction when an assistant manager halted the sale. I asked him why and he said he was limiting me to 2 purchases.

There was no signage to say two per customer anywhere. No staff knew of this.

Someone else bought 10-11 earlier in the day. No other stores have the policy.

Is this discriminatory?

Unless the limit of two apply to you because you are in one or more of the categories specified under the equality legislation. If it was 2 because you are a man, or are not married for over 70 you would have a case. Otherwise no.

salamiii

was it condoms or toilet paper

go there the next day and buy another two


pay in cash so the manager can't see your purchase history

wear a wig so they don't know you and buy 2 more

FutureGuy

Claw Hammer wrote: »

Unless the limit of two apply to you because you are in one or more of the categories specified under the equality legislation. If it was 2 because you are a man, or are not married for over 70 you would have a case. Otherwise no.

No it’s just me as a person that is getting limited to two. Others are getting as many as they want.

nuac

What was the item?

28064212

Discriminatory? Sounds like it. Illegal? Probably not (based on the very limited information available). Not all discrimination is illegal, in fact most of it isn't.

Peregrinus

FutureGuy wrote: »

No it’s just me as a person that is getting limited to two. Others are getting as many as they want.

Why do you think they are doing this? Whether it's unawful discrimination or not crucially depends on the reason why you are being treated differently from others so, if you are unable to say what that reason was, you do not have a claim for unlawful discrimination.

Bikerman2019

They don't even have to sell you one of the item. Unless you can prove you are being discriminated against due to one of the recognised discrimination reasons, i.e. traveller, disability, gender, etc etc, you have zero case here

kirving

Is it medication, alcohol or scratch cards? The shop would have a duty of care to limit sales to people they believed were being harmed by addition to any of these.

Maybe something potentially scarce like baby formula? After a foreign scandal concerning contaminated baby formula, my local supermarket had to limit sales to prevent stocks being run dry. I'm sure the local crèche owner faced no such limit.

Victor

I saw an incident where someone had bought and paid for a product and was getting ready to leave when a staff member tried to cancel the transaction. That wouldn't be permissible.

eleventh

Is it possible that an online order came through suddenly limiting the stock. This happens online sometimes, if you shop in a sale, if you don't checkout quickly enough, item is taken from your basket. I wonder if same would happen with a queue in the physical shop.
I'd think the assistant should explain though if that had happened.

Peregrinus

Victor wrote: »

I saw an incident where someone had bought and paid for a product and was getting ready to leave when a staff member tried to cancel the transaction. That wouldn't be permissible.

Well, it wouldn't be possible, in the sense that they can't force you to sell the item back to them. But it wouldn't be unlawful discrimination, unless the cancellation attempt directed at you on the basis of your sex, gender, race, or other prohibited ground.

Victor

Peregrinus wrote: »

Well, it wouldn't be possible, in the sense that they can't force you to sell the item back to them. But it wouldn't be unlawful discrimination, unless the cancellation attempt directed at you on the basis of your sex, gender, race, or other prohibited ground.

Apologies, I wasn't clear. The incident I was talking about, the staff member tried to brow beat the customer into returning some of the items. I'm saying the supermarket can't do that to anyone.

Then there is the matter that the customer just happened to be Asian, with poor English.

AngryHippie

was it baby formula ?

truth and logic

I guess the item might be cheap grocery items like home brand bread or things like that, that might be purchased to be sold again in a local cafe for example. I think those items can be loss leaders which means the supermarket don't like to sell them in bulk to cafe owners who resell them for big markup.

There isn't really a rule against it but my local supermarket seems to limit the amount of product on the shelf of their home brand brown bread, which is only 88 cents and is the nicest McCambridges style bread around. I think even hotels might buy it in bulk if the supermarket made it too easy for them.

Also, the customer who bought 11 earlier in the day, .. perhaps he was using Roman numerals!