Retailer refused to sell goods because they wanted them for other customers

dktreesea

timbo58 wrote: »

Amazingly a retailer can refuse to sell anything to anybody if they so wish.

A shop offering goods whether in the store, window or an advert is 'offering to treat' as long as both parties (the potential buyer and the shopkeeper) agree what form the exchange will be.
If either don't agree there is no sale.

What this means is you cannot force a retailer to sell you anything anymore than they can force you to buy anything.

As long as it isn't obvious discrimination there's nothing you can do, apart from the obvious: refuse to shop there again.

Refusing to shop somewhere can be quite costly if the nearest location to the store selling what you are seeking to buy is 20 or 30 miles away. Not all retailers proliferate the high streets in the way of a business like Greggs.

And the discrimination couldn't be more obvious when the manager says the limit is X, sells to me and then refuses to sell to the person who was in the store with me who was also seeking to buy the same item but alas was not of the "right" ethnic persuasion." It was SO blatant. As soon as the guy with me tried to buy the items I was told he couldn't buy them (he wasn't even addressed directly; it was disgusting) because we were "one customer" just because we came into the shop together.

The particular shop is situated in quite a "white" area. This isn't quite like shopping somewhere like London where you'ld have to come from another planet before people would notice the difference in looks, much less react to it adversely. I took the whole incident to be the manager's way of saying "you don't belong in this area. This is Christmas, a time for Christians, not for the likes of you. P1ss off." to the guy who was with me. He knew what we wanted the goods for. Indeed, so did at least one of his staff. We buy these kind of goods seasonally.

mattyprice4004

dktreesea wrote: »

Refusing to shop somewhere can be quite costly if the nearest location to the store selling what you are seeking to buy is 20 or 30 miles away. Not all retailers proliferate the high streets in the way of a business like Greggs.

And the discrimination couldn't be more obvious when the manager says the limit is X, sells to me and then refuses to sell to the person who was in the store with me who was also seeking to buy the same item but alas was not of the "right" ethnic persuasion." It was SO blatant. As soon as the guy with me tried to buy the items I was told he couldn't buy them (he wasn't even addressed directly; it was disgusting) because we were "one customer" just because we came into the shop together.

The particular shop is situated in quite a "white" area. This isn't quite like shopping somewhere like London where you'ld have to come from another planet before people would notice the difference in looks, much less react to it adversely. I took the whole incident to be the manager's way of saying "you don't belong in this area. This is Christmas, a time for Christians, not for the likes of you. P1ss off." to the guy who was with me. He knew what we wanted the goods for. Indeed, so did at least one of his staff. We buy these kind of goods seasonally.

So? None of that is relevant, what matters is that a retailer can choose to sell or not to sell to whoever they want.

If I refused to serve all Chinese people one day but didn't give a reason, who's to say it's because they're Chinese?

It's their choice, I'm afraid you're not going to get an answer in your favour.

notanewuser

dktreesea wrote: »

Refusing to shop somewhere can be quite costly if the nearest location to the store selling what you are seeking to buy is 20 or 30 miles away. Not all retailers proliferate the high streets in the way of a business like Greggs.

And the discrimination couldn't be more obvious when the manager says the limit is X, sells to me and then refuses to sell to the person who was in the store with me who was also seeking to buy the same item but alas was not of the "right" ethnic persuasion." It was SO blatant. As soon as the guy with me tried to buy the items I was told he couldn't buy them (he wasn't even addressed directly; it was disgusting) because we were "one customer" just because we came into the shop together.

The particular shop is situated in quite a "white" area. This isn't quite like shopping somewhere like London where you'ld have to come from another planet before people would notice the difference in looks, much less react to it adversely. I took the whole incident to be the manager's way of saying "you don't belong in this area. This is Christmas, a time for Christians, not for the likes of you. P1ss off." to the guy who was with me. He knew what we wanted the goods for. Indeed, so did at least one of his staff. We buy these kind of goods seasonally.

Wow. There are no limits to the depths you'll go, are there?

dacouch

ellies_angel wrote: »

my local costcutter will let you have as many as you want of a special offer. You just tell them and they bring it out of the back (so you aren't clearing the shelves).

My local costcutter has just been sold to co op, I wish he hadn't as co op have put the prices up, have less stock and do not have a patch on him as to how to effeciently run a shop.

He got £30m for 8 shops, so good luck to him, I just wish he had not sold my local one

Hintza

So why not just order online?

Although not relevant are you buying for a business?

jumpedtheshark

dktreesea wrote: »

Refusing to shop somewhere can be quite costly if the nearest location to the store selling what you are seeking to buy is 20 or 30 miles away. Not all retailers proliferate the high streets in the way of a business like Greggs.

And the discrimination couldn't be more obvious when the manager says the limit is X, sells to me and then refuses to sell to the person who was in the store with me who was also seeking to buy the same item

Why did the two of you feel the need to split the purchase between you? It sounds like you knew you were buying a heck of a lot of the item, so thought it would be less cheeky if you split it.

but alas was not of the "right" ethnic persuasion." It was SO blatant. As soon as the guy with me tried to buy the items I was told he couldn't buy them (he wasn't even addressed directly; it was disgusting) because we were "one customer" just because we came into the shop together.

You have no evidence for any of that, and it's a very serious accusation. If you were the manager and one half of a couple practically bought out an item, then the other half tried to finish off the rest, you might very well refuse to sell to the second person. Nothing to do with ethnicity. I bet the same would have happened whichever of you had gone first, so you should withdraw your accusation.

The particular shop is situated in quite a "white" area. This isn't quite like shopping somewhere like London where you'ld have to come from another planet before people would notice the difference in looks, much less react to it adversely. I took the whole incident to be the manager's way of saying "you don't belong in this area. This is Christmas, a time for Christians, not for the likes of you. P1ss off." to the guy who was with me. He knew what we wanted the goods for. Indeed, so did at least one of his staff. We buy these kind of goods seasonally.

Absolutely no evidence again. It sounds much more like you have a problem than that the manager does.

somethingcorporate

You have absolutely zero evidence it was discrimination of any kind. You are wasting your time here.

Enfieldian

You need to get off your high horse called paranoia OP.

It sounds like management got fed up with you clearing the shelves of stock, being greedy and making them look bad for not having stock for other customers.

Perhaps you should consider opening an account at Costco, Makro or another wholesaler?

zzzLazyDaisy

OP, not all discrimination is unlawful.

Unless you were discriminated against on the grounds of your sex, race, disability, or some other unlawful form of discrimination, the manager was perfectly entitled to refuse to sell the goods to you and does not have to give a reason. Yes you may feel it was unfair, you may feel humiliated and discriminated against, but that still does not make the managers actions unlawful.

pmduk

I've been on the other side of this, left without bread because a local restaurant cleared the shelves of bread. 3 trolleys full. OP perhaps there'd been complaints about your mass buying?