‘I can buy alcohol, but not sanitary pads?’: Shoppers rage during Wales’ COVID-19 firebreak

Confusion reigns in Wales as first days of COVID-19 ‘firebreak’ sees shoppers barred from purchasing items such as hygiene products.

Access to non-essential items is blocked off in a Tesco supermarket in Cardiff, Wales. Picture: Getty Images

To the women of Wales, words from Mark Drakeford, the Wales First Minister, were meant to be reassuring.

“There is no rule against supermarkets selling period products, or any other product which is sold in a pharmacy/chemist,” he urgently tweeted.

The problem was, women had been unable to purchase tampons and sanitary pads, at least at the Tesco supermarket in St Mellons north east of the Welsh capital Cardiff.

They were boarded off behind a metal barricade. Staff at the store refused women to purchase the products, telling them they were non-essential.

When one customer complained on social media that she could buy alcohol but not sanitary products, Tesco responded: “We understand how frustrating these changes are for our Welsh customers, however we have been told by the Welsh government not to sell these items during the firebreak lockdown.”

This is wrong - period products are essential.

Supermarkets can still sell items that can be sold in pharmacies.

Only selling essential items during firebreak is to discourage spending more time than necessary in shops. It should not stop you accessing items that you need.

— Welsh Government (@WelshGovernment) October 26, 2020

Wales last Friday began a highly controversial 17-day full lockdown, quaintly termed a “firebreak”, because officials there believed denying people the chance to shop for non-essential items, closing schools and banning social meetings between households would control the virus.

Wales has had a spike of cases: on Monday the death toll rose by six and the number of cases rose by 1,150.

But in messages reminiscent of communist Soviet Union and East Germany, and totalitarian regimes like North Korea, Welsh shops now can only sell food and other items that are deemed “essential”.

The backlash to such micromanagement and abuse of civil liberties by the devolved Welsh government has been fierce.

We’ll be reviewing how the weekend has gone with the supermarkets and making sure that common sense is applied. Supermarkets can sell anything that can be sold in any other type of shop that isn't required to close. In the meantime, please only leave home if you need to.

— Mark Drakeford (@fmwales) October 24, 2020

Since the government’s edict there have been furious complaints about items such as baby clothes, light bulbs, carbon monoxide monitors and bedding being placed behind plastic sheeting and big yellow no go signs. Sales of books and magazines and DVDs, perhaps considered essential by some when people can’t go out, have been banned. Whole aisles are barricaded.

So “Katie” quite rightfully complained: “Can you explain why I was told today I can’t buy period pads as I am sure they are essential to women. But I can buy alcohol, it doesn’t make sense.”

It turns out that while the store and the company said they couldn’t sell the sanitary products because of the government’s decree, the company quickly backtracked and blamed a robbery the night before for way they had cordoned off the female products.

No access … a Tesco supermarket in Cardiff, Wales. Picture: Getty Images

Mr Drakeford had said on the weekend that stores would have some discretion about what they sold but stressed: “Non-essential goods are not allowed to be sold over the next two weeks. That’s why there are hundreds of shops the length and breadth of Wales are closed. The underlying issue is not about shopping, it is about saving lives.”

But the Tory MP and Secretary of State for Wales Simon Hart, has urged common sense. He tweeted: “The Wales-wide rejection of First Minister Mark Drakeford’s decision to police our shopping baskets means only one thing. Well intentioned or simply bossy, I hope he swallows his political pride, scraps the policy and trusts Wales to have a little common sense.”