A British Asian supermarket has attracted widespread attention online after footage appeared to show men and women forming separate queues during a recent promotional event.
The video, recorded at Masala Bazaar in Romford, shows women—many wearing traditional Muslim clothing—standing with children on one side of the store as they waited to collect cooking oil.
The camera then moves across the east London supermarket, revealing a separate line of men on the opposite side of a long row of chest freezers. They were waiting for the same product.
Masala Bazaar specialises in halal meat, as well as South Asian food products and ingredients, and runs stores in several locations across the UK.
The footage was filmed last month as the retailer marked the third anniversary of the opening of its east London branch.
On August 28, male and female shoppers formed separate lines while staff handed out bottles of vegetable oil.
Similar queues appeared over the following days. Shoppers were again largely divided by gender as workers distributed what appeared to be joints of meat and frozen fish.
The store manager told Our News Outlet today: ‘We told customers they needed to line up, but we can’t control them. People automatically started queuing with the men on one side and the women on the other. After about a minute, everyone was back together.’
Women queue during a promotional sale at a supermarket in east London
A second queue of men formed across the aisle, separated by chest freezers
Two days later, shoppers again formed gender-separated queues during a fish promotion
Romford was once regarded as one of London’s best-known white working-class areas, but the town has experienced major demographic and cultural changes in recent decades.
The so-called ‘white flight’ to neighbouring Essex has coincided with the town’s white population falling from 95.2 per cent in 2001 to 75.3 per cent today. During the same period, the share of residents identifying as Asian increased from 2.1 per cent to 10.7 per cent.
Masala Bazaar’s head office has been asked to comment on whether shoppers were intentionally queuing separately by gender.
However, a worker said on social media that customers had not been told to separate and that the store had no policy or religious rule requiring segregated queues.
According to Al Jazeera, he said the arrangement resulted from ‘severe congestion’ and the ‘large turnout of customers’ drawn by the anniversary promotions.
In a message to customers on social media, he wrote: ‘Peace be upon you. On behalf of the store, I would like to extend my sincere thanks to everyone. We would like to apologise for any mistakes or shortcomings that occurred during the organisation of this event. We thank you all for your patience.’
Masala Bazaar is owned by Euro Foods Group, which was founded by Bangladeshi-born British entrepreneur Shelim Hussain. His fortune is estimated at £105million.
Alongside the Romford branch, the company operates supermarkets in Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Swansea and Newport.
Zayuber, the Romford store manager, maintained that the two queues were not deliberately organised.
He said: ‘It was so overcrowded in here for the third anniversary. At events like this, we have a “power hour” where we give out free gifts, so everyone wants them.
‘It was chaos and people were trying to take more than they should. We told customers they needed to line up, but we can’t control them.
‘People automatically started queuing with the men on one side and the women on the other. After about a minute, everyone was back together.’
Staff were handing out cooking oil to customers as Masala Bazaar celebrated its third birthday
Another store worker said the videos were filmed during celebrations marking the store’s third anniversary, held between August 26 and 31.
There were no signs instructing customers to form separate queues for men and women.
He said: ‘We were giving away oil, fish, quiche, grapes and biscuits. It was extremely busy.
‘There were simply too many people gathering around, so we had to create two queues to hand out the food more efficiently.
‘The men stood with the men and the women with the women. We didn’t tell anyone where to stand. They formed the queues themselves.’
One woman, who has lived in Romford all her life and works at a local gym, said: ‘The size of the queues would put me off going there anyway. I’ve never seen anything like that in another shop.’
Social media users who shared the footage expressed concern about the apparent separation of customers.
One wrote: ‘Nobody passed a law saying England would adopt sex-segregated queues.’
Another shopper told Our News Outlet that men and women – many of whom were married couples – had stood apart so they could get each get the promotional free goods.
