A British Asian supermarket has attracted widespread attention after footage appeared to show male and female shoppers forming separate queues during a recent promotional event.
The video, recorded at Masala Bazaar in Romford, east London, 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 a long line of chest freezers, revealing a separate queue of men waiting for the same product on the opposite side.
The footage was taken last month, when the retailer was marking the third anniversary of its east London branch.
On August 28, men and women formed separate lines as shoppers were given bottles of vegetable oil at the supermarket, which specialises in halal meat and South Asian ingredients and has branches across the UK.
Similar queues appeared over the following days. They were again largely divided by gender as staff handed out what appeared to be meat joints and frozen fish.
The store manager told the Daily Mail 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 form a queue during a promotional sale at a supermarket in east London
A separate line of men formed across the aisle, with chest freezers between the two queues
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. In recent decades, however, the town has experienced significant demographic and cultural change.
The so-called ‘white flight’ to neighbouring Essex has coincided with a fall in Romford’s white population, 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 approached for comment on whether shoppers were asked to queue separately by gender.
However, a worker said on social media that customers had not been instructed to stand apart, adding that the store had no policy or religious rule requiring segregated queues.
According to Al Jazeera, he said the arrangement had resulted from ‘severe congestion’ and the large number 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.
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Alongside its Romford supermarket, the company operates branches in Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Swansea and Newport.
Zayuber, the manager of the Romford store, said the two queues had not been deliberately arranged.
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
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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 the Daily Mail that men and women – many of whom were married couples – had stood apart so they could get each get the promotional free goods.