Checkout worker accused of ‘blatantly insulting’ customers– just because they wore a Pride T-shirt
(L) a T-shirt similar to the one the cashier was wearing, (R) the Tesco in Falmouth that has been attacked online (Amazon/Google Street View)
A Tesco Express store in Cornwall is facing criticism for allowing a cashier to wear a Pride-themed T-shirt that upset locals claim “blatantly and openly insult[s] customers”.
The Falmouth shop’s customer base kicked off on X/Twitter after the cashier was pictured wearing a T-shirt featuring a trans-flag-coloured slogan that read “sisters not cisters”.
It’s thought they were wearing it following a Cornwall Pride event.
In a post that tagged the supermarket, one X user, who appears to have instigated the complaints, questioned why the cashier was wearing the top. “Is it corporate policy to blatantly and openly insult customers?” they asked.
The user commented under their own post to again directly ask Tesco “why would that be allowed by your staff?”
Another complained that the Falmouth of their childhood – “full of fishermen and rugged beautiful Cornish folk” – has been replaced with a “cesspit of middle-class artists, obnoxious students and morally impotent cultists”.
Someone else, who described the T-shirt as “deeply offensive”, claimed they’d “complain on the spot”.
In 2019, Cornwall was named the worst place to live in the UK if you are transgender, although at the time that was vigorously disputed by the LGBTQ+ community who actually live there.
Speaking in 2019, Pixie Swarbrick, co-founder and chair of Safe Haven (an organisation that supports trans people in Cornwall) said: “I don’t think Cornwall is any less accepting than anywhere else and certainly not from what we have found.
“I have spoken to people who don’t understand. You meet people who have never come across the issue and it is hard to get your head around it when you have never come across it. It’s just not in their life bubble.
“Unless you talk to people and have experienced it, people just automatically don’t like what they don’t understand.”
Tesco told PinkNews that everyone is welcome at its stores and the company is committed to creating an “inclusive workplace that celebrates the diversity of colleagues and customers”.
A spokesperson added that staff are expected to follow the dress code policy and wear clothes appropriate for their roles.
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