Article on FB from Ian Lawson. I didn't know this.

LET ME TELL YOU A STORY

In these days when some of the supermarkets are guilty of trying to eliminate the Saltire from their stores let me tell you about how they got there in the first place.

Back in the early 1990’s , along with my friend, now Gil Paterson MSP we decided to carry out a survey of the proportion of Scottish goods sold in Scottish supermarkets. The result of that survey revealed that ASDA at that time stocked the lowest proportion of Scottish Goods. We then wrote to ASDA explaining our findings and asking them to provide proposals to remedy the situation.

All we got at the time was an extremely rude reply telling us they would do what they liked and it was nothing to do with us (we were called THE STOCK SCOTTISH CAMPAIGN)

We then decided to teach them a lesson, a Saturday was picked about a month in advance and we set about arranging activists to picket their stores across Scotland.

Posters were printed and leaflets explaining that a lack of Scottish produce in their stores resulted in fewer Scottish suppliers and jobs here in Scotland. We were greatly aided in this by ASDA’s name which handily became ANTI SCOTTISH DISASTER AREA on posters and their leading advertising slogan “That’s ASDA price” for leaflets explaining if you shopped with them it would be at the price of jobs in Scotland.

The action started at 9 am and in some stores we even had transport available to take shoppers to an alternative store and if necessary run them home afterwards. There was a good reaction from the public with many turning away and going elsewhere but it took on a whole new level when some pensioners started stacking their trolleys with lots of goods but then only wanting to pay for the Scottish goods when they got to the checkout. This was not planned, it just happened and led to big delays and a big job for staff having to return all the unwanted goods to the shelves.

Now I am going to surprise you. GREAT CREDIT TO ASDA. I was getting messages from home from about 10am telling me Asda’s PR company wanted to talk with me very urgently. I did not phone them back until nearly 1pm, they were desperate to get the action called off, they explained the original response was sent back by a “junior” member of staff and should never have been sent. They wanted to meet us on the Monday to discuss what they could do to repair the damage.

We met with them on the Monday and they undertook to greatly increase the proportion of Scottish Goods in their stores. They were as good as their word, a few weeks later thirty buyers from Asda arrived in Scotland and they interviewed hundreds of Scottish companies placing orders worth millions in the process and not just for food either, a Glasgow refrigeration company for instance won a multi million order for refrigeration at a lot of the new stores they were opening.

They went even further, pleased at the purchases they had made they decided to organise a Press Conference to announce what further measures they were taking. A Press Conference I was invited to and participated in.

They announced the ASDA buy Scottish campaign and that henceforth all Scottish goods in their stores would be marked with the Saltire to make it easier for shoppers to identify which goods were Scottish and they introduced their new shopping bag with the Saltire prominently displayed on the front. As food manufacturers were putting the Saltire on the goods they sold to Asda they also put it on all their products. A fresh survey a couple of months later revealed Asda had moved from last position to second top. A result worth a huge amount of money to the Scottish economy.

I mention this story as a suggestion because there is often a feeling that we can do very little when big companies act against our interests, Cineworld and the Robert the Bruce being the latest incident. The truth is we can do a lot and very quickly give them massive problems if our action is properly planned and supported by our activists. What would Cineworld do if leafleters turned up at all their cinemas in Scotland urging people to boycott them? They don’t have so many locations and could be easily done.

Finally in the early nineties, the SNP activist hadn’t seen many victories, the people who took part in the STOCK SCOTTISH CAMPAIGN DID, it was great for morale.