Discount for teachers and NHS staff.

janeainsworth

I agree with you Missfoodlove.
Whenever discounts are given to any particular group, whether it’s pensioners, students, or whoever, it means that other customers are paying more.
It certainly isn’t the company donating to these groups from the goodness of their hearts.
It’s effectively forcing other people to contribute to the company’s apparent largesse, and the customers who are making the contributions may well be in a less favourable financial situation than the beneficiaries.

Agree Janeainsworth!

It's one thing for large supermarkets to give discounts to NHS staff but small businesses can be struggling enough to keep going as it is. I know of some who have had to say that no they can't offer a discount to NHS staff much though they would like to. Margins are tight enough and some are just trying to keep going from week to week.

janeainsworth

I agree with you Missfoodlove.
Whenever discounts are given to any particular group, whether it’s pensioners, students, or whoever, it means that other customers are paying more.
It certainly isn’t the company donating to these groups from the goodness of their hearts.
It’s effectively forcing other people to contribute to the company’s apparent largesse, and the customers who are making the contributions may well be in a less favourable financial situation than the beneficiaries.

Well that’s true of bus passes and free prescriptions isn’t it? If we use the example of Seasalt it’s hardly the poor and dispossessed shopping there at full price is it? And in fact, SS always has sales and special offers etc to which the discount doesn’t apply. Last year ( when their discount was 20%) my dd realised it was cheaper not to use the discount offer. Another point is that if it does increase sales, it helps to keep people in work.

I thought there were interesting issues about Eat Out to Help Out and who was subsidising who in some cases. My local Michelin * restaurant used the scheme. I can’t believe that one extra meal was bought for the sake of £10 saving.

No one thinks for one minute that companies do this selflessly Makes you wonder what those who give the PM £15,000 freebie holidays for t for doesn’t it?

Yes, suziewoozie, I thought the Seasalt example was interesting. A successful company in a county (Cornwall) where many residents are some of the most deprived in the UK. How about giving 50% off to fishermens' wives who are out delivering catch all day? Sometimes companies forget who or what it was that made them successful in the first place.

I agree with Missfoodlove - I don’t need a discount on my shopping on my salary as a teacher, so I don’t claim it. But ‘teachers’ encompasses a wide range of incomes and circumstances.

I know some teachers on lower salaries who are the only earner in their family at present, and I know that they would struggle to make ends meet without this discount. Likewise, I have colleagues a good deal better off than I who shamelessly claim every discount going.

Morrison’s is offering the discount for teaching assistants as well. Now they ARE underpaid.

Well that’s true of bus passes and free prescriptions isn’t it
suzie In the sense that taxpayers subsidise public services, yes. But most taxpayers take out of the system as well as pay into it.

But we’re not talking about public services here. Seasalt and Morrison’s are businesses and they are choosing to redistribute money from one section of their customer base to another.

I’m not commenting on the morality of it, or who is more deserving of these companies’ supposed beneficence.

I’m just pointing out that there’s no such thing as a free lunch.
Whether it’s a good business move to attract new business by charging your existing customers more is open to question.

So, I guess they're all using it as a marketing opportunity to get their names out there.

Ohmother Indeed they are!

It's a bit of a fallacy that teachers are on high salaries these days. When I joined the profession, indeed, wages were good. But there are less and less teachers around on those wages now and newly qualified teachers don't earn much at all, when you consider the hours they work.

Is Morrisons trying to slightly change their target market too?

There have been discounts for months and months across a whole range of businesses for a range of staff - not just NHS, and teaching but other emergency workers. I just don’t get why people are so critical about the workings of a market economy. Cross subsidisation. occurs in a huge variety of ways in our society but it’s the wealthy that do best out of the rest of us. These discounts in the great scheme of the inequalities in our society are really nothing and being sour about them is just evidence of how fooled so many people are by what are the real issues facing us. We keep falling into the old trap of blaming each other for our economic woes whilst the tax avoiders and recipients of government largesse laugh all the way to their off shore banks.

GagaJo

It's a bit of a fallacy that teachers are on high salaries these days. When I joined the profession, indeed, wages were good. But there are less and less teachers around on those wages now and newly qualified teachers don't earn much at all, when you consider the hours they work.

Is Morrisons trying to slightly change their target market too?

Fewer and fewer.

Jealousy of each other is what keeps this country from being truly great. If we could only stop seeing everything as an "us and them" situation and realise we are all in this together then we might be able to move forward.

GrannyRose15

Jealousy of each other is what keeps this country from being truly great. If we could only stop seeing everything as an "us and them" situation and realise we are all in this together then we might be able to move forward.

No jealousy of each other and blaming each other ( eg I’m poor because Morrison’s give discounts to NHS staff/teachers) is exactly what the establishment in this country encourages and manipulates. It stops us putting the blame where it really belongs ie on them

Exactly Suzie. We could stand united, but the powers that be prefer to keep the proles divided.

Where did jealousy come in to this.
It is about people who need the most help.

Missfoodlove

Where did jealousy come in to this.
It is about people who need the most help.

No it’s not - it’s about teachers/NHS not deserving it with no mention of the structural inequalities in our society

No it’s not - it’s about teachers/NHS not deserving it with no mention of the structural inequalities in our society

That’s your interpretation suzie.
I interpreted the OP not as a suggestion that teachers didn’t deserve a discount but that there were others, particularly in a city like Hull, who were struggling financially much more than most teachers would be.

‘Miss Foodlove’, I can assure you the GP will not be using his discount to fill his wine rack. My son is a frontline worker in Morrisons and as such is entitled to a staff discount. The discount, and I am sure this applies to teachers and NHS staff as well cannot be used towards the purchase of alcohol.

Grannynannywanny

Missfoodlove

I know a doctor that would have no shame in stocking his wine racks with the discount

There are lots of things it can’t be used on, including alcohol.

my.morrisons.com/nhs/

Actually if the doctor lives in England then he will be able to fill his wine rack, but not his spirits cupboard. It's only in Wales and Scotland no alcohol is allowed.

3. Discount is not valid on Fuel, Spirits (England), All alcohol (Scotland and Wales), Tobacco, Lottery products, Gift Vouchers & Cards, Infant/Formula Milk, Cash-back, Dry Cleaning, Fireworks, Online Games & Instant Tickets, Photo Printing, Saver Stamps, Postage Stamps, ‘Top-Up’ Mobile Phone Cards, & Pharmacy.

oops forgot this copy and paste from Granny's link

janeainsworth

^No it’s not - it’s about teachers/NHS not deserving it with no mention of the structural inequalities in our society^

That’s your interpretation suzie.
I interpreted the OP not as a suggestion that teachers didn’t deserve a discount but that there were others, particularly in a city like Hull, who were struggling financially much more than most teachers would be.

But the answer to this does not lie in Morrisons giving them a discount does it? Hence my comment about structural inequalities. Let’s see if the govt take away the UC £20pw

Let's see if the govt take away the UC £20pw

I really hope this doesn't happen. People are struggling as it is.

AGAA4

*Let's see if the govt take away the UC £20pw*

I really hope this doesn't happen. People are struggling as it is.

General rule of thumb - those who resent and criticise public sector workers will often demonstrate negative attitudes towards those on benefits.

But the answer to this does not lie in Morrisons giving them a discount does it?

I never said it was, Suzie.
All I said was that Morrisons was effectively taxing its customers, some of whom were almost certainly struggling financially, in order to subsidise teachers and NHS staff.

It's the job of government to redistribute wealth, not the job of supermarkets. Just because the government isn't doing that to our satisfaction, it doesn't justify the supermarkets doing the job for them.