Asian Supermarket Faces Scrutiny Over Gender-Segregated Queues During Sale

A supermarket in east London has drawn attention after footage emerged appearing to show separate queues for men and women during a promotional sale for cooking oil. The video, filmed at Masala Bazaar in Romford, depicted women and children queuing on one side of the store, while men formed a separate line on the other side, divided by chest freezers.

The incident occurred during celebrations for the east London branch's third anniversary, which took place between August 26 and August 31. Similar gender-divided queues were also observed in the following days for promotions involving meat and fish.

Store management stated that the segregated queues were not intentional or a result of any policy or religious rule. A worker explained that the arrangement arose organically due to "severe congestion" and a "large turnout of customers" attracted by the anniversary offers. According to the store manager, Zayuber, the queues were initially divided as shoppers automatically gravitated towards others of the same gender, but "after about a minute, everyone was back together."

Another employee elaborated that the queues were formed to manage the large crowd more efficiently, saying, "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."

The Euro Foods Group, which owns Masala Bazaar, was founded by Bangladeshi-born British entrepreneur Shelim Hussain. The company operates supermarkets across the UK, including branches in Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Swansea, and Newport.

Romford, historically a predominantly white working-class area, has experienced significant demographic shifts in recent decades. The proportion of residents identifying as Asian has risen, while the white population has decreased.

Social media users who shared the footage expressed a range of views, with some voicing concern about the apparent segregation. Comments included observations about the UK adopting "sex-segregated queues" and stating that "Gender segregation has no place here."

One local resident described the scene as "chaos" due to the large number of people, but acknowledged the demographic changes in the area, noting, "You don't see many English people about now, whereas a few years ago it would have been mostly English people. It's completely changed."