FairPrice brand sentiments sink in the wake of Ramadan incident

NTUC FairPrice has issued an apology to a Muslim couple after a member of its staff insisted that complementary snacks in the supermarket meant for Muslim customers was not meant for "India".

The couple, Farah Nadya and her husband, Jahabar Shalih, were at an NTUC FairPrice outlet at Our Tampines Hub when they saw a stand offering free snacks to Muslim shoppers observing Ramadan, according to a Facebook post by Nadya on 9 April. However, as they stood there reading the signboard at the stand, a FairPrice staff member approached Shalih and reportedly began saying, "Not for India, not for India."

The staff member then said that they could not take the snacks and said, "go away."

Stunned, Shalih tried to explain that not all Malays are Muslim and that some Indians can also be Muslims. Unfortunately, according to Nadya, the staff member retorted that he has "no education" and that he was doing as he was told from the "top people". The staff member repeated that they should "just go away".

Nadya concluded her post by saying that the incident was "incredibly distasteful" and that they were very shocked. She clarified that her husband is Indian-Muslim and that she is Malay-Indian and that they are both Muslims. She added that they were not even planning to take the free goodies but were rather just hoping to "applaud such an inclusive initiative".

Nadya added that this is 2023 and that she hoped things could be done better. 

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When MARKETING-INTERACTIVE reached out, FairPrice said that it is aware of the post circulating on social media and that it takes the matter seriously and would like to apologise for the incident.  It added that it has since counselled its employee accordingly.

"We would like to clarify that Iftar Packs are offered free of charge to all Muslim customers during the month-long Ramadan period. This is the 15th year we are running this community initiative where we offer our Muslim customers dates and refreshments 30 minutes before and after Iftar; the meal taken after evening prayers during Ramadan," said FairPrice, before adding that Iftar Packs will continue to be available till the last day of Ramadan on 21 April.

It continued by saying:

We have since engaged the couple to address their concerns and have closed this matter amicably.

The apology was also posted to the supermarket chain's Facebook page as well. 

A dip in brand sentiments?

Since the incident on Sunday, social conversations around FairPrice spiked by nearly five times, according to media intelligence company CARMA. Prior to the incident, FairPrice enjoyed a 25.5% positive sentiment on social media. However the incident impacted brand sentiment to make it 77.4% negative and 3.2% positive, said a spokesperson from CARMA.

CARMA noted that many netizens felt that FairPrice had to shoulder some of the blame, and that it was not blameless in the situation. Many noted that the employee was racist and that he needed to be counselled, while some said that the stand itself was inherently racist and that the apology seemed to "brush aside the seriousness of [it]".

Additionally, CARMA noted that FairPrice was also recently under fire after a woman filmed an exchange, she had with a FairPrice staff member who was cutting fish and who reportedly did not speak English. 

The video, which was posted by local influencer and model Amy Tashiana on YouTube last month showed Tashiana trying to communicate with the fish cutter and failing to be able to get her point across. Tashiana berated the staff member for not being able to speak English and asked why she was working at a supermarket in Singapore if she could not communicate in English. 

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