Supermarket chain Marks & Spencer has stopped selling disposable barbecues amid fears of fires after the record breaking heatwave in the UK also saw huge surges in fires.
The 40C heatwave seen across the UK was not all sunshine and (ice) lollipops, as the London Fire Brigade experienced its busiest day since World War Two! With commissioner Andy Roe calling for all retailers to remove disposable BBQ’s from their shelves.
"We want to work with retailers to stop the sale of disposable barbecues and reduce the risk of dangerous grass fires."
The supermarket, who already had removed the sale of disposable barbecues from stores that were within close proximity to national parks and London, have now decided to take it further and remove the sale of them across all their UK stores.
"We'd already stopped selling disposable barbecues near national parks and in London but given the unusually hot and dry conditions,
we've taken the precautionary step of removing them from sale across the UK."
According to retail analyst Johnathan de Mello, "This move by M&S will put pressure on their retail peers to follow suit…M&S are often seen as a bellwether for UK retailers, and hopefully other retailers will follow their lead."
We think it’s great to see M&S standing on the right side of the fence, they could quite easily gobble up all the sales that the beautiful weather often brings in the UK especially around the sale of BBQ’s, but instead they choose public safety and the preservation of our beautiful national parks to not be covered in tiny rectangular burnt patches.
