Business came to a standstill for half an hour at Marks and Spencer in Trostre, near Llanelli, today (Saturday 25th January) after members of Cymdeithas yr Iaith refused to pay for their shopping
Trolleys filled with cans and jars of food from the store were left at the checkout as the activists said they did not want to buy the food because Marks and Spencer has replaced bilingual signswith English signs in two of its shops in Carmarthenshire (Trostre and Carmarthen). M&S has told Cymdeithas yr Iaith that it would look at the national policy but according to campaigners nothing has changed.
Bethan Williams, area officer for Cymdeithas yr Iaith in Dyfed said:
"We have protested several times in Carmarthen and have seen somw change there - the shop have said that they are looking at it nationally but have refuses to give a date - and is dragging its feet. Since we last protested some bilingual signs have gone up in the Carmarthen store but nothing more has changed since we met them in last about four months ago. We have therefore asked M&S to use the National Eisteddfod as an opportunity to make sure that shoppers who come from all over Wales will be able to shop in Welsh. Tokenistic use of the Welsh language will not be acceptable"
Staff and customers were surprised to see the shop come to a stanstill. Staff have promised to pass the campaigners message on to their superiors.
One of the protesters added:
"Our complaint is not against customers or staff in the shop, and they understood our standpoint. We are still dissapointed by the shop's lack of Welsh provision, so we refused to buy what we intended. By doing this we have shown M&S that there is still bad feeling, and have reminded them that they need to give people in the county a proper Welsh language service."
Pictures from the protest - http://cymdeithas.org/lluniau/protest-ms-trostre