The UK high street is emblazoned with rainbow flags and Pride-themed products as Brits celebrate LGBTQ+ communities.
Retail Gazette rounds up what retailers are doing to celebrate Pride.
Aldi
Aldi has shown support to the LGBT+ community by introducing a series of gender guides for its transgender colleagues who are undergoing transition or already transitioned.
The guides aim to educate their direct leaders and tips for co-workers on how to help their colleagues return to work. The initiative is part of Aldi’s wider “Embrace” Diversity and Inclusion strategy.
Meanwhile, Aldi will also get involved in the upcoming Pride events in Birmingham and Manchester, where Aldi floats will join the processions.
Tesco
Tesco revealed it will donate almost £100,000 to three LGBTQ+ charities to celebrate Pride and support the LGBTQ+ community. The supermarket will also be the headline sponsor for London Pride and Premium Partner for Brighton Pride.
A total of £33,000 will be donated to the following charities:
- Switchboard – a helpline service offering support to the LGBTQ+ community
- Terrence Higgins Trust – the HIV and sexual health charity
- Fighting With Pride – supporting the health and wellbeing of LGBT+ Veterans, service personnel and their families – in particular those most impacted by the ban on LGBT+ personnel serving in the Armed Forces prior to January 2000
Superdrug
Superdrug recently marked its milestone of five years supporting the charity Switchboard in collaboration with Unilever.
Collectively Superdrug own-Brand, Unilever, Durex, Britney Spears and Berrocca have committed to a total donation of £55,000.
Superdrug chief commercial officer Simon Comins said: “We are proud to be taking a stand with the LGBTQ+ community through our continued support of Switchboard Helpline, a vital charity providing an essential service.
“As we pass the five year milestone of our partnership, we’re proud to be collaborating long term with our donations enabling over 19,000 hours of trained volunteer time in total, supporting Switchboard to continue its vital work.”
Superdrug has also launched its first limited edition Pride capsule collection of six wrapped own-brand products, all of which will carry the Switchboard charity logo, phone and information. The launch of the range sees Superdrug make a full donation of £10,000 to Switchboard.
Sainsbury’s
As part of its support for Pride, Sainsbury’s is donating to the charity Akt which supports homeless LGBTQ+ young people.
The UK-based charity focuses on those aged 16-25 and provides safe transitions into new homes, as well as employment, education or training in welcoming environments that celebrate their identities.
Additionally, the supermarket giant has chosen to support Sparkle, a national transgender charity which hosts the Sparkle Weekend – the largest free-to-attend celebration of gender diversity in the world, held in July.
Morrisons
Morrisons has also donated £15,000 to Akt to support LGBTQ+ people facing homelessness or hostile environments.
The Morrisons Foundation has also given a further £3,450 to Cumbria LGBTQ+ Pride charity to provide weekly craft activities for a while year to families with LGBTQ+ members.
However, the grocer has also made commitments all year round to review policies and ways of working to ensure they “work hard for their LGBTQ+ colleagues” and have also stated they would “develop a plan to create even more allies”.
Primark
Value fashion retailer Primark has created a Pride 2022 clothing collection, which has been designed with inclusion in mind.
The collection includes rainbow, slogan, and pronoun covered t-shirts, socks, sliders and mobile phone covers, and comes in both kids and adults sizes.
Primark also has an ongoing partnership with IGLA World, the Interntional Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association, which helps young people with diverse sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions, and sex characteristics speak up for their rights and their inclusion.
Over the four years that Primark has partnered with ILGA World it has donated £420,000, including this year’s donation of £150,000.
Marks & Spencer
M&S, which famously launched its LGBT – lettuce, guacamole, bacon and tomato – sandwich a few years back, has a number of initiatives running for Pride.
The retailer, which has changed its logo to Pride colours on social media, supports LGBTQ+ youth homelessness charity Akt through its Sparks scheme. During June, the retailer will be doubling all Akt Sparks donations.
M&S also strives to make its business a place where people of all sexualities feel welcomed. Its LGBTQ+ network has over 500 members and is a safe space where colleagues can connect with others, raise questions, share thoughts and help M&S develop relevant products for the LGBTQ+ community.
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