Poundland blasts ‘judgemental’ teacher on Twitter

Poundland has taken to Twitter to address a TES article written by Stephen Petty, Head of Humanities at Lord Williams’s School in Thame, Oxfordshire.

In the article, Petty argues against the GCSE Grade 4 becoming the 'Poundland' pass. “The message from the DfE is clear – Grade 4 and 5 are both equivalent to a C. But, grade 4 is Poundland C, and grade 5 is a Waitrose C,” he writes. "They may be numerical next-door neighbours, but in terms of social status, the numbers four and five have been drifting apart from eachother for many years.”

Deploying the hashtag Proudland, the retailer has hit back, claiming that Petty’s use of its name as a perorative adjective is belittling to its staff. “The use of our name in that context says more about you than them.” It adds: “For the record (and your education) the demographic make-up of our shoppers is actually not dissimilar to the demographic make-up of the UK as a whole; we attract much the same proportion of so-called ‘AB’ shoppers as there are in the population.”

It concludes: “So, after you get over the surprise that someone at Poundland reads the TES or can translate your school motto, perhaps we could respectfully ask that you avoid using our name as a judgemental adjective in future, if only so people are less likely to jump to conclusions about you.”

It doesn’t always end well when retailers move beyond their day jobs and start public feuds. But judging from the comments, Poundland got their response spot on. Check them out here.

Also of interest: Poundland enjoys best ever Christmas