The claim that a video shows shoppers in a U.K. grocery store standing in gender-segregated lines is still under investigation. - The footage itself is real, meaning not created by an artificial intelligence tool. It shows shoppers at Masala Bazaar in Chadwell Heath, East London, standing in lines split by gender. A TikTok user who appears to be a store employee, as of this writing, posted it on Sept. 28, 2026.
- Some social media users speculated that the apparent gender segregation seen in the clip was due to the shoppers’ Muslim faith or culture.
- The store’s management reportedly told the Daily Mail newspaper it does not have a gender segregation policy. The video shows the lines were not entirely segregated and other footage from the store on different dates shows men and women mixing freely.
- It remains unclear at the time of publication why shoppers at Masala Bazaar stood in mostly gender-segregated lines in the Sept. 28 footage.
- Snopes contacted the person who posted the original clip and Masala Bazaar to ask about the lines. We await replies to our queries.
In September 2026, footage circulated online purportedly showing shoppers in a U.K. grocery store standing in gender-segregated lines.
For example, a popular Facebook user who posted a video commenting on the clip appears to speculate that the alleged segregation was due to the ethnic, cultural or religious community or communities the shoppers belong to. The narrator says (archived):
This video is going viral online because everybody’s wondering, “Why is it, how is it, that in the year 2026 you could be in the U.K. and have to stand in a separate line depending on your gender?”
That tells you, you have a community of people that really, really do not want to adapt. I mean, the U.K. is not going to require women to stand in a different line. But for whatever reason, these communities want that.
Posts on Reddit (archived) and Instagram (archived) say English shoppers were “irritated” for being “forced to obey the rules of Islamist migrants in their own country.”
The footage appears to be authentic, meaning not created using artificial intelligence. It was seemingly recorded inside Masala Bazaar, a supermarket in Chadwell Heath near Romford, East London. A TikTok user, who also appears in a promotional video (archived) for the supermarket, posted the clip (archived) of the apparently gender-segregated lines to TikTok on Sept. 28, 2026.
While the video appears to show a real-life situation, it is unclear whether the shoppers “had to” stand in what appear to be gender-segregated lines or whether the grocery store or anyone else “forced” them to do so, as some social media users have said.
Snopes contacted the TikTok user who posted the original video, who appears to be a store employee at the time of publication, and Masala Bazaar to ask whether the store enforces gender-segregated lines or whether it has another explanation for why the shoppers appeared to line up this way. We await replies to our queries.
In the meantime, because the reason for the apparent gender-segregated lines is unconfirmed, we leave this claim unrated.
According to British tabloid newspaper the Daily Mail, bosses at Masala Bazaar told the outlet the supermarket does not have a gender segregation policy and that the lines in the video were the result of “temporary queue management” during a busy sale event.
Closer inspection of the footage shows the lines of shoppers were divided mostly along gender lines. However, at least one person with a beard can be seen in the line primarily made up of women, and one person wearing a headscarf is standing toward the front of the line predominately consisting of men.
(@mutabbirmia21, accessed via TikTok, illustrated by Snopes)
It is unclear as of this writing whether men and women lining up mostly separately was driven by cultural or religious norms rather than supermarket rules.
Some social media posts appear to suggest the apparent division happened because the shoppers are Muslims. Some, but not all, Muslims practice gender segregation in some situations, such as during prayers in a mosque or in schools.
Other videos, posted by the same TikTok user who shared the Sept. 28 clip, show that while men and women inside the store sometimes group together (archived) with their own gender, shoppers also sometimes mix (archived) regardless of gender.
According to the most recent census data from 2021, 31% of people in the London Borough of Redbridge, where Masala Bazaar is located, are Muslims, meaning it is possible the shoppers were Muslims.
