Petition calls on Trader Joe’s to change ‘racist packaging’
It cites “Trader Ming’s,” the grocery chain’s label for its Chinese products, “Arabian Joe,” for its Middle Eastern products, “Trader José,” for its Mexican products, and a handful of others as examples.
“The Trader Joe’s branding is racist because it exoticizes other cultures – it presents ‘Joe’ as the default “normal” and the other characters falling outside of it,” the petition says.
The grocery store chain, which first opened in Pasadena, California, in 1967, said it has already “been in the process of updating order labels, and replacing any variations with the name Trader Joe’s.”
Taco shells sold at Trader Joe’s branded with “Trader Jose’s”
“While this approach to product naming may have been rooted in a lighthearted attempt at inclusiveness, we recognize that it may now have the opposite effect — one that is contrary to the welcoming, rewarding customer experience we strive to create every day,” Kenya Friend-Daniel, a spokeswoman for Trader Joe’s, said in a statement.
“Packaging for a number of the products has already been changed, but there’s a small number of products in which the packaging is still going through the process,” Friend-Daniel added.
CNN’s Jordan Valinsky contributed to this report.
