Trader Joe’s wants to clear up some confusion.
They’re making it boldly and painfully clear that they’re not caving to any “liberal mob” and any changes they make to their product names have nothing to do with “change.org petitions,” and everything to do with how they do or don’t fly off the shelves.
In a July 24 news release, Trader Joe’s said it disagreed with Bedell’s characterization of how it labeled its products and said the names that were being changed were ones that weren’t selling well with customers.
“A few weeks ago, an online petition was launched calling on us to ‘remove racist packaging from [our] products,’” the news release said. “Following were inaccurate reports that the petition prompted us to take action. We want to be clear: we disagree that any of these labels are racist. We do not make decisions based on petitions.”
“Decades ago, our Buying Team started using product names, like Trader Giotto’s, Trader José’s, Trader Ming’s, etc. We thought then — and still do — that this naming of products could be fun and show appreciation for other cultures,” read the statement from the chain, which was started in California in 1967.
Here’s what they said about their products changing names: “A couple years ago we asked our Buying Team to review all our products to see if we needed to update any older packages, and also see if the associated brands developed years ago needed to be refreshed. We found that some of the older names or products just weren’t connecting or selling very well; so, they were discontinued. It’s kind of what we do.”
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They made it clear that they will never get rid of their popular products because of any Change.org petitions that the media likes to highlight.
“Recently we have heard from many customers reaffirming that these name variations are largely viewed in exactly the way they were intended — as an attempt to have fun with our product marketing,” the news release said. “We continue our ongoing evaluation, and those products that resonate with our customers and sell well will remain on our shelves.
This piece was written by Missy Crane on August 1, 2020. It originally appeared in WayneDupree.com [4] and is used by permission.