Trader Joe's Urged To Abandon Ethnic Store Branding

CALIFORNIA — Thousands have signed an online petition asking Trader Joe's to rename the international food products that it brands with names such as Trader Ming's, Trader José and Trader Giotto's.

The petition, which had garnered more than 2,700 signatures Monday morning, calls on the Monrovia-based grocery chain to "remove racist branding and packaging from its stores."

"The grocery chain labels some of its ethnic foods with modifications of 'Joe' that belies a narrative of exoticism that perpetuates harmful stereotypes," reads the petition, which was started by a 17-year-old in the Bay Area, according to the New York Times.

In response, the company said it was already planning to abandon the names and simply use the Trader Joe's name for its international foods.

"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," Trader Joe's spokesperson Kenya Friend-Daniel told the Times in a statement.

The first Trader Joe's location opened in Pasadena in 1967, and the chain eventually expanded across the state and around the U.S.

A rebranding would make Trader Joe's the latest company to revise its products amid a nationwide reckoning over racist imagery, prompted in part by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May.

Last month, Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben's both retired the Black characters from their packaging, as Quaker Oats acknowledged the Aunt Jemima character was "based on a racial stereotype."

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