Petition Wants Trader Joe's, To Dump 'Trader Jose,' Other Labels

MANCHESTER, CT —An online petition is circulating that urges the Trader Joe's grocery chain to to change how some of its international foods are labeled and went so far as to call the marketing "racist."

The petition has appeared on change.org and was created by a high school senior in California. As of Monday afternoon, 2,765 had signed. The goal is 5,000 names.

The gripe is that Trader Joe's presents some of its store brand ethnic foods with variations of the name "Joe."

For example, some Mexican foods are called "Trader Jose's," Italian food is "Trader Giotto's" and Middle Eastern foods have the label "Arabian Joe's."

The labels promote, "a narrative of exoticism that perpetuates harmful stereotypes," according to the petition.

It continues, "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."

Trader Joe's executives are saying the approach was mean to be a "lighthearted attempt at inclusiveness," but added, 'It may now have the opposite effect."

Trader Joe's has Connecticut stores in:

• Manchester
• Bloomfield
• West Hartford
• Orange
• Danbury
• Fairfield
• Westport
• Darien
• Stamford