Trader Joe’s Just Made The Most Shocking Announcement Ever–They Can’t Be Serious!

The petition calls out Trader Joe's for their packaging, arguing that it is racist and problematic. The petition reads, "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 - they are 'Arabian Joe,' 'Trader José,' and 'Trader Joe San.'"

Trader Joe's, however, disagrees. The grocery store has explicitly argued against the idea that this branding is not racist, but simply an "attempt to have fun with our product marketing."

Despite defending the packaging, Trader Joe's has decided to change the way they label their ethnic food brands--though the company insists that the decision was not a result of the petition.

In a statement shared on the Trader Joe's website, the company explained, "We want to be clear: we disagree that any of these labels are racist. We do not make decisions based on petitions ... If we feel there is need for change, we do not hesitate to take action."

According to the statement, several years ago, the Trader Joe's buying team "review[ed] 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."

Although some products have been updated, the company has no current plans to implement a larger scale change.

Instead, the statement simply promised that the team would continue to evaluate the situation and make a decision based on how customer and team member feedback: "We continue our ongoing evaluation, and those products that resonate with our customers and sell well will remain on our shelves."