Supermarket Products Are Now Being Labeled With the RACE of Their Producers

Giving new meaning to the term “discriminating shopper,” products are now sometimes being presented with something other than an ingredients label: signs indicating their producers’ race, ethnicity, or even sexual inclination. 

My, what could possibly go wrong? 

A better question is: What has already gone wrong? 

Just consider, for example, the image below of products at a Giant supermarket in the Washington, D.C., area. 

This new labeling by the supermarket chain’s owners — Giant Food of Maryland, LLC, a $5.6 billion a year subsidiary of European retailing colossus Ahold Delhaize — was triumphantly announced via media late last year. 

“Giant Food is rolling out updated shelf labels that enable shoppers to identify products from minority-owned businesses,” reported trade publication Supermarket News December 22. “Plans call for all Giant supermarkets to post the new shelf labels starting in January, the Landover, Md.-based regional grocer said yesterday,” the site continued. 

“The labels will inform customers about items from companies that are women-, Black-, Asian-Indian-, Hispanic-, LGBT-, Asian-Pacific- or veteran-owned.” “More than 3,100 food and nonfood products will feature the updated shelf labels across Giant’s 164 stores in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and the District of Columbia,” Supermarket News also informs. 

“The retailer said the items come from 281 minority-owned businesses in its network of vendor partners.”

GRTWT.