Grocery Stores Are Racist and Offend Me

[MajGenl.Meade]

... and those old Lyon's chocolate cupcakes... with the removable top to eat last. Remember those, exkA? Gob?

[Sue U]

Okay, joke first:

I recall when I lived near Fort Monmouth in NJ there was a Chinese restaurant right outside called Fuku; the people answered the phone "Fuck you" and it apparently was a hit with those stationed at the fort.

One of our current favorite local Vietnamese places is called Phu Khang, otherwise known as "that Phu Khang restaurant."

And BigRR, if you don't know who David Chang is (and shame on you!), I highly recommend that you watch "Ugly Delicious" on Netflix. I find his opinion quoted in the OP a bit odd, considering one of the themes pervading his Netflix series is "what is the meaning of 'authenticity' in cuisine?" Because although the foods we eat derive from "original" regional/ethnic cuisines, they are in fact a fusion or modification or amalgam of gustatorial influences and always have been. Or maybe that's his point in decrying the "segregation" of cuisines.

I grew up in a supermarket family (my grandfather and uncles were all in the grocery business) and I have always taken an interest; I frequent more and a wider variety of stores than virtually anyone I know. I had really never given much thought to the "ethnic" aisles of the ShopRite/Wegman's/Acme/Giant, other than to note their higher prices and far inferior selection to the specifically Indian, Korean, Chinese, or Eastern European supermarkets in the area. One of the local ShopRites has an entire section devoted to foods for its Jewish clientele, owing to the large Orthodox community nearby, but I certainly don't consider that anti-Semitic; the same store stocks various Spanish products integrated throughout the store, but also has a specific "Goya" aisle (which also contains a lot of other Spanish/Caribbean brands and products). Oddly, the store has tortillas stocked in three different locations -- but not in the Goya or other "ethnic" aisles. I guess it's true that everybody likes tacos.

Interestingly (to me), the Chinese supermarket where I shop (which somehow seems to be run by Vietnamese) largely organizes its aisles and shelves according to the specific regional cuisine or taste for a particular product, so you'll have Chinese noodle brands here, Thai noodles there, and Japanese over there, and so on; same with soy sauces, bean pastes, dumplings, etc. The rice aisle alone is dizzying.

As the OP notes, a significant portion of a supermarket's organization is the result of shelf space reserved by contract with specific suppliers and stocked by those suppliers' employees -- not the supermarket's. That's exactly the reason we have a Goya aisle, with signage pointing it out as such. It's also why you see all the Coca Cola Bottling Co. products together, all the Nabisco products together, etc.

Retail grocery is a huge dollar-volume business but the profit margins are extremely thin. There's a lot of professional expertise that goes into supermarket design and layout because the store operators have to maximize sales just to stay afloat: there are research firms that specialize in studying shoppers' behavior and what they want in the shopping experience. It's my guess that "ethnic" food aisles are less the result of racism and more the result of what the shopping demographic finds convenient. This year, at least.

[Joe Guy]

.....It's my guess that "ethnic" food aisles are less the result of racism and more the result of what the shopping demographic finds convenient.

Demographic is a racist term. It categorizes people. In a perfect world there would be only one demograph.

[TPFKA@W]

I had not, like so many things, given this thought. Now that I have become woke to the microagressiveness of the international aisle I DEMAND that international foods be bused to all the local stores that don't have any international offerings.

[No Greater Fool]

[RayThom]

Call me goofy, but I like all my international foods to be locally sources.

[Joe Guy]

I had not, like so many things, given this thought. Now that I have become woke to the microagressiveness of the international aisle I DEMAND that international foods be bused to all the local stores that don't have any international offerings.

You’ve made a good point. Martin Luther King once said, “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but which aisle he stands in when he is looking for barbecue sauce.”

[Lord Jim]

Or something like that...

ETA:

I seem to recall a similar quote from Dr. King:

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their grocery carts.”

Or something like that...

[TPFKA@W]

Mankind must put an end to international aisles before international aisles puts an end to mankind

. JFK.

[Long Run]

It won't be easy, because the other side has Winston Churchill:

We shall defend our international aisles, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the low shelves, we shall fight on the high shelves, we shall fight in the storerooms and in the stocking boxes, we shall fight in the international food displays; we shall never surrender.

[Gob]

Over here you get "Polish Food" isles. Dead handy for avoiding ...

[Crackpot]

That’s because you don’t know good food when you see it.

[Big RR]

Anything like Shoe Polish?

[TPFKA@W]

I was thinking more car polish. Might taste better than typical British food.

[Lord Jim]

I was thinking more car polish. Might taste better than typical British food.

Certainly better than Marmite...

[Big RR]

But then, what doesn't taste better than marmite?

[MajGenl.Meade]

Nothing

[Lord Jim]

Gotta disagree with you there...

Eating nothing tastes way better than eating Marmite...

[TPFKA@W]

How does “eating nothing” work ? If you’re eating nothing you aren’t actually eating so you wouldn’t actually need to say eating.

[Joe Guy]

Doesn't eating nothing mean the same as not eating? If so, in the context of this discussion, saying eating nothing should be acceptable. A guy might say I'd rather do nothing than go over there. Should he leave out the do? Then again, maybe I know nothing about correct word usage.