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Not trying to start an argument, but I'm thinking this is kinda over the top PC. Does this mean we're going to close the Asian Grocers unless they carry hamburger helper? What about Hispanic grocery stores. (aka Mexican in some areas of the country)? Are they going to have bok choy?
I think it makes sense in regular grocery stores. I'm sometimes a tiny bit annoyed that I can't find a can of jalapeno peppers, or a specific shape of pasta in with the other jarred peppers or pasta offerings, but have to backtrack to check the ethnic offerings.
Ethnic grocers certainly have their place, and nothing in that article suggests they are going to go away.
Well, that's silly. If I'm making Thai food, it helps me out that the rice noodles, coconut milk, and curry paste are all grouped together. If I'm making a Mexican dish, it also helps me out that the tortillas, salsa, and chiles are together. Now they're going to put salsa and curry paste with ketchup and mustard, rice noodles with spaghetti noodles, and where is the coconut milk going to be?
I suspect this change is less about being PC than about making people hunt all over the store for ingredients, in the hopes that they make more impulse buys as they scavenge through the aisles.
Does this mean we're going to close the Asian Grocers unless they carry hamburger helper? What about Hispanic grocery stores. (aka Mexican in some areas of the country)? Are they going to have bok choy?
I think you misread the article.
The idea is that some stores may spread out the goods in the ethnic aisles of supermarkets to the relevant areas of the store.
So, for example, instead of finding tortillas, salsa picante, and refried beans next to each other in the "Mexican section", the tortillas will be moved to the bread aisle, the salsa picante to the condiments aisle, and the refried beans to the canned beans aisle.
I do agree that the motivations described in the article (that separating ethnic foods by type 'marginalized' minorities) is PC run amok. I live in a heavily Mexican neighborhood and there is an extensive section for Mexican ingredients. To be able to shop for your everyday meals in one section of the store, then pick up the rest of the non-specific staples and treats here and there, is actually way more convenient than having to comb the whole store to get the ingredients for a weeks worth of Mexican meals.
It would make sense to me if the individual stores were responsive to their customers' preferences, the store I go to is relatively small for a supermarket, and has a relatively high number of ethnic goods, so maybe it would make sense, but for supermarket chains to blanket apply this kind of restructuring of their merchandising because of the woke shaming of a nebulous demand from "millennials", the vast majority of whom probably could not give a damn, would be just another sad development in our culture of victimization.
The article even says: "As Epicurious explains, "ethnic" used to describe foods that were popular in other cultures and not in the typical American diet. Not so long ago, Italian food was considered ethnic, as were German hot dogs and Jewish rye bread. Over time, however, these foods migrated to the main aisles of the grocery store because of demand and frequency with which Americans adopted them as their staples."
And reading this I have to wonder where they are shopping? Every supermarket I go to not only has all the Italian foods grouped together, pasta, gnocchi, jarred sauces, shelf-stable parmesan style cheese, pizza ingredients, etc. together, but there is a kosher specific area as well.
And the supermarket where my parents live not only has all of the above, but English/Irish and German sections (which includes some Scandinavian foods) as well.
Pretty much the only things outside the ethnic sections are dairy, eggs, meat, frozen foods, vegetables, breads, and condiments. The things that everyone eats. All Americans have an ethnic background. I would argue that the ethnic sections are evidence of representation, not marginalization.
As a Scandinavian American, should I not feel victimized that I can not find lefse in the bread aisle, lingonberry jam in the jams and jellies, and gjetost among the cheeses, much less have a convenient section of shelving where I can get all of them to conveniently stock my pantry?
It occurred to me that Trader Joe's, where I shop frequently, already groups food by type only and not by ethnic origin. Tortillas are with bread, soy sauce is with condiments (but salsa is not--it's with the chips!), etc. But TJs is genuinely tiny and walking through the entire store takes less time than trailing up and down two or three aisles at the regular supermarket. And, I know that they have recently resisted a campaign to change the supposedly demeaning culture-specific names on some of their products, so I don't believe the store was ever set up the way it is to be more PC.
As a sidebar here, I am of Dutch descent, an ethnicity that's been in the USA since the earliest days of the Colonies. Remember, it was Nieuw Amsterdam before it was New York, and when the British sailed into the harbor, the Dutch were waiting with cannon fire.
So, I was surprised when I went to rural lake-country Ontario to find "Dutch" listed on the supermarket sign in the ethnic foods aisle. The products are mostly rusks, Dutch cookies, and licorice. You hear a fair number of Dutch accents in the area, too.
As a sidebar here, I am of Dutch descent, an ethnicity that's been in the USA since the earliest days of the Colonies. Remember, it was Nieuw Amsterdam before it was New York, and when the British sailed into the harbor, the Dutch were waiting with cannon fire.
So, I was surprised when I went to rural lake-country Ontario to find "Dutch" listed on the supermarket sign in the ethnic foods aisle. The products are mostly rusks, Dutch cookies, and licorice. You hear a fair number of Dutch accents in the area, too.
Sorry. Can't eat Dutch food anymore since I learned that they bought Manhattan for a handful of beads.
I used to live near a small supermarket that carried Hispanic and US products mixed throughout the store. They had a half aisle for imported Eastern and Central European products and another half aisle for imported Italian products. It reflected the neighborhood well.
I think they should be able to display the foods in a way that works best for the store and the shoppers.
It seems like it would be a lot easier to take a shipment of Goya products to that aisle than run all around the store shelving them. Same with imports. Easier to put them all together.
It would literally be impossible to live in a more ethnically diverse neighborhood than I do, about equal Euro/Asian/Latin heritage split, many 1st/2nd generation & coming from all sorts of countries not just the "big" familiar ones. The most recent come from the various Himalayan countries, there's even a Paraguayan restaurant which I have never seen anywhere else.
The supermarkets still have the international aisles here, I'm sure it's for shopping convenience.
I think it makes some sense to put some things in SEVERAL places in a store--space permitting. Put curry powder in the asian food section and in the spice section.
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