Three months ago, we took a look at news reports that the Aunt Jemima brand, widely (and accurately) perceived as being racially insensitive, would be retired. As the family's designated grocery shopper, I cruise through the syrup aisle most weeks, and I've noticed that, not only has the problematic syrup brand not disappeared, its shelf space hasn't shrunk, and if any clearance sales have taken place to sell the existing stock, they've escaped my notice. In short, nothing has changed.
I snapped the above photo during my shopping trip this morning. As of today, a quarter of a year after the product announcement, it appears to be very much business as usual for the syrup brand. So I popped over to the website of Quaker Oats, the company which owns the brand. I found this FAQ statement:
Are you discontinuing Aunt Jemima Products?
We can assure you that we are not discontinuing our products. We are committed to making meaningful changes to the Aunt Jemima brand, starting by removing the image from the packaging and changing the name of the brand. What will not change is the delicious taste, and great value of our products
Hmm - not quite what we read about last spring, but better than nothing. But as of this morning's trip to the store, no sign of any change to the image or the brand name so far. If that progress, or lack thereof, makes you reconsider buying oatmeal, or Pepsi (apparently PepsiCo owns Quaker Oats), I certainly won't tell you you're wrong.
Btw, as the photo above indicates, Mrs. Butterworth still is clinging pretty tenaciously to shelf space, too. The Smithsonian article from June to which I linked above includes this passage:
...Conagra, the corporation that makes Mrs. Butterworth’s syrups, is launching a “complete brand and packing review,” reports Emily Heil for the Washington Post.
As any corporate type knows, "reviews" can take a very long time - sometimes until everyone forgets.
Yeah, Conagra. Omaha's loss is Chicago's gain, I guess.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't make me any difference. My guilty high calorie syrup is Karo. It's a crucial ingredient for my great grandma's Christmas candy recipe too. Oatmeal is whatever Dollar General or HyVee's store brand is.
I seem to remember that Aunt Jemima bottles were a sought after item awhile back for crafters making flower vases. I think they spray painted them and put glitter on them. Is that sort of a reverse blackface?
I go to the grocery store about once every two weeks. I’ll look at the syrup next time. We use maple syrup, so I don’t usually check out the other syrups.
ReplyDeleteHowever, being a native Californian, I am partial to Mexican food. The call to boycott Goya foods was last July, after their CEO lavished praise on trump. Goya products have been on sale ever since.
https://www.npr.org/2020/07/09/889600302/calls-to-boycott-goya-foods-after-ceo-praises-president-trump
I have been buying competing brands ever since, at a fairly big premium, percentage wise. At times, some of the competing brands are sold out or almost while the section for Goya is full. I noticed a couple of trips ago that Goya must now also be paying for more prominent placement displays also. Besides being found on the normal aisles, there is a big display at the end of the aisle, facing the main aisle, where “featured” products are placed for maximizing exposure. Goya is family owned and apparently does not publish sales figures routinely. However, some of the competitors have shown sales gains since July.
It seems the boycott may be having an impact.
I love GOYA stuff. But I'll abstain until Trump is out which I hope will be in January. If I can unsee the picture of Agent Orange posing with GOYA products in the Oval Office.
DeleteGearing up for a brand change is expensive, and, depending on the supply chain, new packages sans image and with new name will be slow.
ReplyDeleteThe change is long overdue (I remember when they de-mammified Aunt J), but there is no monetary incentive to hustle it if sales are still good. My guess is that some people will buy it because they like the current packaging or they think they can resale pkgs to nostalgia buffs, same as the golliwog dolls.
They can probably get by on their good intentions for awhile longer.