When I say traitor, you say Joe's. Traitor Joe's! Traitor Joe's! It never feels good to have someone you trust betray you and it feels even worse when they try to cover it up with lies. Deception is a common technique for corporations. What goes on outside of the company is often times very different what is occurring on the inside. The press has a way of making companies look innocent, even pure of heart, but no such thing exist in real life. Companies exist to make money; they have no other purpose. The fact that a person views a company as a friend or a place for them is only a testament to a brilliantly designed marketing campaign, not the company's core values. But products take on an almost political identity once marketers are through with them. This is not an accident, but a well thought out ploy to develop customer loyalty to the product being sold. Political issues evoke emotional responses and we are constantly looking for avenues to express these emotions, especially since we have such little real representation by our government and because talking about politics amongst family and friends is heavily discouraged. The company evokes these emotions using key words extracted from whatever political movement is popular at the moment. These advertising campaigns are not at all static and change often depending on the popularity of political figures involved. Companies are mainly concerned with moving products, not making a statement; so they are prone to disposing of unpopular movements. The Free Tibet movement was disposed of by nearly all companies as soon as China cried foul. Trader Joe's on the other hand has a huge problem with protecting their workers from getting sick. I have disturbing reports of Trader Joe's firing or suspending employees who asked for PPE or who wanted to wear a face mask at the beginning of the pandemic. There were also reports of Trader Joe's employees being forced to take a break so that they could walk across the store and wash their hands; gloves were also discouraged and refused when employees requested them. Apparently this was all done in the name of "not scaring" customers. It all seems a little silly now, considering that had we all worked together to slow the spread, there would be no need to panic at all. You would think that a grocer would be the most strict when it comes to stopping the spread of covid-19 because they are the ones that have profited the most, apart from tech companies, during this pandemic. If anything, their working conditions should improve from all of that excess profit, not diminish. Yet standards were simply ignored, overlooked or dismissed as causing a panic. I think it speaks volume that the CEO of Trader Joe's, Dan Bane, shares a name with the Batman villain, Bane, who devises several plots to take over the world as the dark night races to save everyone. You have to be pretty evil to refuse to erect plexiglass barriers on your check out stands because you do not want to ruin the ambiance of goofy Hawaiian shirts and free frozen ravioli. Yes, we simply could not live without unnecessary frivolous bullshit during these trying times. Will employers ever learn that people are not going on some silly adventure when they go out shopping for dinner or will they continue to act as if offering free samples of subpar food actually increases sales? Is this supposed to be the alternative to unions or something? A fat cat corporate entity that treats its employees like Amazon while marketing itself as the grocer version of Ben and Jerry's? I personally do not think companies should even be able to participate in the political process. These corporations do not even abide by our laws, yet they are able to lie about their political affiliations to their customers and then use that money for causes contrary to the values of their customers. You should not be able to game the system like that; people should at least be able to expect a little honesty.