The Los Angeles Jewish Journal reports that:
Although “World Refugee Day,” the boycott of Trader Joe’s planned by the anti-Israel group “Don’t Buy into Apartheid,” came and went on Saturday, June 20, with no apparent incidents in Los Angeles, other cities in California did witness protestors invade the popular supermarket chain.By Saturday evening, all of the couscous in West L.A. had been sold out.
Kate Raphael, one of the organizers of the event, said she joined approximately 20 others as they marched into a Trader Joe’s store in Oakland, Calif., passing out hundreds of leaflets, which condemned Israel’s actions, while taking Israeli products off the shelves. Similar demonstrations happened in San Francisco and Sacramento.
In Los Angeles however, the only unusual activity reported was that of local patrons walking into the national food chain to ask to buy Israeli products in specific.
1 comment:
From what I have been able to learn, other than one store in San Francisco the 600 volunteers and 30 organizations dedicated to the June 20 nationwide de-shelving was pretty much a bust. For the deshelvers, that is. For Trader Joes, they had a record day nationwide as counter-protestors showed their support for Israel by buying up nearly every Israeli produced product the store had to offer.
This came on the heels of the chain itself telling the boycotters to buzz off when they approached executives asking them to volunteer for the anti-Israel boycott. As usual, once management did not comply, the boycotters turned ugly. But Trader Joes called their bluff and continues to sell Israeli products uninhibited (presuming they're able to get more stock in after selling out this weekend.
More background info (and couscous recipes, courtesy of my mom) at www.divestthis.com.
Jon
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