I don’t shop at Trader Joe’s so I can’t speak from experience about their abuse of those suffering from a surfeit of common sense. But reading the letter Allan Stevo, founder of the organization “My Body, My Choice,”  sent their CEO, said abuse is egregious. I gather this chain has persecuted those customers refusing to don a mask by

Inquir[ing] about specifics of a [medical] condition 

Demand[ing] … a doctor’s note 

Elevat[ing] tension with someone seeking accommodation 

Snide[ly] comment[ing] 

Insist[ing] someone wait at the curb for their groceries…

And the list goes appallingly on, through such outrages as “Encouraging customers to ‘give a piece of your mind’ to someone seeking accommodation” (ahem: isn’t that dangerously close to “inciting violence”?) and “Laughing the phrase ‘no shoes, no shirt, no service’ at a customer seeking accommodation and pointing them out the door…”

Allan is not a guy to sit back while freedom endures such assaults. He’s written a letter to the aforementioned CEO, asking for “assurance from you that such behavior will be taken seriously, will not be tolerated, and will come to a prompt end throughout your company.”  He’s now looking for others to send a second letter, for which he’s written a template: you’re free to email the note as is or amend it as you see fit. 

If you’d like to man the ramparts with Allan, please email him at [email protected] for his masterpiece to Traitor Joe’s and his suggested reinforcement from you. Someone who knows tells me that this chain abhors negative publicity; no one appreciates public criticism, of course, but apparently ol’ TJ harbors a special paranoia against it. Ergo, Allan’s campaign will likely succeed, and you’ll want to be in on the ground floor.

The Best of Becky Akers