beXnlog

Discovering the Orient

My mom and sister have been raving about Wegmans, a new supermarket chain that recently opened in NoVA. This past weekend i bussed down to DC for a day, so i got a chance to check it out for myself.

First off, it's a nice shopping experience. The location we went to was the Fairfax store, but my mom says the Sterling one is even bigger. It reminded me of a cross between Whole Foods, a gourmet market and a typical supermarket: high industrial ceilings, warm colors, free samples, shopping carts, gourmet sections, a hot food bar and tons of checkouts.

The store is split off into sections or "bars," where the bakery is called a "Boulangerie" and the cakes/desserts bar is called a "Patisserie." They offer a ton of gourmet items and even a bulk tea section. Their natural foods section is a few aisles alone. The olive bar rivals any fancy market's, and when we went they had a "Mediterranean Bar" full of different hummuses, baba ganoush and the like.

HOWEVER, a sign over the hot Asian foods bar and the sushi section declared: "Discover the Orient." First off, who still uses this word? Secondly, the sign over the hummus bar didn't say "Discover the Mediterranean!" Third, i'm so sick of corporations using notions of discovery, imperialism, racism and exoticism to sell shit. I suppose someone in marketing thought "Discover the Orient" was a brilliant way to get white people to finally try Asian foods. Yes, playing into their deep-rooted racist thoughts does work! Finally, i'd like to meet someone who hasn't had an egg roll in this country.

They could've easily named it "Asian Bar" to be consistent with the rest of the store BUT i guess they needed different wording to sell chink/gook/curry-eaters/oriental foods. I'm going to write them a letter pointing out their racism - and see what happens.

posted by beXn @ 2:48 PM