“Peaceful protestors” will have to find another establishment to purchase their soy products because Trader Joe’s in what was formerly known as Capitol Hill, then The CHAZ and now the CHOP is closed TFN.

Why are they closed? According to this from Salon (of course), workers are suspecting that it’s the “Corporate Man”‘s retaliation for them taking off to peacefully protest:

Yet no one was more shocked than the Trader Joe’s workers at 1700 Madison Street, also known as Store 130. To them, the announcement was suspect — particularly given that dozens of the store’s clerks had, that very week, asked permission to take time off to attend Black Lives Matter protests. Something did not add up.”-Nicole Karlis, Salon

The large Black Lives Matter Protest took place last Friday and employees had “no idea” that managers were “irked” by their decision to abandon their day-jobs to join in the community protest.

We were told that our participation would be kind of an excused absence, and we wouldn’t be punished or anything for going to the protest — and like I said, myself and others were directly approached by management. It was like this idea that ‘this is okay, we want you to go, that this is something you should do, and it’s good to support this movement.'”-Erin Or, Trader Joe’s Employee

Management was out to get them all along, you see. This is all one big conspiracy to weigh the people on the right side of history down, man. Of course, this has nothing to do with the store not having enough employees for adequate staffing. No. This is “Corporate America” sticking it to the justice warriors of CHOP. How dare they close a store because their employees chose to take off and partake in The Summer of Love in the streets instead of doing the responsible thing and going to their JOBS! The absolute horror of Trader Joe’s Management to come up with this decision. These people need to work. Except when they are protesting…then some other dumb oafs can work for them, I suppose. The injustice of this all is appalling!

After the closing, and while the store was closed, we felt it was a good time to evaluate how to best address those concerns and what would be the best plan moving forward, as it is our priority to provide our Crew Members and customers with a safe shopping environment.”-Kenya Friend-Daniel, Trader Joe’s Spokesperson

Now, these employees are uncertain of their jobs. They are “in limbo”. Are they saying that they are indeed dependent on the almighty American dollar in the CHOP? I thought this was the land of free stuff? Are they saying they need their jobs? Are they saying they are not abdicating their positions at the CHOP TJ’s in favor of giving it to a person of color? Say it isn’t so!

Something did not add up, they say. What about being understaffed with safety concerns going forward do these people not understand? We are guessing these geniuses who decided to protest instead of going to work like the rest of us (let’s talk privilege here) are wanting to be paid for the days they went on leave because they were doing something “good” and that Trader Joe’s in the CHOP should be open-understaffed and all. I mean, they are doing important work out there in the CHOP and should not be penalized for this. All they want to do is work now that they have realized that there may not be any work to go to? Honestly, are these people that dense that they cannot see the common sense behind a closure of a store that is one, understaffed and two, has safety concerns about being understaffed and bringing other staff members behind the barricades to work in a potentially unstable situation?

It’s amazing that these very people who were telling others to stay the hell home months ago are so keen on keeping their jobs and going to work now. Except when they don’t want to go to work. I suppose Trader Joe’s in the CHOP could survive without them. Everything in the CHOP is free except the salaries of the (sometimes) employees of TJ’s. The sore should stay open and allow them to come and go as they please in the name of Social Justice for all. And if the store is understaffed, so be it. If looters come in with their AKs and take what they want, it’s all good. Consider it an “unplanned donation”.

To those in the CHAZ, CHOP, whatever-no Trader Joe’s for you!

Photo Credit: FlickR/Creative Commons/Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)/Cropped