LaBonne’s Markets responds to outcry over shrimp label

SALISBURY — Within a day of Salisbury shoppers complaining about a frozen shrimp label bearing the federally-mandated “Gulf of America” place name, LaBonne’s Markets had already had it changed.

Rob LaBonne III, president of the four-location grocery store chain, said the label alteration had actually been ordered long before complaints began in town.

“As a grocery store, we have to be everything to everybody,” LaBonne said. “We have people from all walks of life and political backgrounds who work for us, shop with us.”

LaBonne explained that although a flood of emails and calls – about 20, he reported — came in on Monday, Sept. 22 to complain about the packaging, the store had actually ordered the label to be changed about a month prior in response to a complaint from a customer at the Prospect location, one of the grocery store’s three other locations in Connecticut.

The concentrated outcry in Salisbury came as the result of Sharon resident and political organizer Jill Drew writing about the shrimp label in her twice-per-week email blast “Today’s Action,” which reaches hundreds of subscribers across the region. The outrage stems from President Trump’s January executive order to rename the body of water, which has been referred to as the Gulf of Mexico for more than 400 years and is not owned by any one nation. Only federal agencies within the U.S. are legally bound to use the title.

LaBonne said that while the response was intense, he called back everyone who reached out and found that they quickly appreciated the misunderstanding.

“Everyone I talked to was like, ‘no, we knew you guys wouldn’t do this,’” he said. “We don’t want to get mixed up with people thinking we’re making a political statement with bagged shrimp,” he added, reiterating that the company had acted on the issue well before the Sept. 22 complaints came in.

He explained that the label, which had actually been on the shelves since June, was not LaBonne’s doing but the result of the distributor following Google Maps’ usage of the title as well as an attempt to indicate that the shrimp were harvested in the U.S. rather than abroad. LaBonne said that the store requested the label change immediately after the complaint at the Prospect location, but that the distributor had to sell through the remaining stock bearing the “Gulf of America” label.

Even so, the day that the complaints came in, the store had the distributor print blank labels to cover the ones still in the aisle. The new labels, which are circulating now, eliminate the “Gulf of America” title and simply say “Product of the USA” to indicate their origin.

Salisbury resident Amy Lake, who was the first to bring the issue to Drew’s attention, said she was surprised to see what she saw as nationalist overreach showing up in LaBonne’s, which is a cherished community business.

Lake said that she was “kind of shaken by what [she] saw as jingoism in the aisle,” and was moved to act. She emphasized that the residential voice, and consumer choice, are the “tools of democracy.”

“It’s an act of courage to speak out as a public citizen and say this doesn’t fly here,” she said, expressing her gratitude for all the other shoppers who made their opinions known.

She also thanked the grocery store for its quick action. “I just have to credit LaBonne’s responsiveness to the community… within 24 hours they had addressed our complaint.”

Drew similarly praised the store’s handling of the issue and lauded its affirmation that “politics doesn’t belong in the grocery aisle,” in her words.

“I appreciate that he personally called members of the community who complained,” said Drew. “We didn’t have an argument; we had a conversation. Our country needs more of these conversations across many issues.”

LaBonne said the personal conversations are what makes LaBonne’s the community store that it is. “I encourage people to either reply or give us a call,” he said.

“We’re happy to hear everybody out. We never turn anyone away, and we want to always be better and make sure people feel comfortable shopping with us.”