The Lower East Side Whole Foods: Now Serving Racial Stereotypes!
With the Whole Foods Industrial Complex set to open March 29th on Houston and Bowery, a paroxysm of speculation has surrounded the area. Will it have a Fresh & Wild salad bar? (Yes) Will it have an Italian Osteria? (Yes, Rustica Minardi). Whither goest the 8 dollar yogurts of Gracefully? But perhaps most pressingly, what's the deal with the illustrations of racial stereotypes on the windows?
Walking by the soon-to-open store, you've got your Chinaman slurping noodles, your whatsamatta Italian guy with spaghetti and meatballs, your Aunt Jemima black lady kneading dough and your Fievel-like urchin with his wheel of Parmigiano. Rob Twyman, the store team leader, proudly boasts that the store team will represent 23 countries—we only hope that in keeping with the ghetto theme of the LES, they'll be forced to conform to immigrant stereotypes. Because really, what tastes better than free range gefilte fish served by an NYU musical theater dropout sporting a Fiddler on the Roof accent?
