Some weeks ago, my son phoned to ask that I bring home a bottle of Williamson Bros. BBQ Sauce, a sauce we’d tried at Whole Foods that the family seemed to like. “Well, I’m not at Whole Foods,” I responded.
“I saw it in Publix, too,” he said.
I cocked my mental eyebrow and told him I’d check it out.
You’ll have to excuse me, but it sometimes mildly surprises me when something that’s free of a lot of questionable ingredients can be found in the regular grocery aisles of stores in my neighborhood. So, I walked up the aisle to where sauces are found and, sure enough, there was the same brand sitting on Publix’s shelf.
But—and there’s always a but—I quickly noticed that the design was a bit darker, browner, tanner, I guess, you could say, so I picked up the bottle to read the ingredients. To my NOT surprise, the sauce at this Publix, located in a predominantly black neighborhood, contained high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and corn syrup.
I stood there a bit stumped. Had I lost my mind and been buying sauce that all along contained HFCS, or was it that the manufacturer of this sauce created different versions that were distributed dependent upon the demographics and expectations of a certain region? Sort of like what the corporation that owns Popeye’s and Church’s does with the little and big pieces of chicken, little to Popeye’s, larger pieces to Church’s? I placed the sauce back on the shelf, because I refused to knowingly bring HFCS into my house, at my expense.
I couldn’t wait to visit Whole Foods again, so I could check out the ingredients in their bottle. A few days later, my earlier question was answered. The Whole Foods version contained no HFCS and the labeling was a bit “happier”—if you know what I mean. I decided right there to get photos of both bottles. I snapped the front and back labels of the Whole Foods version, paying special attention to the ribbon on the front label that proclaimed “NO High Fructose Corn Syrup.”
When I visited Publix again, I snapped front and back labels of theirs, too, noting that the ribbon on the front read “Established 1990.” The Publix version retailed for $2.95, while the Whole Foods version retailed for $3.99. I’m told, and keep forgetting to verify, that Kroger retails it also for $3.99 (HFCS version).
Now, I could be pissed at my local grocery stores. And I am perturbed by them, because their thinking is that they are looking to stock what they believe will sell according to the buying habits of the people in the community—unfortunately, for the most part, they’re usually correct in their assumptions. Sad to say, but it’s true. Grocery stores in our neighborhoods are usually marketing to the ones who fill up three and four baskets once a month at a certain, umm, time of the month. Not to those who are consciously reading labels and making decisions based on the safety and healthiness of the product.
Who I am more than perturbed with is Williamson Bros. BBQ, located in this great state of Georgia—Marietta, Georgia, to be more specific—that thinks so little of people in these neighborhoods that they would dare offer a formulation with inferior ingredients. Would it not be much easier and more efficient and cost-effective to create one product?
And I don’t give a damn if they tout the hook of mainstream media about HFCS being equal to raw sugar, because I don’t buy that. IF that’s so, why doesn’t the Whole Foods version contain it? I’ll tell you why it doesn’t. It doesn’t because Whole Foods’ customers wouldn’t BUY it—but in a predominantly black neighborhood, where consumers aren’t thought to be as educated about certain ingredients and how they contribute to obesity and general ill health, Williamson Bros. BBQ feels they can sell them anything. How insulting!
I must also put it out there that I do not plan to write to Williamson Bros. BBQ and demand that they place the non-HFCS version on the shelves of stores in my neighborhood. I’m not going to beg anybody to be fair to me, so I can spend my money with people who did not start off being fair to me. What I’m going to do is not buy any Williamson Bros. BBQ products, period. I won’t patronize their restaurants. I won’t buy their sauce. That’s how you teach businesses how to act, how to treat their customers. When they intentionally insult you, you don’t spend money with them. End.of.story.
Williamson Bros. BBQ can’t be and isn’t the only manufacturer to deceive customers in this way. What products have you come across in the past where ingredients differed depending on where you purchased them?
Author’s Note: While the title states “To Blacks With Love,” I believe that anybody who is uneducated on the various ingredients and processes that go into the foods they consume can easily be misled. Even those who are educated are at risk of being deceived when the same company producing the conventional fare also produces the organic fare. The questions should be: Is any of it produced according to the labeling, and what might be missing from the labeling or the product?
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