Narrator: Here's a loaf of Italian bread in an East Coast supermarket chain. It's in aisle 12, the bread aisle, surrounded by other types of bread. So if Italian bread exists in the bread aisle, why do "Chinese noodles" exist here, in the international aisle? These crunchy Chinese noodles, or crispy wonton strips, are typically served as an appetizer or snack in American Chinese restaurants. So why aren't they in, say, the chip aisle? It doesn't seem to make much sense. So, is there some hidden racism in your supermarket? It's a question David Chang asked in his podcast last year.
David Chang: If you go to the ethnic food aisle, that is sort of the last bastion of racism that you can see in, like, full daylight in retail America. How do we help kill the very notion of what is the ethnic food aisle, and why does it even exist anymore?
Narrator: To Chang, the foods in the ethnic aisle are accepted parts of American cuisine. Yet, they are still sectioned off and labeled as something else, something not quite fully American. In fact, the great irony of those Chinese noodles we mentioned earlier is that they're actually an American thing. You'd have a pretty difficult time finding them in China. And take sriracha for example. A few years ago, you would have most likely found the sauce from Thailand exclusively in the ethnic food aisle. But as the sauce has grown in popularity in the US, it's now here, right next to hot sauce. Chang isn't the only one who feels this way. Kim Pham experienced this growing up as well. She's the cofounder of Omsom, a meal-starter-kit company that features Southeast Asian sauces and seasonings.
Kim Pham: I remember kind of, yeah, like, oh, it's kind of this, like, sad aisle in the back of the store. It's kind of neglected and really just, like, small and a hodgepodge of items. And I remember not necessarily understanding what it stood for but really just being like, "Oh, it's kind of embarrassing that we're back here," and like, "Why do we need to grab some ingredients from back here?" So, felt like a lot of internalized shame.
Narrator: And the reason everything seems so jumbled has to do with the origins of the ethnic food aisle. Supermarkets became popular and successful in the early 1900s. Before this, Americans visited a butcher shop for meats, a produce market for fruit, a bakery for bread, and so on. It was also normal to shop entirely through a clerk to get all of your items. The first self-service supermarket, Piggly Wiggly, opened in 1916 in Memphis, Tennessee. This is a big deal, because it was the first time shoppers could select items they wanted themselves and purchase them all in one place. Many chain stores we know today became dominant forces in retail and food in the US during the 1920s. The growth of supermarkets called for more products to be placed in easy-to-understand aisles, and the rise of aisles coincided with the rise of ethnic food in the US.
Phil Lempert: As soldiers came home after World War II, they brought with them a new set of taste buds. They were in Japan. They were in Europe. They were in Germany. They were -- whatever. And they wanted all these ethnic foods that weren't available.
Narrator: That's when companies like Chun King started, seizing an opportunity to mass-produce Americanized ethnic food. Other servicemen and soldiers sent abroad for war launched importing companies to bring in various products from overseas. These items were usually placed together in their own aisle, sharing only the characteristic that they were imported, or not essential to American cuisine. Italian wasn't always known as an extension of mainstream American cuisine like it is today. And it's the perfect example of how an entire food group can escape the aisle. The story of Italian food entering and exiting the ethnic aisle starts in 1890, during the first mass immigration of Italians to the United States. Many immigrants went through Ellis Island and stayed in New York City. At that time, mostly German, Irish, British, and Scandinavian people were immigrating to the US, and Italians faced discrimination for their darker skin, food, living conditions, and language barriers. But by 1920, Italians were able to break into the working class. And by 1940, Franklin Delano Roosevelt had launched the New Deal to assist that working class. New York City started marketing Italian restaurants as interesting, cheap, and exciting places to eat. From there, Italian food was pushed into American cuisine.
Read More at https://www.businessinsider.com/hidden-racism-in-your-supermarkets-ethnic-food-aisle-2020-10
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