Germany’s largest supermarket group, Edeka, is not shy about making statements. In 2014, it stated that it was cool. And it certainly wasn’t subtle about it.
Its 2015 Christmas ad was a very strong statement about how families treat their oldest members.
And recently, it took up the offer to trial the first supermarket carrier bag that is completely compostable in 10 weeks.
Cheil Germany invents a supermarket bag that becomes compost in 10 weeks
Now it has taken a stand on diversity. And it’s not being subtle about that either. Edeka emptied its Hamburg store of every product made overseas to show people what life without diversity is like. Hamburg is home to 15% of Germany’s population.
To make sure that Edeka’s customers got the point of the exercise, the store added notices such as, “We will be poorer without diversity,” “A shelf is so empty without foreigners,” “This shelf is quite boring without variety,” and “Our range now knows borders.”
What an Edeka store look like without diversity was likened to Cuba in one social media post. But most of the feedback was positive.
Edeka in Hamburger Hafencity macht Aktion gegen Rassismus. ? #saynotoracism pic.twitter.com/S3puFdn62g
— Sven (@opendev) 19 August 2017
And it was a very effective way to make racism real for people and show them the consequences of promoting exclusionism. So many people only really appreciate the parts of issues they can see and Germany is going through the same racial tensions that are flaring up in the US, the UK and Australia with millions of refugees looking for homes and fears about terrorism stirring the multi-racial pot.
In 2015, Chancellor Angela Merkel announced an open-door immigration policy for refugees, which resulted in the arrival of 890,00 asylum seekers that year alone. Crime has been increasing and the country has endured a number of terrorist attacks. As you can imagine, immigrants are bearing the brunt of the blame being handed out.
“Edeka stands for variety and diversity,” Edeka stated of its new statement. “In our stores we sell numerous foods which are produced in the various regions of Germany. … But only together, with products from other countries, it is possible to create the unique variety that our consumers value. We are pleased that our campaign caused so many positive reactions.”
