Ahold Delhaize

Giant Foods, Food Lion, Stop & Shop, Peapod Digital, Hannaford, FreshDirect
The Netherlands
Food and Staples Retailing

Corprate Bias Ratings

Risk Level:

Rating - Caution
Medium Risk

Ahold Delhaize, which is a global food retailer, vets vendors according to LGBTQ policies and does not protect its employees against viewpoint discrimination. However, the company has not publicly terminated business relationships based on views or beliefs but discriminates against religious organizations in its charitable giving. Ahold Delhaize has not used its corporate reputation or funds to advance ideological purposes. The company has not used its PAC donations for ideological purposes. For these reasons, Ahold Delhaize receives a Medium Risk rating.

Criteria
Risk Level
Rationale
Corporate Weaponization
Criteria

Has denied service to customers, suppliers, or vendors due to their political views or religious beliefs OR corporately boycotts, divests, or sanctions regions, people groups, or industries.

Risk Level
Rationale

Ahold Delhaize has a written policy pledging to vet vendors for LGBTQ policies. Its Code of Conduct applies to all suppliers and includes a commitment to not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation (1). Peapod Digital Labs and Stop & Shop, subsidiaries of Ahold Delhaize, received a score of 100 on the Corporate Equality Index from the Human Rights Campaign. Among other requirements, this indicates the companies have a written policy pledging to vet vendors for LGBTQ policies (2). The company has not publicly fired customers, suppliers, or vendors based on political views or religious beliefs.

Criteria

Charitable giving (including employee matching programs) policies or practices discriminate against charitable organizations based on views or religious beliefs.

Risk Level
Rationale

Ahold Delhaize does not fund “religious organizations” (1).

Criteria

Employment policies fail to protect against discrimination based on political affiliation/views and/or religion.

Risk Level
Rationale

Ahold Delhaize does not provide viewpoint protections for its employees (1).

Corporate Governance and Public Policy
Criteria

Uses corporate reputation to support ideological causes and/or organizations hostile to freedom of expression.

Risk Level
Rationale

The company’s subsidiaries Giant Food and Peapod Digital have made commitments and campaigns to engage in more Pride-related advocacy (1)(2)(3). Giant Foods, Food Lion, Stop & Shop, and Peapod Digital Labs have all advocated for the Equality Act, and all CEOs have signed the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion pledge (4)(5). For 2021 and 2022 Pride Month, Peapod Digital Labs have posted press releases promoting specifically LGBT-owned brands and suppliers (6).”

Criteria

Uses corporate funds to advance ideological causes, organizations, or policies hostile to freedom of expression.

Risk Level
Rationale

Giant Food gave $15,000 to the Capital Pride Alliance during the 2022 DC Pride parade, and donated $12,500 to the Can’t Cancel Pride 2022 fundraiser (1). In 2020, Food Lion made significant donations a variety of racial justice organizations, which included the National Urban League (2). In 2021, Peapod Digital Labs made a $7,500 donation to Campus Pride, a group aimed to expand LGBT causes on college campuses (3). Peapod Digital Labs is also a corporate partner of the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce (4). Stop & Shop donated over $80,000 to LGBTQ organizations including to GLAAD and The Trevor Project (5). In addition to the LGBTQ donations, Stop & Shop created Pride gear and donated it at Pride Parades (6).”

Criteria

Uses corporate political contributions for ideological, non-business purposes.

Risk Level
Rationale

Ahold Delhaize has not used its PAC donations for ideological purposes (1).

All links were last accessed and all information was updated on:
October 3, 2023

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