Trader Joe’s

California
Food and Staples Retailing

Corprate Bias Ratings

Risk Level:

Rating - Clear
Lower Risk

Trader Joe's has not publicly terminated business relationships due to religious or political beliefs, though it has fired employees for going around its employee "Open Door Policy" for the purpose of ideological activism. It has not weaponized this policy to favor any agendas. The company maintains a stance of political neutrality and has not used its reputation or corporate dollars to support ideological groups hostile to freedom of expression. For these reasons, Trader Joe's receives a "Lower 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

Trader Joe’s has not publicly terminated business relationships due to religious or political beliefs. The company has a reputation for political neutrality. Trader Joe’s has an “Open Door Policy,” allowing employees to vocalize concerns to leadership through internal channels, and the company has fired employees who have openly bypassed this policy (typically for the purpose of political activism) without political bias (1)(2).

Criteria

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

Risk Level
Rationale

Trader Joe’s does not discriminate against religious organizations in its charitable giving (1).

Criteria

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

Risk Level
Rationale

Trader Joe’s lists “ideology” as a tenet of inclusion on its Diversity and Inclusion page (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

Trader Joe’s has fought back against ideological messaging campaigns with relative frequency. At the height of the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, Trader Joe’s responded to its left-wing critics by stating that the company “does not make decisions based on petitions” (1).

Criteria

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

Risk Level
Rationale

Trader Joe’s has no history of donating directly or indirectly to ideological organizations hostile to freedom of expression (1).

Criteria

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

Risk Level
N/A
Rationale

Trader Joe’s does not operate a PAC.

All links were last accessed and all information was updated on:
March 23, 2023

Company reports are intended for educational use only. Full Disclaimer

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