Trader Joe's Will Not Close All Its Stores By 2017! Apparent April Fools Prank Is Debunked
It seemed like the story had been as well-sourced as a locally grown tomato.
But on Thursday, the urban legend-debunking website Snopes made it clear a Yahoo news report from the previous day claiming that the supermarket chain Trader Joe's would "be closing all 457 locations by January 2017" was more like a lemon.
"While it originally appeared on the generally reputable Yahoo! News, this is a piece of fiction," wrote Snopes reporter Dan Evon.
The post noted the proximity in date to the April Fools Day holiday on Friday.
The erroneous Yahoo news report, which blames "so many new organic food stores opening competition" as the reason for the fall of the successful franchise even quoted the company CEO.
"The competition has been steeper and steeper every quarter," Bane said, according to Yahoo.
"At this point, there isn't enough cookie butter in the world to pave the road ahead."
The reports claims Trader Joe's will "start rolling out store closings in May of this year starting with Florida locations."
This month has actually been a positive one for Trader Joe's.
On Wednesday Ira Levy, a lawyer from New York City that is representing Pepperidge Farm announced that the company, which had been suing Trader Joe's for copyright infringement, had dropped the lawsuit on March 9. According to Levy, the two companies have reached a "mutually satisfactory resolution," presumably in the form of an out-of-court settlement.
A representative for Pepperidge Farm refused to disclose any details to Fortune, but made it clear they take the matter of patent infringement seriously.
"We enforce and defend our valuable trademark rights and we want consumers to be sure of the source of their products," the rep said.
Sort of like how Yahoo readers need to be sure about the source of their information?
