Kroger is being called out by shoppers for its “disrespectful” Juneteenth cake designs.
A Kroger store in Atlanta, Georgia, is gaining attention online after a TikTok video captured cakes in the bakery section that seemed to “lack creativity” for the holiday.
“This is some bulls—,” commented TikTok user @blaq.monalisa in the clip, which has attracted 10.3 million views and 1.2 million likes by Friday morning. “Who the hell made this ugly-ass s—?”
“This is unacceptable,” she goes on to say.
The footage contrasts beautifully designed birthday cakes and desserts with a table displaying Juneteenth-themed cookie cakes decorated in a sloppy manner.
A few cakes are shown, one with a printed design and others with phrases sloppily put onto the cakes such as “FREE,” “June 19 Free,” “Congratulations” and “Free @ Last.”
“Y’all decorate everything else around here cute, everything else around here cute,” the TikToker said. “But for Juneteenth, you wanna just throw something on a freaking cookie cake and expect someone to buy it.”
Juneteenth is a federal holiday celebrated annually on June 19 to commemorate the end of slavery in the United States.
“Kroger count your days,” they added in the caption. “Why even bother if you’re going to lack creativity … This is a mockery!”
WARNING: VIDEO INCLUDES GRAPHIC LANGUAGE
People in the comments agreed, shocked by the cake offerings.
“‘Free @ last’ is diabolical,” one said.
“Gurl! Not the last one saying Congratulations. Like, ‘Congratulations, you’re free!’,” a user commented with the face palm emoji.
“Take the ‘free’ cookie home. Walk out with it. It says free,” someone jokingly suggested.
“This is funny but NOT funny,” one said. “I’m highly disappointed in Kroger.”
“You should’ve just flipped the table over,” another added.
“I thought this was a joke until you showed the store,” someone else said.
Kroger told Newsweek in a statement that “the cakes and cookies that were featured in the video were inconsistent with our provided guidance and not of the quality we would expect to see from our stores.”
“The products have been removed, and we’ve addressed this directly with the store teams and the customer who took the initial video,” the spokesperson continued.
Meanwhile, TikTok user @blaq.monalisa went back to the Kroger store in a follow-up video and confirmed the removal of the cakes.
“I still feel some type of way that they didn’t replace them with better Juneteenth cakes,” she shared.
