Jenny Davis-Boyd
Stop & Shop executives get a message they can’t ignore.
It was a partially cloudy day in Quincy, Massachusetts—but clear enough to see a plane with a banner circling overhead.
The banner read: “ROGER WHEELER CHEATS”, directing viewers to the website AholdScandal.com.
Roger Wheeler, the president of Stop & Shop, has been under controversy for his failure to properly honor his company’s 100% cage-free egg policy. Stop & Shop—and its sister brands (Food Lion, The Giant Company, and Giant Food) under parent company Ahold Delhaize—promised its customers it would stop sourcing eggs from caged hens almost a decade ago.
Battery cages are one of the most severe forms of animal cruelty in factory farms; caged hens live in spaces so small that they cannot even spread their wings. Outraged customers have been demanding that Ahold Delhaize and its brands follow through on their promise to do better for these suffering animals. Ahold has not publicly acknowledged its cage-free inaction, and in response, animal advocates are making sure their message is coming across by taking it straight to the top.
The plane circled Stop & Shop’s Quincy headquarters for half an hour. Then it followed the route of the Boston Marathon, and flew around the city. For Wheeler and other Stop & Shop executives, it was a fitting reminder of their imminent 2025 cage-free deadline: a plane, looming overhead, wings outstretched.
