05/24/19

Natural Grocers today issued the following statement regarding the appearance of an offensive symbol inside the car of an individual employed at the company’s store on Martin Luther King Boulevard in Northeast Portland:

“Natural Grocers wishes to express its sincere apology to the members of the MLK community for the offensive symbol that appeared in the car of one of our employees. As soon as this issue was brought to our attention, we launched an immediate investigation, which resulted in the removal of the offending item. Further appropriate action is being taken to address this issue, including conducting enhanced diversity training company-wide.

We at Natural Grocers were deeply offended by, and utterly condemn, the appearance of the offending item in our employee’s car. We are keenly aware of the symbol’s offensive and hurtful nature. Natural Grocers, which takes great pride in the diversity of its crew, does not tolerate racist speech or conduct by any of its crew members.

We are proud of the strong relationship we have developed with the MLK community since the opening of the MLK store more than a year ago. We reiterate our apology for this unacceptable incident and commit to doing everything in our power to ensure that similar incidents do not happen again.”