Whole Foods says customer faked antigay cake slur
A public feud between Whole Foods and a customer who accused the store of scrawling an antigay slur on his cake escalated this week with dueling lawsuits, inspiring hundreds of online sleuths to debate the clues in security footage and in the hand-lettered icing.
The trouble began April 14, when Jordan Brown, an openly gay pastor, bought a pre-frosted chocolate cake from a Whole Foods bakery in Austin, Texas, and asked an employee to write the words “Love Wins” in icing on top.
According to Brown, 31, as he was driving away from the store he looked down through the clear-top of the cake box and was horrified to see a slur scrawled beneath the “Love Wins.”
On Monday, Brown and his lawyer announced a lawsuit against Whole Foods at a news conference, during which the pastor choked back tears as he described the humiliation of the experience.
The company released video surveillance footage from the store that it said showed Brown holding the cake at the checkout line.
Questions about Brown’s accusations have enthralled the Texas capital, where Whole Foods has its headquarters, as hundreds of online detectives have debated the case on social media and in the online comment threads of the Austin-American Statesman.
Asked if a disgruntled employee could have written the slur without being detected, Robin Kelly, a spokeswoman for Whole Foods, said in an interview that the company stood by the bakery team’s version of events: that Brown exited the store with an unadulterated cake.
Kelly added that Whole Foods bakery sections follow a “general practice” of having customers look at their cakes to be sure they are satisfied.