Albert Heijn tries pacifying Zwarte Piet backers

In an effort to pacify Zwarte Piet backers, Albert Heijn published a "love poem" to Piet in the morning newspapers. The poem reads that Piet is not banned from the shops and that it does not matter to Albert Heijn whether Piet is black or a different color. Last week clients of Albert Heijn announced a boycott of the supermarket on social media. They were upset that Albert Heijn wanted to remove Zwarte Piet from the supermarket. Many of Albert Heijn's franchisers were also annoyed by the head office's decision. According to trade magazine Distrifood, the union of franchisers were not informed in advance about the Zwarte Piet decision. Several of the franchisers decided to defy the head office and continue with the tradition as is.