Hispanic woman claims she got offered a Trader Joe’s job interview when she claimed to be white

TikTokker’s videos have received tens of thousands of views after allegations of unfair treatment

A woman from New York has claimed that Trader Joe’s only offered her a job interview after she told the supermarket chain that she was white.

In a series of TikTok videos this month, the woman, known as Leann, said she applied for a job but Trader Joe’s only offered it to her because she said she was white, rather than Hispanic.

Leann said she had applied for jobs at a number of New York locations of Trader Joe’s but after being refused, thought she would change her ethnicity on an application form.

That was when she heard back from the supermarket chain with an offer of an interview at three stores, including Grand Street, in central New York City.

“Three stores called me when applied I as white. It’s the system’s fault”, Leann said in a TikTok video. “I don’t what it means but do what you want with that information because that doesn’t look good.”

She claimed in another TikTok that Trader Joe’s’ vice president assured her of the hiring processes in a phone call, after her TikTok videos went viral.

Thousands of TikTok users have commented and liked her videos about applying for Trader Joe’s, and roughly 63,000 have seen her first video about receiving interview offers.

Leann said she has not yet been offered a job and her first interview is on Tuesday.

“I will now be putting white and ‘not disabled’ on my applications to see if I finally get some offers,” a TikTok user wrote.

Another theorised: “Omg. Is this the reason why I haven’t been getting called back? I’ve been looking for a job for 2.5 months now. I have hella (a lot of) experience”.

The US labour department says there were 10.4 million jobs on offer at the end of August, while the unemployment rate remains stable 4.8 per cent.

The Independent has approached Trader Joe’s for comment.