You Worked For A Company That Was Fixing Bread Prices
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About
You Worked For A Company That Was Fixing Bread Prices is a quote said by New York Times journalist Binyamin Appelbaum to Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg as part of the paper's series of interviews with potential 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary candidates. Appelbaum was challenging Buttigieg on his pre-political career work as a consultant with McKinsey and Company, a consulting firm that worked with Loblaw Companies, the parent company of Canadian supermarket chain Loblaws which was embroiled in a scandal after it was revealed they were participating in a scheme to steadily increase the price of packaged bread. The quote has been used by critics of Buttigieg on Twitter as a snowclone and catchphrase.
Origin
In December of 2017, Loblaw Companies admitted to participating in a scheme to steadily increase the price of packaged bread in their grocery stores for over 14 years.[1] During this period, McKinsey and Company worked as a consulting firm for Loblaw Companies, and Buttigieg worked for McKinsey. His campaign has stated Buttigieg, "was part of a team that ran analytics and put together a model to help this supermarket chain determine how much -- and in what stores-- they could make certain items more affordable in order to gain new customers," and that he had no part in the bread pricing scandal.[2]
On January 16th, 2020, the New York Times[3] released an interview their editorial staff had with Buttigieg. During the interview, journalist Binyamin Appelbaum challenged Buttigieg on his connection to the scandal, saying "You worked for a company that was fixing bread prices." Buttigieg challenged the claim, saying "No, I worked for a consulting company that had a client that may have been involved in fixing or was apparently in a scandal. I was not aware of the Canadian bread pricing scandal until last night." Video of the moment was released as well (shown below).
Though he may not be as emotive as some of his Democratic rivals,
— New York Times Opinion (@nytopinion) January 16, 2020PeteButtigieg</a> shows the editorial board a flash of the passion that he says propels his campaign. See more this Sunday on a special 2020 endorsement episode of <a href="https://twitter.com/TheWeekly?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">TheWeekly. Full transcript: https://t.co/ooUhuoRBV9 pic.twitter.com/6qXKtgA0WF
Spread
The moment was widely shared on Twitter, with users praising Appelbaum's delivery. User @jonbernhardt[4] wrote, "the delivery of "you worked for a company that was fixing bread prices" is crazy. best supporting actor shit," gaining over 1,100 retweets and 11,500 likes (shown below, left). User @redsteeze[5] wrote, "I’ve watched this clip over 30 times now and I still almost cry laugh at the 'you worked for a company that was fixing bread prices,'" gaining over 620 retweets and 2,900 likes (shown below, right).
Others began using it in snowclones. For example, Twitter user @hunteryharris[6] paired it with the Marriage Story Argument, gaining over 2,200 likes (shown below, left). User @libbywatson posted a Girls Chat / Boys Chat meme, gaining over 380 likes (shown below, right).
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External References
[1] The Globe – Loblaw admits to bread price-fixing scheme spanning more than 14 years
[2] Buzzfeed – Pete Buttigieg's Campaign Said He Had Nothing To Do With A Canadian Bread Price-Fixing Scandal
[3] New York Times – Buttigieg
[4] Twitter – @jonbernhardt
[5] Twitter – @redsteeze
[6] Twitter – @hunteryharris
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