Early April Fool’s joke about Trader Joe’s closing panics Internet

Every April 1, the gullible get got and the savvy sit and smirk as satirical stories roll out on the web.

This year, Yahoo News freaked out the internet with a hilarious piece that claimed that all 497 Trader Joe’s locations would be closing their doors for good.

“The company has been having financial problems for a while, and with online sales and so many new organic food stores opening competition has been incredibly stiff. The past year they have been slashing prices to combat their main competitor Whole Foods, however this was not enough to keep up.”

But things started to take a turn for the satirical when a “quote” from Trader Joe’s CEO Dan Bane said the chain was relying on cookie butter sales to stay afloat.

Despite a rumor in the fake story that Whole Foods had offered to carry cookie butter — oh, and a disclaimer at the bottom that the story was a joke — most of the Internet did not make it that far and immediately slapped the panic button.

WAIT NO THEY CANT CLOSE ALL TRADER JOES THEY'VE GOT THE BEST CHAI LATTE MIX EVER FML

— simpgela (@anglunaaa) March 31, 2016

The "Trader Joe's closing" thing made me gasp before I realized it's a prank. I hate pranks and I hate learning how dumb my priorities are.

— Sean Thomason (@TheThomason) March 31, 2016

https://twitter.com/radicalhearts/status/715643850442735616

To be fair, April Fool’s Day isn’t until Friday, and Yahoo’s story was posted one day early, but consider this your annual reminder to read the full story before you react online.

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