Why Did Kroger Pull a Display for Snoop Dogg’s Wine?

If you’re a fan of Snoop Dogg (and if you’re not, why are you so afraid to love?), there are tons of ways to show your financial support to the rapper-turned-actor-turned-game-show-host-turned-rapper again.

The artist formerly known as Snoop Lion and Snoop Doggy Dogg has the kind of merchandising line that could make KISS think about its branding opportunities. Snoop’s merch goes beyond the usual concert tees and occasional bobblehead and includes clothing lines for men, women and even dogs. He’s got a collection of scented candles that smell like baby powder, white roses and “deez nuts.”

Hell, now that he owns Death Row Records, you’re not gonna have any problems finding a Secret Santa gift for a good long while.

The rapper also started his own wine label. Snoop’s California wine, called 19 Crimes, caused quite a stir at a Kroger grocery store in Peachtree City, Georgia, according to WSB-TV Channel 2 in Atlanta.

The store had a special display for Snoop Dogg’s “Cali Red” wine label, and because it’s February, aka Black History Month, some of the store’s customers complained that it was a stereotype and “offensive” to associate alcohol with Black History Month, according to former NAACP chapter President Johnnie Jones.

The display included a life-sized photo of Snoop standing behind a table that held bottles of his wine and Black Girl Magic wine. The store also put up a black dry erase board that read “Celebrating Black History Month” over an upheld fist containing phrases such as “Dream like Martin” and “Say it loud, I’m Black and I’m proud.”

The Peachtree City store received several complaints from customers and decided to take down the display.

The Kroger Co. released a statement that says they are committed to “diversity, equity and inclusion” and that “Our intentions are never meant to be offensive.”

Snoop Dogg’s wine label is still on the shelves, but it’s not as prominently displayed. According to Kroger’s website, you can still buy a bottle of 19 Crimes from pretty much any local store in the national chain. The 19 Chains brand’s store locator lists at least three Kroger stores that sell Snoop’s wines within a 50-mile radius of Dallas.

The 19 Crimes wine label launched in 2020. Its name refers to the 19 different crimes in Britain that, in the late 1700s and early to mid-1800s, would lead to a sentence in New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land, or what we know call Tasmania. Britain had started outsourcing the punishment end of its judicial process due to prison overpopulation, and other countries such as France would also send convicts to the region. Some of those sentenced to the oceanside penal colony eventually settled in to form their own nations, according to The Oxford History of the Prison: The Practice of Punishment in Western Society.

Snoop Dogg’s wine label has released a long list of new flavors and wine styles in the last two years featuring his likeness, including a Cali Rosé, a Cali Gold and a Cali Blanc. The label has also teamed up with Snoop’s close friend Martha Stewart to release a chardonnay called Martha’s Chard.