The Beyhive think Sainsbury’s — recently crowned the cheapest U.K. supermarket of 2019 by Which? — took a cheap shot at Beyoncé, 38, after comparing the similarities in their merch. Just like the official colors of the supermarket, orange and maroon happens to be the color theme for many of the athleisure clothes in Bey’s new adidas x IVY PARK collection, which dropped a day early on Jan. 17!
Taking advantage of the coincidence, the supermarket’s Twitter account immediately shared a photo of an employee rocking Sainsbury’s’ trademark pullover jacket. The supermarket, which was established in the 19th century, tried to stake its claim in orange and maroon-colored clothes by editing the words “the original” over the employee. The supermarket even provided a time stamp, writing in the caption, “Repping since 1869.”
Of course, a British supermarket probably had no intention of actually shading one of the world’s most famous singers. But some trolls picked up on the joke, making it more mean-spirited. “Beyoncé looking like every late teen who’s found a job at the local supermarket on the self checkouts,” one such person tweeted. Given that Beyoncé and her team worked hard on the collection, fans weren’t so forgiving towards Sainsbury’s, even if the original joke was meant to be harmless. A Twitter war soon erupted in the supermarket’s mentions.
https://twitter.com/taeyonce_b7/status/1218235680066809864
“Not y’all trying to drag when your sales been falling for three quarters straight. Let’s talk about it,” one fan tweeted at Sainsbury’s, who even shared a screenshot of the supermarket’s current standing in the stock market. Another fan wrote, “FLOP!! this is why sainsburys got closed down and replaced with a second tesco where im from. dont ever come for queen Beyoncé.”
Sainsbury’s didn’t go down without a fight. “You didn’t invent this color palette,” a fan pointed out, to which the supermarket’s Twitter handler of the day — someone named Karen, it appears — wrote, “We made it famous though!! Karen.” Most people, though, were just amused that fans were facing off against a supermarket’s social media team. It’s safe to say the joke didn’t actually affect Beyoncé’s business, since just about every item in her new collection sold out on Adidas’ website.
This Twitter war isn’t personal, though. The supermarket also trolled Puma for releasing a tracksuit jacket in similar colors in 2017!