You May See An 8-Foot Crying Monkey When Whole Foods Opens In Jersey City. Here's Why.

JERSEY CITY, NJ — When downtown Jersey City's long-awaited Whole Foods Supermarket opens this Thursday, shoppers may see what appears to be an 8-foot crying monkey chained to a coconut.

The supermarket prides itself on its quality standards, healthy food, and locally grown produce, but there's one item that has the animal rights group PETA up in arms.

"Shoppers attending Thursday’s grand opening of the first Whole Foods store in Jersey City will be confronted by an 8-foot crying 'monkey' chained to a massive coconut," the group said in a release on Tuesday, "as PETA pushes the grocery giant to stop selling coconut milk from Thailand, where the coconut industry is involved in a scandal over the forced labor of endangered pig-tailed macaque monkeys."

"Monkeys used in Thailand’s coconut-picking industry are illegally snatched from their forest homes as babies, fitted with rigid metal collars, chained, whipped, and forced to climb trees to pick coconuts," they said. "Several companies that produce coconut milk brands sold at Whole Foods were named by industry workers in PETA Asia’s latest investigation as having used coconuts obtained by monkey labor." Their release about the practice is here.

However, a Whole Foods spokesperson said Wednesday that the company investigated and determined that animal labor wasn't used in products that they sell.

“We take this issue seriously and have previously confirmed our private label suppliers do not use animal labor in producing these products," the spokeswoman said. "We have reinvestigated this issue out of an abundance of caution and have again confirmed that coconuts from Thailand used in these products are harvested without the use of animal labor.”

The meal kit provider HelloFresh recently stopped using coconut milk from Thailand, reported news organizations including the Guardian and the New York Times.

Whole Foods, located at Washington Street and Columbus Drive, is expected to open Nov. 9 at 8 a.m.

The first 300 customers in line will receive a limited-edition tote bag and a Secret Saver coupon featuring offers up to $100 off, store spokespeople said. And customers on opening morning will receive free coffee and pastries.

The new supermarket won't just be a food store — it'll have a coffee bar, items from more than a dozen area farms, and the company's "senior forager" to help choose products.

The 51,156-square-foot store will be open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. on opening day. Regular store hours will be 7:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Read more about the store and the opening here.

For more information, visit www.wholefoodsmarket.com/stores/jerseycity.