Book publisher terminates relationship with duo behind Kelly’s Bake Shoppe
Published June 24, 2020 at 3:09 pm
A tumultuous month of June for Kelly’s Bake Shoppe has resulted in Penguin Random House Canada dropping the mother-daughter-duo as authors.
A tumultuous month of June for Kelly’s Bake Shoppe has resulted in Penguin Random House Canada dropping the mother-daughter-duo as authors.
While the publishing company did not specify the reason for the termination, the decision comes after protests were planned outside the Burlington bakery due to a slew of criticism from social media users—some claiming to be past employees—accusing the business of racial insensitivity and mistreatment.
“Penguin Random House Canada has terminated its relationship with Kelly Childs and Erinn Weatherbie,” said Publicity Director, Josh Glover. “We will no longer be selling or publishing Made With Love, nor will we publish any future books by these authors.”
As of June 25, 2020, the pair’s cookbook was still available on Amazon.
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In early June, Kelly’s Bake Shoppe drew the ire of Instagramers who accused the business of exploiting Blackout Tuesday: an initiative to stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement while amplifying the voice of the black community.
One year earlier, Kelly’s Bake Shoppe was similarly accused of profiting from Pride Month; sometimes referred to as “rainbow capitalism”.
Owner Kelly Childs was also on the receiving end of criticism in May 2020 when a Reddit thread contained a screenshot of an apparent conspiracy theory-based COVID-19 tweet from the Kelly’s Bake Shoppe owner.
The tweet suggested that the pandemic was a “game to close our global economy” and a way to force microchips into citizens via vaccines.
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