From: https://tinyurl.com/mr4y4hyx (washingtonexaminer.com)

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The covenant between the Main Street consumer and big corporations is collapsing

February 06, 2022 12:00 AM
By Salena Zito

PITTSBURGH - Word travels fast in places like this city's iconic
small-business district filled with third- and fourth-generation
family-owned businesses, the majority of which are centered on two things:
relationships and food.

Relationships and food, but not politics. At least not usually, thank
goodness.

The relationships come not just from the generational loyalty of people
repeating what their grandparents and parents did, but they also grow here
because of robust word of mouth. Relationships also form when someone you
trust recommends a business.

And the food here in the Strip District isn't just about the restaurants.
It is also the dozens and dozens of old-world epicurean shops representing
every ethnic group you can imagine. Each is filled with aromas that entice
the curiosity of the shoppers to try something new or embrace the
nostalgia of a time long gone but that they long to re-create.

There is only one business here on Penn Avenue that is a franchise
establishment. It is called Penzeys Spices. On this Wednesday afternoon,
there is a sign on the front door reading it is closed despite it being
early afternoon. A call to the store the next day reveals it hasn't had
in-customer service "in forever," and when it does, it is inconsistent,
but the store would be happy to take a phone order or direct me to its
website.

The word that traveled so fast around here was about Penzeys - on several
fronts.

First, customers were tired of not being able to go into the store. When
you want to buy a spice, aroma is a big part of that experience and
decision. You could see workers in the store, but you could not physically
go inside. This was a starkly different experience than customers had at
every mom and pop store, not just on either side of Penzeys, but up and
down the street.

One of the few connectors left in our culture is food and everything that
goes into preparing it, beginning with that first sense of smell that
inspires a dish. No matter how simple or elaborate a meal is, almost every
high or low we experience in life has happened with us surrounded by a
meal.

Whether it is the ritual of neighbors and families bringing food to the
home of someone who lost a family member or the tradition of the
covered-dish casserole dinners in church basements or the backyards filled
with neighbors taking turns laboring over a barbecue pit, food not only
nourishes us but also brings comfort and reinforces our sense of community
and place.

There was a second reason word was spreading about Penzeys, though.

Usually, when we buy our food to make a meal, whether it is at a grocery
store or a local farm or farmers market, we don't expect to be lectured
about politics. We are all adults, and we all have a level of expectation
that store owners' politics may be different than ours. What we don't
expect is to be scolded for holding different beliefs.

And we certainly don't expect to be called racists.

Yet that is exactly what Bill Penzey Jr. did in emails to his customers
twice over the past month, and it wasn't even subliminal. Penzey sent out
a corporate email and posted on his webpage the " [30]Republicans are
Racists" weekend special the store held for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

That was followed just days later by another "All [31]Republicans are
Racists" special that begged whatever remaining loyal customers it had -
he admitted in his Facebook post that the store had lost 40,000 of them -
to buy gift cards.

There are several things at play here that deserve deeper exploration.
These things really show a lot about the dwindling relationship that
consumers have with the men and women who run many of the institutions,
corporations, and media and entertainment outlets in this country.

It is a covenant that has broken because people like Penzey don't have a
cultural connection to their customers. This is not a Democratic or
Republican thing. It's an inside-outside thing. Here in Western
Pennsylvania, you don't have to be a Republican to have been really turned
off by his missive.

There are plenty of people who walk down Penn Avenue who have been
Democrats all of their lives but who are married to a Republican, have
children who are Republicans, or have GOP grandparents, neighbors,
friends, and co-workers. These Democrats with Republican loved ones are as
equally put off by that blanket accusation of racism as if he had called
all Democrats racist.

Because Penzey runs his business hundreds of miles from here, he is
culturally disconnected from not only the people who are his customers but
also the people who work for him. Fifty years ago, that was a rarity in
this country: Most business owners weren't called CEOs, they lived within
four miles of their operations, and they often served on local school
boards or were ushers in their community churches.

Nowadays, people find themselves using or buying products made in plants
in this county that are run by a board of directors who only fly in and
out of the facility once a year for a board meeting. These directors don't
know their workers, and even worse, they'd barely know their customers if
it weren't for focus groups.

Even my most strident Democratic friends loathe when businesses and
corporations get mired in politics, especially when they go as far as
Penzeys did. A national survey conducted by Scott Rasmussen confirmed as
much when it showed that 59% of people, including Democrats, think
companies taking political positions "adds to divisiveness" in our
country.

This reinforces the inside-outside argument: Most Democrats outside of the
larger city centers of wealth, power, major media, and Fortune 500
companies are far less ideological than the elites running them.

Conversely, those same elite Democrats and media praised Penzeys behavior
in a New Yorker piece in 2018 when he started his anti-Republican
corporate activism, writing, "Penzey is a savvy salesman who's figured out
how to capitalize on the political outrage of the Trump era and social
media's way of amplifying it."

They see Penzey as smart because they share his sentiments. They actually
do think anyone who does not agree with them is racist. That - agreement
with them - is their sole measuring stick.

Which brings us to the final thing to unpack, namely how flippantly and
casually liberal activists such as Penzey, throw around the word "racist."
The word racist has become the elites' connective tissue - it is what
holds them together - and it is tossed out every time they see something
with which they disagree.

That is not only ridiculous on its face, but it also dilutes the full
assault of true racism.

If almost everything is racist, then nothing is racist - because your zeal
to score political points has made a mockery of the pain it invokes.

What Penzeys did wasn't just insulting. It is dangerous because it
continues an elite-think that does true damage to the psyche of our
country. Luckily, people seem to be letting him know from all persuasions
that his approach isn't the American way.

Last I checked, only two people had "liked" his "Republicans are Racist"
post. People have a way of quietly correcting a wrong.

(c) 2022 Washington Examiner

Links:
30. https://www.facebook.com/ahmaf.irfan.37

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