02/08/2026
The spice of life 💥
This is a company we admire for so many reasons. Love ya, Bill 🫶
Every business is a community leader. Please use your voice while words still matter. You have the power to make a difference. The time to use that power is now.
And $40 Gift Cards for $30, 33% off Gift Boxes, and a free $8.95 jar of the very tasty Resist Seasoning with any $10 purchase and the use of RESIST in the apply code box at penzeys.com if you want to support us.
The call’s gone out for every business to support the protests happening across the country against the rising fascism that’s taken hold of the Republican Party.
Initially the call was for businesses to close on protest days, and in the Minneapolis area we closed our stores there and paid our scheduled employees. But it quickly became clear, if we are going to save our democracy there needs to be more days of protest than most small businesses can survive being shut.
The calls to close in solidarity were well meaning and came from the heart. But penalizing the businesses that support the protesters to teach Donald Trump a lesson isn’t really a sustainable long-term plan to get businesses to support the protests. Everything about the protests needs to be sustainable.
So the question is: Is there maybe something more that businesses could be doing to support the protesters and to protect our democracy than simply locking their doors? From our 15+ plus years' experience of doing our best to do just that, Penzeys is here to answer a very big YES to this question.
What we’ve learned over these years we are glad to share. At the heart of our journey is simply coming to realize just how important businesses are to our sense of community. We tend to see the businesses in our lives as somehow in the background, when in reality they are very much front and center.
As much as none of us can fully escape social media and the impact of the billionaire owners steering the conversation, there’s still far more power in the actual, real, face-to-face interactions in our lives than anything we get from a screen. As a business you are where reality happens. That’s no small thing.
“So what can I do as a small/medium/large business?” I really think the first answer to that question is: Be You. The power is in the honesty. If you care, let people know not just that you care, but what and who it is you care about.
If you feel hurt by people being hurt by ICE, or the cruelty of the anti-vaxxers, or those trying to make the lives of transgender kids unbearable, share your hurt. We aren’t going to move every Republican or independent; for some the cruelty is the point.
But pretty much all the movement away from the Republicans in the polls this last year has been among independents and Republicans. For so long their media has sheltered them from the needless hurt of good people their votes create.
The protesters making the news have breached the Republican bubble. Help that breach grow by not just telling the world you stand on the right side of history, but by saying you stand on the right side of history by standing with the protesters. Full-throated endorsement is what counts.
And Tell the Truth. So much of how the Republicans have gotten so far off the rails is that they’ve left the truth behind. The leaders of the Republicans just flat-out lying to our faces only minutes after the protesters were killed in Minneapolis is the reality we all now face and must work together to overcome.
Republicans lie when the truth doesn’t work for them. Seems the truth never works for them anymore. Yes, we see businesses being caught in lies all the time, but that only makes the news because it’s the exception.
If you’ve survived as a business for any length of time, it’s because you’ve managed to successfully weave truth through what you do. You are trusted. Your voice really can reach past the Republican bubble. Please use your voice.
FOOLS RUSH IN. Google “boycott Penzeys” and you will see there is indeed a cost to totally leaping in and directly calling out Republicans for the cruelty and damage their votes are doing. But you really don’t have to start as dramatically as we did.
Maybe don’t start by mailing your entire mailing list. Maybe you can identify people who’ve bought products that show that they care about others and you can start with those names.
Or maybe there are groups in your area that meet in support of one of the groups Republicans are now hell-bent on persecuting and you could go and speak in support of them or at least give them some product for their volunteers or a bigger donation or two if they are having a raffle.
And store signs. Store signs work. In Minneapolis I’m pitching the idea of “Protester Safe Zone” signs to show that protesters are welcome to come in, warm up, use the restrooms, and that if ICE tries to follow them in they will be denied entry without a valid judicial warrant.
Emailing, or signs, or donations and support to those doing good all add up. The important thing is to try to find your way to get started. Yes, you might at least temporarily lose a few sales, but I can tell you, long run it’s a good path.
For us it’s been sort of like, what if instead of spending money on advertising we invested in karma instead? And to show for it we have the very best customers. Really good employees have searched us out to help contribute to what we do. One day Trump even personally called out Penzeys as “Terrible, Over-Priced Product.” That was a very good day.
And really this is all about all of us working together to turn out so many votes this November that, even with all the cheating Republicans have planned, they still can’t win. Here, the voice of your business can make all the difference.
Ultimately we’ve found winning isn’t so much about converting voters as it is about simply turning them out. That starts with coaxing those who’ve given up back into caring, getting those who’ve gone silent to once again start speaking out, and getting those still speaking out committed to turning out every vote of every voter around them.
As a business your voice is incredibly powerful at bringing the people of your community back and encouraging them to do more. You just have to find your way to start.
Please start. Your voice means everything right now. It’s the good thing to do, it’s the right thing to do, and if you believe in America, now is the time to do it. Thanks.
If you know of others in decision-making positions in business, please share this with them.
And this really is an ad. The sales it creates really will determine how many people it reaches. If you want to help with that, $40 real, never expiring, no fees Gift Cards for just $30; 33% off all Gift Boxes; and a free jar of the very tasty Resist Seasoning with $10 spending and the code of RESIST can all be found at penzeys.com.
These are all available in our stores as well through Sunday night, 2.8.26.
Whatever you start your day with: eggs, fruit, avocado toast, all get better with Resist. Start your day off right : )
Thanks!
Bill
[email protected]
