The politics of brand names

Do the public stances of a business and its owners affect whether you’ll buy their product?

Years ago, a family member introduced me to Penzeys Spices, out of Wisconsin, a mail order business (they have some retail locations as well, but none near me) selling all sorts of individual spices, specialty spice blends, gift boxes, and so on. I loved their products and have ordered frequently from them over the years. Their physical catalog (this was before online ordering became omnipresent) was packed with great recipes showing you how to use their herbs and spices. The recipes were so popular that for a while, they even published a print cooking magazine, Penzeys ONE.

At the time, all they were was a spice company. At some point after that, the founder, Bill Penzey Jr., became outspoken about political issues, and began using his company’s e-mail lists and catalogs as a forum. Penzeys sometimes even builds sales or special promotions around some political event, anniversary, election, or what have you.

Penzey is unabashedly liberal. Even in cases when I agreed with the content of his basic argument, I would sometimes get annoyed with the shrill, polarizing way he would express it. I tend to think of myself as a moderate — I lean left on some issues, right on others, but strongly believe in the give-and-take necessary for any functioning democracy.

The irony of all this is that another branch of Penzey’s family, Patty (Penzey) Erd and her husband Tom, operated their own, very similar, company, The Spice House. According to news stories I’ve read, their politics tend to lean to the right, not the left, but they made a conscious decision that, unlike Bill Penzey, they would keep their marketing separate from their politics. The Erds sold the business to two investors, Dave Grossman and Dan Yates, in 2018.

If you’re a conservative who likes a pint of Ben & Jerry’s Chunky Monkey now and then, or if you’re a liberal who thinks that Chick-fil-A sandwiches are great and their customer service is top-notch, you may have asked yourself if you’re doing the right thing by patronizing a company that stands for things you oppose, or opposes things you stand for.