The dust hasn’t yet settled for a spice company whose store got a visit this weekend from Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
By Emily Heil
The anti-Penzeys campaign was stoked on Sunday, when Fox News offered its hot take. “Vice President Harris is hunkering down in Pittsburgh as she pushes for unity while visiting a spice shop known for mocking Republicans,” “Fox & Friends” host Will Cain said. Co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy dubbed Penzeys “the meanest spice shop in America.”
People flocked to the shop’s Yelp profile to leave one-star blasts, with some claiming to be customers specifically criticizing Penzeys’s liberal politics and others merely complaining about alleged poor service or quality. “If you’re a Republican or just an ordinary conservative you should know that this business & its CEO hates you,” one Yelp user wrote. “Don’t spend your hard earned money at a company that openly hates you.”
On the Yelp page, though, supporters also weighed in, leaving raves of their own to counteract the poor ratings. One fan noted that those expressing outrage probably weren’t customers to begin with. “You will not go out of business without their support,” she wrote. “They didn’t support you anyway and are in their feelings. There are plenty others that appreciate what you’re doing.”
The Wisconsin-based company’s owner and founder, Bill Penzey, said in an interview with The Washington Post that although he’s getting some nasty emails, the good that’s come from the visit has so far outweighed them. “I’m used to that sort of puffer fish thing they do, where they put it in all caps and use horrible language to try and make it seem like they’re larger than they are,” he said. “At the same time, there’s so much good, positive stuff that it overwhelms it.”
The actual impact on the business is difficult to quantify. Website sales were way up Monday, Penzey said, and more people have signed up for the newsletter than have unsubscribed. But he noted that in his business, you might not notice right away if customers have left. “If customers quit you, it’s a slow process for that money to not show up. But if people are excited by what happens, they come to your website, or they visit your stores right away.”
Still, you can’t buy advertising like the image that Harris posted on her Instagram page, in which she beams as she checks out at the Penzeys register, with a giant sign behind her bearing one of the brand’s mantras: “Kind.” And Penzey’s takeaway — the thing he’ll remember about this episode long after the angry emails have stopped — was the hug the vice president gave a crying customer, which was captured in a video that has been viewed millions of times.
Penzey shared it on Sunday, in one of his regular email newsletters to customers. “There are good reasons the views spread like wildfire,” he wrote. “She’s a cook. She cares. And in our store, built to celebrate the kindness at the heart of cooking … the goodness of the moment went off the charts.”
Harris, he said, embodies the message that he’s tried for years to spread. “We’ve been about getting back to that idea of cooking as an act of caring, an act of kindness that you do for the people around you,” he said. “And it was just so perfect to have her be in our store and see that woman in tears and just hugging her.”
But he also told customers that the backlash has been fierce. “Never has the media of the right tried as hard to boycott us or ‘Bud Light’ us as they are trying right now,” he wrote, citing the conservative boycott of the beer brand after it partnered with transgender comedian and activist Dylan Mulvaney.
While some Republicans on social media and elsewhere were aghast to discover the company’s left-leaning bent, for its customers, it was nothing new. Penzeys newsletters are often peppered with political musings and calls to protect democracy and to vote. The company has named products in whimsical odes to news moments: The description of an “Outrage of Love” blend cites the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. “When does a party end and fascism begin?” it asks. “When good people give up on being Outraged.” A salt-free “Justice” mix promises to improve foods’ flavors: “even scrambled eggs become something remarkable when Liberally Seasoned with Justice.”
Penzeys boasts a page on its website titled “About Republicans” that denounces the party’s “slow decline” while insisting that there’s no personal ill will intended. “Going forward we would still be glad to have you as customers, but we’re done pretending the Republican Party’s embrace of cruelty, racism, Covid lies, climate change denial, and threats to democracy are anything other than the risks they legitimately are,” it reads. “If you need us to pretend you are not creating the hurt you are creating in order for you to continue to be our customer, I’m sad to say you might be happier elsewhere.”
Penzey told The Post he was pleased to have those words included in the Fox News segment. “Friday starts like a normal day,” he wrote in his Sunday newsletter. “Saturday the future President of the United States hugged our customers in our Pittsburgh store. Sunday the words I so wanted every Fox viewer to hear being read on Fox, by Fox straight to all their viewers. What a weekend.”
In 2019, the company was the largest buyer of Facebook advertising on either side of the debate over Trump’s impeachment — other than Trump himself. At the time, Penzey told The Post that supporting calls for impeachment was good for business. “I’m running ads to run a business,” he said in an interview. “And so much of that is using your business to radiate your values.”
In addition to calls for a boycott, there were others who used the moment to promote the brand. “I’m going to start buying spices from @PenzeysSpices ASAP,” one user wrote on X. “As a small biz owner, I appreciate the honesty, tenacity” and bravery Penzey showed.
Penzeys previously lost subscribers based on its owner’s outspokenness. In 2022, Penzey said the boycotts that followed his messages about Republicans being racist led to losing some 40,000 newsletter subscribers, although the effort resulted in 30,000 new people signing up.
Meanwhile, Public Square, the Donald Trump Jr.-backed online platform that describes itself as being for “businesses who respect traditional American values” used the moment to boost its own alternatives.
“Ditch businesses like Penzeys that are so bought into the woke culture that they blatantly discriminate against common sense Americans and conservatives,” the company posted on X. “We have dozens of great spice companies on PublicSquare.com that would never cancel you for your political views.”
Penzey, though, has been here before, and he said he knows that his way of doing business isn’t for everyone: “You put yourself out there, and there can be a real cost to it.”
