I jumped into something on Twitter which spawned a discussion and Twitter isn't really great for that. It's confusing to follow. But I think a Good Question emerged, so I thought I'd post it here.
Republican Party Chair Tony Sutton is the CEO of Baja Sol, a chain of quick-Mexican restaurants. (Disclosure: I ate at the City Center Baja Sol yesterday.) Aaron tweeted: "Few of my coworkers changed their lunch plans after I told them the CEO of @bajasol is also the chair of the Republican Party of MN."
I responded: "The logic escapes me...it hurts the employees, regardless of their political affiliation. DFLers only eat at DFL places? Weird."
Art wrote: "it's a good way to make an otherwise hard choice. But to not ever eat delicious food because you disagree on abortion?"
And David added: "I don't boycott Baja (don't eat there much) but did boycott Domino's Pizza over Tom Monaghan's anti-abortion efforts."
Molly raises a good issue: "It also helps to reveal their stance on environmental issues, union issues, etc. Important issues to lots of people. The CEO's politics says a lot about where $ will be going, though. Like Target's big donations to Repubs."
I work for a huge corporation with political interests, but I hope people decide to watch WCCO because they like the quality of our newscast. I choose to eat at a restaurant because I like the food.
But I also prefer to shop locally. I bought my appliances recently from Warners-Stellian partially because they are a local company, rather than getting them at Home Depot, Lowe's or Sears.
It's hard not to mention Wal-Mart in a discussion like this. But I think it's one thing to choose to not shop somewhere because you don't like how the business is run or how the employees are treated. It's different to say I'm not going to Baja Sol because Tony Sutton is the chair of the GOP in Minnesota and I don't like his politics.
Would you punish a company by taking your business elsewhere, because you dislike the politics of the CEO? (also at Heavy Table)
