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Wisconsin Spice Company Begging for Customers After Losing a Ton When CEO Called Republicans Racist

Wisconsin Spice Company Begging for Customers After Losing a Ton When CEO Called Republicans Racist

They lost 40,005 subscribers. They only gained 30,000: “We are still down about 10,000. Please help.”

Penzeys Spices CEO Bill Penzey declared the Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend “Republicans are racist weekend.” He said he wanted “to anger Republicans.”

Penzey had to close stores during the pandemic. So, yeah, let’s go ahead and tick off a lot of our remaining customers!

Go woke you go broke. So stupid.

Penzeys Spices lost 40,005 subscribers. Penzey’s latest email begged for people to buy gift cards to draw in new customers but did not shed his blinders. From 1130 WISN:

“After starting the year with All Republicans are Republicans and following up with Republicans are Racists we’ve set a nice little Boycott Penzeys! surge in motion,” Penzey’s CEO Bill Penzey said in an email to customers Friday. “It certainly wasn’t unexpected, but if it’s within your means, you picking up a small stack of Gift Cards would help.”

Penzey admitted that the “Republicans are Racists” email cost his business 40,005 subscribers, roughly three percent of the total. As a result, Penzey’s is offering a gift card sale “with the hope this might make it a bit easier for you to share some and possibly get a few good new customers to replace the ones we’ve lost.”

While Penzey claims that news coverage of his anti-Republican rant brought in 30,000 new email subscribers, he adds that “we are still down about 10,000. Please help.”

His email then takes on a desperate tone, all but begging liberals to sign up for his email list as a way of virtue-signaling their politics.

“If you can’t even begin to fathom how to ‘compromise’ with January 6th, or the Republican vaccine lies needlessly killing 10,000 Americans every week, if you have no desire to become half-way racist, and if their intent to destroy our climate for one thousand years to come doesn’t have you asking: ‘What if we just destroyed it for five-hundred years instead?’ we would be better off with you on this Voice Of Cooking email list,” he wrote.

What did Michael Jordan say once upon a time? Oh yeah. Republicans buy shoes, too.

The story is funnier because Penzey told The Daily Mail he didn’t worry “about a loss in customers.” He bragged that his characterization of Republicans excited the company’s liberal base.

Yeah…that was a lie:

The Republicans are Racist letter has infuriated customers on both sides of the aisle who criticized Penzey for his outrageous claims and say they now plan to boycott the company.

‘I’m a Democrat and liberal and all that and I know not all Republicans are racist. I think this is going a bit too far with the generalizations,’ one customer wrote on the Penzeys website. Another said: ‘I am a Democrat. But, I find this bad business.’

A shame. I like supporting small businesses and cooking. Penzeys Spices sounded like a great place to buy some new seasonings.

I’ll just make my own.

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Comments

Boo hoo. Your choices, your consequences.

The left knows no bounds

https://twitter.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1488049730483412994

The comments will give you no hope

“We are still down about 10,000. Please help.”

Okay, I’ll tell everybody I know not to buy your stupid spices.

    vinnymeyer in reply to Peabody. | January 31, 2022 at 2:44 pm

    They’re down 10,000 Email subscribers. They’re begging their customers buy gift cards. Why are they using email subscribers as a metric? We could make him happy and subscribe and just spam filter his emails, that won’t fix his loss of sales. He’s obviously too stupid to get that nobody who is insulted by him is going to buy from him.

    The gift cards he’s begging people buy are a loan. There’s no reason to believe at the rate he’s going that they’ll ever be redeemable for products or refund, as he’ll be out of business.

      henrybowman in reply to vinnymeyer. | January 31, 2022 at 6:21 pm

      Well, that’s a venerable Democrat business model, in the spirit of Solyndra and Theranos.
      Or, he could just lobby Biden to forgive his debt. “Too small to fail!”

      Oversoul Of Dusk in reply to vinnymeyer. | January 31, 2022 at 9:52 pm

      I hope all the leftards buy lots of gift cards. It sounds like Penzey knows the company is headed for bankruptcy. He and the wife will pay themselves some extra salary with the money and then shut the company down. The gift cards will become worthless.

      Yay! Less money for the rank-and-file leftards to give to leftist politicians who aren’t quite as stupid and ineffective as Penzey. I can’t think of a better leftist toilet for leftards to flush their money down.

      If they were serious about saving the company, they’d be asking the leftards to buy spices, not gift cards.

      CPOMustang in reply to vinnymeyer. | February 1, 2022 at 5:42 am

      One of the smartest comments here. If someone gets you a gift card from this jackalope better use it quick. They may not make it long.

Talk about leaving a bad taste in one’s mouth. The really high percentage of Dems that really really hate non-Dems figures heavily into this. They..can’t..help..themselves…

Bill Penza sorta looks like Larry Flynt.

Spices are from the Far East. As a die-hard liberal, shouldn’t he be ashamed that he is guilty of culture appropriation? .

This isn’t Bill Penzey’s first foray into political commentary. After Trump was elected, he released a missive basically saying he didn’t want your business if you voted for Trump. I was a long-time customer who just ignored the leftist droning because the spices were so good, but this time I took him at his word. The business is family-owned, but Bill seems to have a knack for pissing off his family also- a couple of other family members also run a spice company The Spice House. Penzey’s spices are really good, but in my experience The Spice House is just as good, and without the extra helping of political blather.

    HoosierDiddy in reply to momnotmom. | January 31, 2022 at 1:44 pm

    You are right. We used to go to the Penzeys store nearby the Westside Market in Cleveland. Stopped by there regularly and always walked out with a purchase. After he made his idiotic comments after the election, I concluded he really doesn’t want my business. Now I too order from the Spice House site and am fine with that.

      gonzotx in reply to HoosierDiddy. | January 31, 2022 at 8:20 pm

      I have bought at the Spice house in Milwaukee
      I will never shop anything he owns

        fishingfool55 in reply to gonzotx. | February 1, 2022 at 1:08 pm

        I switched to http://www.spicehouse.com after the Trump voter comment. Not only is Spice House a competitor, it was started by Bill Sr and Ruth Penzey back in the 40’s. It was sold by their daughter a couple of years ago. I think Bill Penzey in the article is their son. He must have split from the family and started his own spice business. The daughter inherited the Spice House. After the 2016 comments, they welcomed all those customers leaving Penzey Spice.

    mbecker908 in reply to momnotmom. | January 31, 2022 at 2:52 pm

    That’s when we quit buying from Penzey’s. The have a store in our town, and I dropped by at that time and told them we were proud Trump voters and they didn’t have to worry about ever seeing another dollar from us.

      WTPuck in reply to mbecker908. | January 31, 2022 at 3:26 pm

      And where I am, there are a couple of local spice purveyors. So I have no need to send money to jackasses. Plus, I have a ton of freebies from Penzey’s from a few years ago that will take the rest of my life to use up. So there!

    Another Voice in reply to momnotmom. | January 31, 2022 at 3:40 pm

    “a couple of other family members also run a spice company The Spice House. ”

    Would have loved to have done business with them just to have had the benefit to cancel the account and identify their email solicitations as JUNK MAIL. So I did the next best thing and ordered @ The Spice House and was asked for feed back, I rated them as a “10” for NOT being “Penzeys Spices” !

    JoAnne in reply to momnotmom. | January 31, 2022 at 5:27 pm

    Same here. I get rid of every company who politicizes their products.

    pst314 in reply to momnotmom. | January 31, 2022 at 6:47 pm

    The Spice House is excellent–very high quality. I’ve been buying spices from them for 40 years. My mother was a loyal customer for many decades before that.
    This is their website.
    Multiple locations in the Milwaukee metro area and Chicago metro area.

      DSHornet in reply to pst314. | February 1, 2022 at 10:23 am

      Thanks. I sent the web link to The Bride. She’s already a super cook, and I know she’ll be interested.
      .

    Valerie in reply to momnotmom. | January 31, 2022 at 7:21 pm

    The Spice House? Good to know. It’s unAmerican to be rude to fellow citizens over party affiliation. Bill Penzey is a nasty piece of work that belongs in another country.

    AnthonyH in reply to momnotmom. | January 31, 2022 at 8:10 pm

    I just grilled some pork tenderloin with The Spice House’s Greek seasonings. I found them after the first time Penzey stuck his foot in his mouth.

    Gateway to the North is also good.

    Happy cooking, all!

    lilred99 in reply to momnotmom. | February 2, 2022 at 6:41 am

    When Bill Penzey condemned Trump voters I sent an email to Penzey’s Spice. They are welcomed to their opinion & so am I. He basically said he didn’t want any business from people dumb enough to vote for Donald Trump. I decided I didn’t need his products anymore. And it really shouldn’t matter who we vote for. That kind of attitude doesn’t serve any good purpose. It’s ironic, one of their big campaigns they pushed was called “Kind”. Being Kind to everyone.

He learned nothing.

Besides, who needs Penzey’s when we have Goya?

Screw half the country! Now buy our crap. Please?

2smartforlibs | January 31, 2022 at 1:43 pm

Liberal always think they are leading the way when in fact they are the only ones in line.

The Gentle Grizzly | January 31, 2022 at 1:45 pm

The sheer stupidity of a lot of American companyvoeners or boards of directors doesn’t cease to amaze me.

    JohnSmith100 in reply to The Gentle Grizzly. | January 31, 2022 at 8:49 pm

    This company is small enough that they felt the pain in a short time, others such as Amazon, are too big to notice the damage they are doing to their brand. By the time they do notice, it will be too late for them to avoid the rath.

    I was averaging $5000 or more a year at Amazon per year. Sometimes much more. I just sold a 6 kwh solar system I was using on my current property, The buyer keeps asking about other parts he needs for his application. They have all been Amazon items. I promptly look the item up, almost always find a better price, and have him ordering from anyone except Amazon. I have been doing this for a number of years now.

    Also, I am about to order a larger replacement system. That will be 10’s of thousands, Amazon will not see a dime.

    I am actively boycotting other companies, one of which dates to the seventies’

    Business should focus on just the business; it is really stupid to run off customers.

Because the left can’t cook their own meals

Ha ha ha. How I love the taste of schadenfreude in the morning. Best spice ever.

Penzeys?

We make your own spice mixes. The only off-the-shelf spice mix we use – Montreal Steak Rub (?). I’m saddened that I never even heard of Penzeys so I could boycot them. 🙁

    AnAdultInDiapers in reply to MrE. | January 31, 2022 at 4:02 pm

    I can only suggest: Oakridge Crucible.

    It’ll clear your kitchen if you use it indoors, but it’s worth it. Seriously it’s worth it.

    pst314 in reply to MrE. | January 31, 2022 at 7:04 pm

    Mixing your own is great, but the the Spice House does sell pure spices that you can mix as you choose.

      I imagine that’s quite an investment. Two summers ago we made candied beets. The store was out of whole cloves so we bought fresh from a spice store. Using the same amounts we always use, the fresh cloves overpowered every other flavor in the brine and we wound up throwing out an entire batch. I’ll file the SH url for future exploration. Thanks!

        pst314 in reply to MrE. | January 31, 2022 at 8:18 pm

        It’s true that really fresh spices are much stronger than commercial, pre-mixed spices.
        I suppose it makes sense to ask advice from the spice store–they must know about relative strengths. And also experiment with small batches.
        For instance, the vanilla extract I buy from the Spice House is *much stronger* than what you’ll find in a supermarket. I made a small experimental batch the first time I used theirs to make Christmas cookies. Not the best test, though, because “twice as much vanilla flavor” tastes great. 🙂

    Oversoul Of Dusk in reply to MrE. | January 31, 2022 at 9:57 pm

    You can still use a throwaway email address to get on their mailing list. Let them think you’re a new leftist customer. Let them think you’ll buy their stuff. Your freely-offered misinformation will help them to a well-deserved end just a bit faster.

Muntz laugh: HA HAAA!

This should make Johnny B’s Spicy Friday.

We quit using penzey’s years ago when he said on his website he did not want any customer who voted for President Trump. We do not want to be lectured and scorned by a CEO of any political leaning, so we obliged him and have ordered our spices from The Spice House ever since. (thespicehouse.com) Great spices, good prices. You will be satisfied.

Perhaps the company needs to look for a new CEO–one that cares about business from all customers

As a Texan I prefer to order from our historic Fort Worth spice supplier https://penderys.com/

    Colonel Travis in reply to TxDan. | January 31, 2022 at 5:31 pm

    Yes sir, was just over there this past weekend. Sometimes I like making my own basic chili powders but they have stuff I can’t do, plus I get lazy sometimes. Big fan of Pendery’s.

    donewiththis in reply to TxDan. | January 31, 2022 at 8:51 pm

    Thanks for the heads up. Will check it out.

Just as the Nike logo has become the left’s swastika, Penzeys is a new poison.

How it started:

[Penzey] said he wanted “to anger Republicans.’

How it went:

The Republicans are Racist letter has infuriated customers on both sides of the aisle who criticized Penzey for his outrageous claims and say they now plan to boycott the company.

‘I’m a Democrat and liberal and all that and I know not all Republicans are racist. I think this is going a bit too far with the generalizations,’ one customer wrote on the Penzeys website. Another said: ‘I am a Democrat. But, I find this bad business.’

No one can say Penzey isn’t an overachiever.

    henrybowman in reply to McGehee. | January 31, 2022 at 6:42 pm

    What must really be a drag for them is that they’ve closed all their retail locations (for other than order pickup) due to The Coof, so this email list is pretty much their last lifeline.

    Too bad they can’t cater to their desired customer base by opening up more carry-out stores in LA and San Francisco, where people who appreciate their politics can walk in and take home up to $900 or so of their product without paying for it.

Diversity (i.e. color judgment, class-based bigotry) breeds adversity. False allegations of diversity speak truth through projection. Roe, Roe, Roe yourself down the river Styx.

I stopped buying from Penzey back in 2016 after Bill made an anti-trump comment. Now I but McCormick, goya , or the stores house brand. F’m if they want to a-holes. I can be an even bigger a-hole then they can be.

Too bad this Marxist had to make his feels known. I used to shop at Penseys. Their products are most certainly not top of the line, but they were not bad for the money.

Spent my last dollar there though, learning what I did here.

Welcome to reality Marxists.

You lose! You get nothing!
Good Day Sir!

I’ve never understood this new marketing approach of insulting your customers.

I’ve never been a boycott person and I usually can’t even remember A-hole insulting companies even ten minutes after a nasty ad, but I still won’t touch any Gillette products to this day.

Bill Penzey reminds me of Ian Faith, the tour manager in “Spinal Tap,” who tries to explain why the band is playing increasingly smaller venues by claiming Spinal Tap is merely getting “more selective” about their audiences.

I think this moron should remember the wisdom of Michael Jordan. He is definitely to the left of center politically, but he doesn’t make a big deal about it. Asked why, “Republicans buy shoes too.”

The Spice House https://www.thespicehouse.com/ was started by Bill Penzey’s sister (since sold) and has many similar spice blends without the politics.

I’m not sure where he can find more customers, but I know where he can put his spices.

This guy is the dumbest a55 on earth. Stopped purchasing from him years ago, after buying from them for over 20 years, because of his ignorant divisive remarks several years ago. You still can’t fix stupid.