W.y Mize’s family grew up in Publix, disciples of the giant supermarket chain’s empirical marketing slogan: “Where shopping is a pleasure”. As infants, her three daughters wore diapers purchased from the Publix baby club. As children, they chewed on free cookies from the bakery. There were even benefits for the family’s pets, who are proud members of Publix Paws.
But now the decades-long love affair is over. After a member of Publix’s founding family donates $ 300,000 to the Donald Trump rally that preceded the deadly January Capitol riots, Mize pulls out of what she says has become “ an abusive, dysfunctional relationship, ” and joins in joins others in a boycott of the Florida-based supermarket chain with more than 1,200 stores in seven southeastern states.
“It was the last straw,” said Mize, 57, an Orlando ad copywriter whose youngest twin daughters are now 19. from the Senate … we’re not going to call this normal. [Publix] are a private company and it is their business how they want to contribute their money, but it is also my right to decide what I want to spend my dollars on. “
Publix is a Florida institution, the company grew from the roots of the Depression in the 1930s to a regional colossus with 225,000 employees today, and the founding Jenkins family is now worth $ 8.8 billion, according to Forbes. It prides itself on a family-friendly image, entices customers with prominent buy-one-get-one deals and a range of popular sandwich subs, and prides itself on being the largest employee-owned company in the US.
Still, the company and its founders have often and generously donated to partisan, conservative causes, including more than $ 2 million alone by Publix heiress Julie Jenkins Fancelli, daughter of the late founder George Jenkins, to the Republican National Committee and Trump’s failed re-election. campaign.
In a short statement On January 30, the company’s only comment on Fancelli to date, Publix tried to distance herself from her. Yet her funding of the Trump rally that marked the opening act of the uprising, and which the Wall Street Journal revealed had been channeled through right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, was just the latest in a string of controversies and missteps that left some shoppers nosing their noses. they filled their carts, or others like Mize left completely.
Three years ago, in the aftermath of the Parkland, Florida high school shooting that killed 17 people, Publix temporarily halted political donations after a protest over funding Adam Putnam, a self-proclaimed “ proud sale of the National Rifle Association. ” , for state governor.
Parkland survivors, led by activist David Hogg, and their supporters staged “die-ins” at Publix supermarkets in various locations, protesting the company’s $ 670,000 donation, through its political action committee, to Putnam’s campaign. . Putnam, as Florida’s commissioner for agriculture, had strongly opposed stricter gun laws after the shooting.
He was also the state official responsible for regulating Publix’s 800 stores in Florida, but ultimately lost the Republican primary to current Governor Ron DeSantis, a staunch Trump ally and another recipient of the company’s political benevolence.
Earlier this year, Publix donated $ 100,000 to a political action committee seeking to secure DeSantis re-election in 2022. Shortly afterwards, the Governor awarded Publix a lucrative and exclusive contract to distribute Covid-19 vaccines in numerous stores. The governor’s office, which denied impropriety, has since added other retailers, including Walmart and Winn Dixie, to its approved distribution chain. But the controversy did not go down well with some observers.
“This is, plain and simple, dirty pay-to-play policy, corruption made possible by a manipulative governor who kept the Covid-19 infection data secret and is now doing the same with vaccine distribution,” wrote the Miami Herald. columnist Fabiola Santiago.
“He doesn’t work for us, but on behalf of his reelection campaign. And this is exactly the type of politician that Publix helps and encourages by funding their careers. “
Others point out that Publix is at the forefront of vaccine distribution in Florida, while in some parts of the state it does not enforce in-store mask wearing, and is defending a damaging lawsuit for wrongful death of a Miami employee’s family who died of Covid complications after being told not to wear a mask.
A judge in Tampa last week threw out the company’s claim to return the lawsuit to an employee’s indemnity after the company requested the death of 70-year-old deli Gerardo Gutierrez last April to be classified as a work-related accident. .
Gutierrez’s family insists he contracted the infection from a colleague after employees were banned from wearing masks because workplace regulations were later reversed. Publix has said it will not comment on pending litigation, and has not responded to other Guardian inquiries for this article.
“They adapted very slowly to the pandemic and the new pandemic rules,” said Craig Pittman, author of several books on Florida culture, who has described the rise of Publix as the state’s premier grocery store. “But the thing with Publix is it does a lot of little things that people like, they are a big part of carrying your groceries to the car and won’t accept the tip, they give free cookies to the kids in the bakery, if you ask for a sample, they give it to you without asking questions.
So people have long been willing to overlook some of the less appetizing aspects of the story, some of the sexual and racial discrimination lawsuits brought by employees, and this whole thing about them or their heirs donating to different people. politicians.
Business messaging experts say Publix is on a tightrope in dealing with the Fancelli crisis.
“What Publix does is take the middle ground, minimize the responsibility, and by noting that Ms. Fancelli’s actions were essentially those of an individual who was not involved in the company, they say, ‘Look, we have no control here, Said Professor Josh Scacco of the University of South Florida communications department.
“Publix rates the situation as,” We have no responsibility, or responsibilities beyond blame by association. ” [But while] there is separation between the person at the counter, the person behind the deli, the manager of a store, the CEO and then the political action committee, ultimately they all fall under the publix umbrella. “
Scacco also believes the furor reflects the increasingly partisan nature of corporate America, where even the purchase of guava and cheese square from a Publix bakery has become a political statement.
For example, President Trump would tweet support for a particular company and immediately polarize the brand’s endorsement, Republicans like that company, Democrats don’t like that company, ”he said. “That is the risk that companies are so closely associated with a particular leader or group of leaders.
“It’s also partly why there was such a rush immediately after January 6 that many of these companies said, ‘We’re not going to donate to individuals in Congress who voted to reverse the election results, we’re just not going to do it.’
Mize, and her family, meanwhile, work through their Publix break with a mixture of grief and relief.
“This time I just thought, ‘Enough. It’s not going to be normal ‘. “