Costco to conservatives: Get lost

http://www.michaelmbates.com ^ | 2/26/04 | Michael M. Bates

[Mike Bates]

After several years of shopping there, it looks like my days and evenings roaming the aisles of Costco are over. It’s a shame really.

The closest Costco, the one in Bedford Park, takes longer to drive to than the local Sam’s Club. The extra travel time was almost always worth it.

Costco has a larger variety of items. It’s well managed and rarely are there long lines as there often are at Sam’s. The store has an excellent electronics department and its spiral ham is out of this world. Holiday times are particularly good as you can always count on Costco to have imaginative seasonal items at sensible prices.

At first the idea of warehouse shopping seemed unusual. I just wasn’t in the habit of buying a dozen cans of mushroom soup at a time. The strangeness wore off when I calculated the savings involved.

I’ve been happy at Costco. But now, because of its executives’ foolishness, I’ll no longer shop there. And I don’t think I’ll be alone in abandoning it.

Bloomberg News reported earlier this month that Costco chairman Jeffrey Brotman gave $95,000 in December to the Joint Victory Campaign 2004 fund. The purpose of the fund is to "change the course of the country away from the Bush administration's radical agenda." This will be done by electing as many "progressive" (read Leftist) candidates as possible.

Also in December, Costco CEO James Sinegal gave $95,000 to the Joint Victory Campaign 2004 fund. He says he contributed because of job losses during the Bush administration, the invasion of Iraq and cuts in social spending.

Unemployment is a real problem and has been since the recession that, according to Alan Greenspan, started while Clinton was in the White House. Still, there is room for hope. In December, an all-time high of 138.5 million Americans had a job and the unemployment rate has dropped.

Mr. Sinegal calls our action in Iraq an invasion. Many people view it as the liberation of a country from a brutal, genocidal maniac bent on exporting terrorism. It’s true that the expected weapons of mass destruction haven’t been found, but many people other than George Bush believed they were there. Even French president Jacques Chirac told Time magazine last year: "There is a problem — the probable possession of weapons of mass destruction by an uncontrollable country, Iraq."

What of Mr. Sinegal’s concern about cuts in social spending? Perhaps he’s not noticed that some conservatives are unhappy with the president because he’s not doing much to curtail expanding welfare statism. Indeed, so far Mr. Bush has failed to veto a single bill sent to him by Congress.

An analyst at the Cato Institute calculated how much non-defense discretionary spending has escalated in the first three years of the Bush presidency. That figure is an eye-popping 18 percent. Some cuts.

Mr. Sinegal, according to Federal Election Commission records, has also given many thousands of dollars to the campaigns of numerous Democrats. He even gave money to someone named Howard Dean who, it is rumored, was running for president.

Mr. Brotman enjoys a similar contribution pattern. Just last June, he sent checks to Howard Dean, Joe Lieberman and John Kerry. Nothing like covering all the bases.

Quite clearly, these gentlemen have every right to use their money to defeat or elect anybody they desire. Correspondingly, I and other Costco patrons have a right not to line those guys’ pockets so they can so munificently support all those Democrats.

When conservatives boycott something, it’s often seen as a form of unfair, un-American censorship. When Leftists boycott, as they have with grapes, lettuce, Anita Bryant, Domino’s Pizza, GE and Target, just to name a few, it’s portrayed as a virtuously moral imperative.

Over the past several weeks I’ve sent a couple of emails to Costco’s headquarters asking if the company is tired of having Republican customers. Each time I’ve received a reply saying I’d hear from the company soon. Shockingly, that hasn’t happened.

Costco’s executives should have been a little smarter than to alienate a considerable portion of its customer base. In 1990 Michael Jordan ignored pressures to take sides in a North Carolina Senate race between a black Democrat and Jesse Helms. His reasoning was flawless: "Republicans buy shoes, too."

Guess I’ll find that spiral ham somewhere else from now on.

[Mike Bates]

I also sent them a letter and had the same response - to date nothing.

Maybe they're just too darn busy writing those checks to answer us.

[Paulus Invictus]

Hey, all I asked is for some examples of RAT morality and you go off about the weirdos leaving the country if Bush is elected and not paying taxes if the Liberal Kerry is elected (perish the thought!). Are you a RAT apologist or what?

[alrea]

Mr. Sinegal calls our action in Iraq an invasion

Sinegal hasn't seen the intelligence. He's just falling for campaigning.

[kitkat]

***If you are going to select businesses to patronize based solely on whether the employees support Democratic or Republican candidates, you are going to be kept very busy keeping up with the ever-changing tides of candidate support, and will have little time left to shop. ***

What a snotty answer! Those "employees," who just happen to run the company, get their money from the customers. And the customers have every right not to contribute to any party they don't like.

[Rutles4Ever]

I think Zell Miller would disagree with your assessment that there is no morality among democrats.

Whether or not the majority of democrats hold a moral view on social issues does not supercede the right of somebody to give money to the political party of their choice. My comparison of the Hollywood "loon-arati" with a hypothetical stance of refusing to pay taxes if Kerry is elected is a valid comparison to refusing to shop somewhere because an individual exercised his rights outside the realm of the corporation. If you had read my posts, you would see that I do not excuse corporations that donate in their corporate name. You would also know that I am not a RAT apologist, just a defender of your rights and mine.

If the shoe were on the other foot -- if Democrats decided to organize a boycott against Domino's pizza because Tom Monaghan is an ardent private supporter of pro-life organizations, you would be screaming bloody murder about over-reaction, rights, and disregard for the Constitution.

Consistency of message and mission has to be our edge over the democrats.

[Rutles4Ever]

THIS -- THIS!!!! THIS IS A VALID REASON TO BOYCOTT COSTCO!

Costco is sponsoring an immoral former public official who is in the realm of indcotrinating youth to her f'ed up views.

THAT is a reason to boycott Costco. Unless they are willing to present an alternative speaker who advocates abstinence, I will not give them any money...

[Doctor Stochastic]

I used to watch the Left do the politically correct thing by checking the provenance of grapes and lettuce (not to mention the South Africa Boycott). Seems as if the Right is now infected as well by the PC bug.

[Paulus Invictus]

Gosh, I never said anything about boycotts or the possibility that individual RATS like Zell could be morally clean. All I asked you is some examples of how the RAT Party policies and ideology can be proven to be moral or based upon morality as we undersstand it.

[Mike Bates]

LOOKS LIKE THEY REALLY DON'T CARE, DOESN'T IT??

The writer of the letter from Costco, Joel Benoliel, cares plenty. He cares enough to himself have given money to (among others) Gore, Lieberman, the DNC, Bill Bradley, Patty Murray . . .

Yep, he cares plenty.

[Mike Bates]

Seems as if the Right is now infected as well by the PC bug.

Gee, I've never been accused of being PC before.

[CalKat]

I doubt Costco will suffer as a result of this. They'll probably get by without Teresa Heinz Kerry buying bulk hams.

[uncitizen]

Great Smoky Mountains Bump! I've been everywhere, man, I've been everywhere, and I hain't never seen a place more beautiful than the Smoky's!

[Viking2002]

Well, so much for renewing our Costco membership. I was listening to consumer talk show host Clark Howard last year, and he was saying that BJ's has wider variety of merchandise and services than Sam's or Costco. They opened one less than an hour from here, to it looks like that's where the wife and I will be taking our business.

[oyez]

It just didn't suit me.

Ditto. Not our cup of tea.

[Mike Bates]

Well, so much for renewing our Costco membership.

Please let Costco know why you're not renewing your membership. If they hear from enough former customers, maybe they'll do something. . . like give like amounts to Bush-Cheney or to FR or to another worthwhile (read conservative) designee.

[xm177e2]

Why should we care how two executives side politically? Why can't we let them have their politics, and continue to shop their stores? They aren't using COSTCO itself to promote a liberal agenda, they are only using their own money to do so.

[Citizen Soldier]

because you are giving them your money to support the bashing of Bush and conservative agendas

If they didn't have that much disposable personal income they wouldn't be giving to the liberal causes

I gave up on Wal-Mart years ago when I read that Hillary Clinton was on their Board od Directors up until the first election. I am sure her stock is in a "blind trust" (wink, wink) I won't put money in the clinton's pockets if I can help it either!

[Mike Bates]

They aren't using COSTCO itself to promote a liberal agenda, they are only using their own money to do so.

Their own money which they're earning, at least in part, because conservatives patronize their store. I refuse to line their pockets. Let them donate someone else's money. I'll not knowingly help advance a Leftist agenda.

[Poohbah]

Their own money which they're earning, at least in part, because conservatives patronize their store. I refuse to line their pockets. Let them donate someone else's money. I'll not knowingly help advance a Leftist agenda.

Are you being serious about this, or is this over-the-top moronic hyperbole?

Because if you do business with ANY business bigger than a mom-and-pop, someone in that business is donating to Democrats.

[Mike Bates]

Are you being serious about this, or is this over-the-top moronic hyperbole?

You're free to characterize it as you wish.

Because if you do business with ANY business bigger than a mom-and-pop, someone in that business is donating to Democrats.

How can you possibly know that with certainty? Top executives giving huge amounts?