It looks like all you have to do to intimidate a corporation these days is protest in their stores and they will fold like a wet sheet.
Just see how Starbucks overreacted to an isolated incident of bad publicity — which I discussed last week in this space — and now has an official policy of letting people come into their stores, hang around and use bathrooms without making a purchase.
Rushing to follow in Starbucks’ sheepish “politically correct” footsteps is Florida-based Publix grocery stores. Publix is the largest employee-owned grocery store chain in the world with close to 200,000 employees in over 1,100 stores in seven states (nearly 800 in Florida alone).
Publix has been targeted by protesters because it committed the unpardonable sin of making campaign contributions to a political candidate who has accepted funds from the National Rifle Association (NRA).
The candidate is Republican Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam who is running for governor to replace term-limited Rick Scott.
The protestors are a segment of student and adult anti-NRA protestors growing out of the February 14 Parkland, Florida, massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Publix’s headquarters in Lakeland, Florida, is Putnam’s home county and it has supported him in every campaign since he ran for public office.
Last Friday afternoon, a couple of dozen protesters invaded a Coral Springs, Florida, Publix not far from the Stoneman Douglas school — and in a few other communities including Orlando. They carried “No NRA Money” signs and disrupted and disrespected shoppers by laying down on the floor conducting a so-called “die-in.”
They were met by a very vocal group of “anti-protester” protesters — including men, women and some children — yelling
