David Drake: Berkeley Retailers Seeing Backlash

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Berkeley Retailers Seeing Backlash

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww, isn't it sad...businesses in Berkeley are seeing their profits declining and shoppers are boycotting them. You might want to get a box of lotion-coated Puffs or Kleenex because this is a sad, sad, sad story.

Berkeley Mayor Tom ~~Bates~~ Asshat

Shoppers are deciding to spend their money elsewhere; anywhere but in stores, shops and businesses in Berkeley. I know - it's shocking - who could possibly have predicted this sort of fallout from Berkeley's disgusting and abhorrent treatment of the U.S. Marines by telling them that their recruitment office was not welcome in Berkeley, and by the mayor and a majority of the city council calling the Marines "uninvited and unwelcome intruders. Not even Nostradamus could have seen shopper revolt coming.

From Mercury News.com - story title: Berkeley businesses feel pinch of weekly anti-war protests - (do a search on the story title if the link brings you to a "register for free before allowing you to read the story" page):

People who are angry at city leaders for their anti-military stance are taking it out on businesses - canceling hotel rooms, restaurant reservations and theater tickets.

They are writing letters to the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce outlining their plans to boycott the city.

And they are steering clear of downtown shops because of the weekly anti-war protests that in recent weeks have become increasingly volatile.

Two weeks after the Berkeley City Council refused to apologize to the U.S. Marine Corps for calling them "uninvited and unwelcome intruders," Berkeley businesses are feeling the backlash from people who don't want to spend their money in the city.

[...]

Mo Hallaji, owner of Pollo's at Shattuck Avenue and Addison Street, said his business has declined 10 to 15 percent this month because of the traffic jams and fighting associated with the protests.

"They are killing our business," Hallaji said. "Everybody is against the war but that is not the right way to go about it if you want to accomplish something."

Quentin Moore, owner of Berkeley Hardware on University Avenue, is not far from the U.S. Marine recruiting center at 64 Shattuck Square, and the protests might be causing a downturn in his business.

"I see maybe two or three customers in here and maybe (the protests) are the reason," he said.

Code Pink, which held another rally Tuesday, has been holding protests since last fall while the group The World Can't Wait got involved recently. They are becoming increasingly violent and volatile. Police have arrested five people recently, including two last week.

"Oh.Dat's.So.Sad!" Are you reaching for that lotion-coated tissue yet?

From KCBS:

Some Berkeley business owners with stores near the Marines recruiting office on Shattuck Square, are getting impatient with all the recent protests, which they say are taking a bite out of their bottom lines.

Many say they’re angry with the Berkeley City Council, those protesting the Marines, and those protesting the people protesting the Marines.

[...]

Business owners say large crowds, often followed by police in riot gear, scare away potential customers.

"Oh.Dat's.So.Sad!" Hang on just a second, I have to get myself a brand new, fresh box of tissues. Oh, the tears I am shedding, the agony, the sadness, the tragedy.

Craig Lazzeretti, editor of the Berkeley Voice, "gets it", in his column titled: Time for Code Pink, tree sitters to unite - (again, do a search on the story title if the link brings you to a "register for free before allowing you to read the story" page):

Am I the only one who finds amusing the way the City Council and Code Pink have convinced themselves that they're advancing the anti-war movement with their shameful actions? Have they bothered to ask themselves why no one else in the movement has voiced any support for their actions?

[...]

Just as the New York Times has managed to rally conservatives around John McCain, the council and Code Pink have rallied the rest of the nation around the Marines. The Marines couldn't have asked for a better advertising campaign.

[...]

Pro-military groups aren't the only ones with an ax to grind against Code Pink. The tree sitters must also be steaming mad that they've been knocked off their perch in the media limelight.

[...]

My favorite argument from the protesters about why they have a right to impede the work of the Marine recruiting station: That the Marines lie to and deceive young men and women. Isn't that the same argument that protesters at abortion clinics use to impede work there? Did I mention how much the far right and far left have in common?

From Women's Wear Daily:

Fashion retailers in Berkeley, Calif., might be caught in the middle of a campaign to boycott the city and its businesses because of an attempt to shut a U.S. Marine Corps recruiting office to protest the Iraq war.

[...]

Now a conservative organization, Move America Forward, is set to launch the boycott this week along with a cable TV advertising campaign.

[...]

All of this is testing the patience of fashion merchants, who otherwise embrace Berkeley's activist ethos.

"It's not the right platform to affect change like that," said John Kiskaddon, co-owner of Harper Greer, a plus-size store and wholesale line on Berkeley's 4th Street, a fashion row of independent boutiques and cafes.

"I'm certainly not for the war, but the recruiting office should still be allowed to be there," said Susan Trefethen, owner of Molly b., with two stores on 4th and Vine streets, carrying a mix of labels such as Osaka from Germany, French designer Sara Pacini and designer Krista Larsen from Vermont.

[...]

Leslie Sobelson, manager and buyer for Berkeley-based sportswear retailer and wholesaler Bryn Walker, which has two of its 11 stores in the city, said the Marines should stay. "I am totally opposed to the military, but if they take out the Marines' right to be there, my right to do something might be taken away."

Gee - really Leslie? 'Ya think maybe, just maybe, that someday you might do something to bring the wrath of Code Pink upon you and your customer base? 'Ya think that maybe, just maybe, if the rights of the Marines are taken away from them, that your rights could be taken away from you? Really? Wow! You're a Mensa member, aren't 'ya Leslie.

Gee, it sure is funny how some people never wake from their political slumber until it affects their income. Surprising? Not so much.

Should I pause for a moment so you, too, can open up a new box of Kleenex?

Above image from Move America Forward.

Berkeley, California...the mayor, most of the city council and the Code Stink buffoons...all a parade of asshats, clowns and witless and clueless wonders...who don't think beyond the length of their eyelashes.

Keep supporting and electing idiots, pacifists and America-haters into office, Berkeley. Keep catering to the Insane Liberal Clown Posse members like Code Stink. All you business owners in Berkeley, keep capitulating and acquiescing to the childish behavior of violent temper-tantrum-throwing Code Stink members. Allow yourselves to be intimidated by the likes of wrinkled 90 year old Code Stink activist Fran Rachel who, speaking at the January 29 Berkeley City Council meeting, said:

"This isn't a game; it's mass murder. There's a sickness of silence of people not speaking out against the war. We have to do this."

You get the government you elect, Berkeley. You allow yourselves to be bullied by the likes of Code Pink - a bunch of smelly, stinky, unwashed ex-hippies who haven't gotten laid since the late 1960s and whose brains are rotted from all the years they spent dropping 'cid.

In some ways I don't blame the businesses in tacitly complying with Code Puke, because if they don't agree with them, Code Puke is the type of group who will damage their businesses, property and homes. These people don't play fair, they play dirty; very very dirty. So much for peaceful protesting, huh?

Will someone please - please dear god - let me know when the 90-year old relic and likely diaper wearer known as Fran "Dusty Old Bones Full Of Green Dust" Rachel's name appears in the obituary? And if anyone has a photo of this incontinent prune, send it to me or leave a comment with a link to it. Please.

Berkeley. Such a nice geographic area, beautiful in so many ways; populated by some of the ugliest and hateful people imaginable.

©2008

Labels: Berkeley Haters

// posted by David Drake @ 4:05 PM

Comments:

For some strange reason, Mo Hallaji, the owner of "Chicken's" is the one that irks me the most.

Maybe, it's my assumption that he is not a natural born citizen or maybe it's that his restaurant is Spanish for "chicken" and he seems like one.

He says, "Everyone is against the war..." I want to believe that he means, "No one wants to wage war....", but I don't think that is what he was saying. That little bitch.

# posted by

Paul Mitchell : 3:25 PM, February 28, 2008

yeah TD - Hadji's comment did the same to me, but I didn't want to note that...I wanted others to make the point for me. Other very astute folks like you, my friend, and you did not disappoint at all! You slapshotted that puck and fired it right into the net. I think Hadji is parsing the language and saying what he is not saying.

He's a little bitch, indeed!! heh! no doubt about it.

# posted by

David Drake : 4:44 PM, February 28, 2008

David Drake

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Berkeley Retailers Seeing Backlash

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