Comments

1
New Seasons has employee friendly policies? Tell that to the folks that tried to form a union. Raising money for Jeb seems to go hand in hand with the anti-unionism we have always seen from the company.
2
Man, I've been a life-long Democrat, and have worked on a couple Presidential campaigns and volunteered for OPB, etc etc,
But it pains me to see Republicans viewed as a four-letter word here, even if many deserve it. Lincoln was a Republican too. The Greatest American in many opinions.
There have been many other great Republicans too, just as there also has been countless liberal Democrat assholes.
Be wary of dogma.
3
Fun times, it's capitalism. Can't help who buys stock in your company.
4
New seasons market has always had a stance in the 12 years I've been with them not to put there name in the political ring.i know that brian rhoters wife ran for mayor of portland but if he were still ceo this wouldn't be happening at all.
5
"Meanwhile, a member of its board is about to raise truckloads of cash for a man who wants to abolish the federal minimum wage."

This is what should concern you lifetime Democrat FrankieB. You can be a Republican and still care about the lower wage worker, yes? Unfortunately it hasn't been so
6
New Seasons is not progressive or employee-friendly (as evidenced by what happened to the employees who tried to unionize). Portland's *true* favorite progressive grocery stores: Peoples' Coop, Food Front, Alberta St. Coop.
7
'Progressive' food stores for the pious shopper.
8
I think new seasons is fairly generous with its employees, why would there be a need to unionize? Did I miss something?
9
... .coOp's are better, but New Seasons seems now to have a lot of workers trapped under a crappy quasi über-boss, I hope the workers and shareholders organize to get him off the board of di.... Mozilla booted their CEO, so I hope this guy gets shunned, voted out in a semi similar way. Dear Goddess help NSM workers try again to rise up to become majority owners of the business...
10
@frankieb.im getting so tired of people pulling the "party of Lincoln" line in defense of Republicans. Dude! That was like 150 years ago! How much more irrelevant can you get?
11
We all went to bat for New Seasons when Whole Foods sued for their accounting records. They were a symbol of local, employee-and-environmentally friendly business. I was willing to pay more because I thought they represented a socially conscious group, but I feel like I was naive. Thanks to the Portland Mercury for making the connection. The Oregonian mentioned that Babson of Endeavor Capital was hosting the dinner, but they didn't make the connection to New Seasons. I wrote to New Seasons to complain, and I received a generic "we-are-a-diverse-group" response. If my social media friends are any indication, many people will quit New Seasons, but if Mr. Babson can afford to host his $12,500 per plate dinner, he won't feel a thing. He may even approve that the free market has worked when we all go to Zupan's or to a co-op. Maybe he can get 10 of his wealthy friends to pay $12,500 to make up for the loss of our $150 to $300 a week spent at New Seasons.
12
I'm not really sure why any of this matters. We are all allowed to have our political opinions in this country, regardless of whether you're a liberal or conservative. This guy does not speak for the majority of the company, and his personal opinions are not those of most New Seasons employees. Let him have his fancy fundraiser, in the end this country has only just finished picking the last Bush out of its teeth. I doubt we will go for another round of that musky mess... In the meantime, we shouldn't talk poorly about a company whose hard working employees are as progressive as it gets.
13
Right now I am squeamish about both parties. I think most politicians who make it are already picked for us by the string pullers and we are slaves. The Satanic Corporatacracy Illuminate agenda is running things everywhere!
14
"Babson's politics are also pretty clearly opposed to that of New Seasons co-founder and board chair Stan Amy, a reliable supporter of lefty causes." Yet, the progressive and forward thinking citizens of Portlandia are focused on the one absolutely Tone Deaf Stephen Babson.
The moment that anyone thinks Management at New Seasons, NOT ENDEAVOUR CAPITAL where Babson is a partner; is happy with his "tone deaf" decision to host this dinner, you are wrong. If you think your meaningless threats to boycott will hurt Mr Babson, again you're wrong.
New Seasons employs some of the most friendly, and just plain helpful employees of any business I've come across in a long time. I can't remember the last time I encountered a hard core conservative serving me coffee, helping me pick fruit, or selling me a delicious steak. The more you bash one man for his political beliefs that have pretty ZERO to do with daily operations of just one of the businesses in their portfolio, you shout to the world your lack of understanding of private equity partnerships and business in general, let alone lowering yourselves to the ilk of the tea party with your own brand of intolerance. Shut your pie holes, and eat your kale.
Where were you all when your getting your asses handed to you on the GMO issue? That's right, losing. Think about that for a minute. If we are to keep a Democrat in the White House, and get some more Democrats in Congress, we're going to need more forward thinking from the electorate, not unemployed wannabe political activists trying to pick a meaningless fight.
15
Portland and Salem should swap names because here in Portland, we still burn witches.
16
LeftyPancho, what makes you assume we are unemployed? I'm conducting a study that is strictly confidential. My hypothesis is that there is a direct correlation between those who make snarky assumptions about others in Comments sections and those cut others off in traffic, pee on the seats in public restrooms, and who feel that they have superior intelligence and knowledge about many subjects that renders them qualified to castigate and humiliate others when they can do so anonymously. Would you be willing to answer a confidential questionnaire? I think you might be a good candidate for this study. I'm serious.
17
I wish I had $12,500.00 to spend… for just one dinner...
18
Hi there Apples. Thanks you for once again proving my point. You're an idiot. Instead of trying to address points I made in my commentary, you decided to talk of urine and bad traffic behavior. The reason I know most of you are unemployed? That's easy. Look at your social media profiles. Yours included . Grow up sweetheart . Liberals require better than you're able to provide .
19
Keep Portland Weird! And by "weird" I mean crippled by the imaginary guilt attached to every moment of your existence
20
Focus. Jeb Bush represents predatory capitalism. Hosting an expensive! dinner for him means you support such policies. Make your own minds up whether you can buy New Seasons wares, but don't pretend you're doing any more than enabling more expensive! dinners.
21
What a ridiculous blog post, followed by equally ridiculous (although predictable) responses. Do all of you self righteous know-it-alls research the political leanings / donation habits of the owners of all businesses you patronize? I thought not.

What makes this even more ridiculous is that he is not involved in the day to day decision making of the business AND is not personally invested in the company. The firm in which he is a partner (Endeavor) is investing money on behalf of their own investors when they acquire a company. These investors are primarily public employee pension funds (teachers, firefighters, etc. benefit when their retirement investments do well), charitable endowments and university endowments.

Move along folks. There have got to be more pressing issues out there for all of you internet revolutionaries to tackle / bitch about. It's this kind of crap that makes me ashamed to call myself a liberal or a democrat, even though many of my views fall more to the left side of things than the right.
22
WHAT?!?!?! Someone who works for an investment company who owns a portion of New Seasons has a political view I disagree with?! As an "Open-minded Portlander", I better condemn him, as well as all of New Seasons, and do all I can to make a huge stink out of it!

I am very open minded, and you will agree with all of my political views.

Please wait...

Comments are closed.

Commenting on this item is available only to members of the site. You can sign in here or create an account here.


Add a comment
Preview

By posting this comment, you are agreeing to our Terms of Use.