Failed Boycotts, Effective Boycotts & Florida’s Visitors – Top 3 Takeaways – August 17th, 2023
- Failed Boycotts. What do Equality Florida, the Florida Immigrant Coalition, the League of United Latin American Citizens and the NAACP, all have in common (other than being a bunch of angry leftists looking to create racial tensions and to exploit them for personal and political benefit)? They’re all leaders of failed Florida boycotts. While each of those organizations has been busy this year in attempting to dissuade people from visiting Florida, it hasn’t worked. Following Florida’s rejection of the AP’s new CRT-ladened African American Studies course, and the state’s Immigration law mandating E-Verify for employers with 25 or more employees (and making it illegal to knowingly transport illegals) ...they’ve failed. That’s because according to the latest estimates from Visit Florida, people have been visiting Florida – in record numbers yet again. Florida’s total visitors during the first half of the year rose 1.3% over 2022’s record levels, and by 4.5% over 2019’s pre-pandemic levels. What’s more, Florida’s on track to have the most intentional visitors in the country for the third consecutive year. Not the far more inclusive California and New York (cough, cough) which used to dominate international tourism. Nope, in fact while Florida’s international tourism has recovered to 80% of pre-pandemic levels, New York’s stands at only 75% and California’s at just 68% of what it used to be. Gee, I wonder why that would be? So, it would seem that the policies of those two states are more effective at keeping people away than the failed boycotts of Florida have been at keeping people away. Including, evidently, the illegal immigrants themselves. After all, you’ll recall how almost all of Florida’s businesses would collapse starting July 1st due to the loss of illegal immigrants under Florida’s new law. I don’t know about you, but I’m still amazed every day that Florida’s able to operate without hiring illegal labor...oh and that there are still groceries in grocery stores. And that strawberries aren’t $5 each. As I said in June: The truth is that very few of even the existing illegal immigrants working in Florida will be impacted by this law based on the size of the businesses they’re working for. And the odds are that in the case of some that are, instead of relocating outside of Florida they’re liable to go to work for smaller businesses within Florida. I could envision certain businesses which are knowingly hiring illegal immigrants opting to remain under 25 employees for this reason. That’s a likely effect of this legislation. But as for the rest of it, the law is real. The law has teeth. It will have an impact, but there’s also no evidence that it’s going to be as big of a deal as it’s been made out to be. And you could certainly say the same for the boycotts and all of the attention they’ve received from local, state, national and international news media. It would appear that just as the news media’s effort to smear and bash the Free State of Florida’s pandemic policy failed during the pandemic...the current boycotts of Florida are faring much the same. And candidly that’s somewhat surprising to me due to the...
- Successful boycotts. Wednesday brought the latest round of confirmations that backlash by conservatives against the especially woke is working. Yesterday Target reported earnings and the news wasn’t good to say the least. Sales slumped (by over $1 billion), future forecasts were slashed, and Target was forced to admit on the earnings call that there was a “negative reaction” to the company’s pride merchandise. That’s one way to refer to a loss of over a billion dollars in sales in just a quarter. But just as Bud Light and Disney before them, Target remains as indignant as ever by saying that they’re proud to be proud of having carried bikinis for dudes and the like. The CEO affirmed that in addition to continuing with gender affirming clothing, they’ll continue with the DEI hiring and DEI plans as planned. I’m sure that will continue to work out well for the company and its shareholders. Speaking of shareholders. Here’s the most recent scorecard on how the big boycotted three have been faring. Target’s stock is now 51% below its peak levels, Anheuser-Busch is 58% below where it once was and Disney’s been anything but magic, having now lost 53% from its one-time highs. This while the S&P 500, of which they are all members, is less than 8% lower than its all-time high. It would seem that the gay business embraced by these three has been anything but happy for shareholders. Speaking of Disney losses...it’s well documented that their Orlando theme park attendance is sharply lower across the board – while Universal’s Theme Parks are rising. But the fact that Disney’s Florida theme parks are in a slump, but Florida’s overall tourism numbers are setting new records speaks to how truly remarkable the attraction to Florida generally has been. Florida has faced down a series of what have evidently been unsuccessful boycotts of the state while also having one of its top tourist destinations successfully boycotted. That’s not an easy thing to do. And speaking of visitors to Florida and business...
- The Germans are coming. Actually, the Germans were already here. That’s true of tourists but also Aldi. Aldi, which has been the fastest growing grocery chain in Florida and across the country over the past year, is buying one of Florida’s largest businesses from Southeastern Grocers. The Jacksonville based parent of Winn-Dixie, Harvey's and Fresco y Mas is selling those brands and most of those stores to Aldi (Fresco y Mas going to a separate investment group) as part of a merger agreement pending shareholder approval. Aldi currently has 210 stores in Florida. By adding Winn-Dixie alone, with over 300 locations across the state they’ll be instantly more than doubling their footprint here. According to Aldi the plan is to keep some Winn-Dixie branded stores as is, but many will be rebranded and reopened as Aldi’s. The deal is expected to close in the first half of next year.