the market, praising its big, spicy flavor and high percentage of Kitchen Table Communications, 2008. A Penzeys Spices insider says founder and CEO Bill Penzey's frequent left-wing rants in emails to customers have lost the company more than half of its retail business over the past five years. [1] The company is headquartered in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, and had 600,000 catalog customers in 2007. None of these restrictions favors farmers, whose livelihoods are dependent on a longstanding network of consolidators and exportersnot to mention the weather and the whims of a volatile market. Penzey started the company in 1986, primarily as a catalog mail-order business. [7] In March 2020, Penzeys announced closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Penzeys outspokenness has cost his company some longtime customers, but he says he has no choice: The luxury of not being on a side is something of the past.. On July 6, 2017, two years after Trump kicked off his Presidential campaign by calling Mexican Penzeys Spices actions have included nearly unlimited spending in politics for years now, racking up $2.4 million in paid Facebook posts and more than $100,000 in just the past few weeks alone, making the company the second largest political spender on the issue in America. All Rights Reserved. Be that as it may, the American multi-mogul has not shared the character and different insights about mother and father and other family individuals. What it does understand is that healthy, educated voters don't vote against the best interests of our nation's children. In any case, no income figures have been delivered. Bill Penzey's net worth is estimated to be over $ 1 million USD. But his exposure to the spice world and politics started decades earlier. I can see the spices are all above the top of the label. the people a better choice. The recipients werent After starting the year with All Republicans are Republicans and following up with Republicans are Racists weve set a nice little Boycott Penzeys! anniversary of the Supreme Courts decision on marriage equality. business owners to follow his lead: If, as a company, you have values, Who Is Penzeys CEO Bill Penzey? ", News/Talk 1130 WISN, Milwaukee's Talk Station, Mark Belling, Jay Weber, Dan O'Donnell, Vicki McKenna, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Thora Pomicter, founder of the Teeny Tiny Spice Company in Harrisonburg, Virginia, said she couldnt imagine sprinkling partisan outrage into an online marketing campaign for the organic spice blends she sells in 31 states and D.C. Politics does not have any place in my business, she said, sounding somewhat aghastand almost alarmingly sane. "Remember how Republicans, going against a mountain of evidence to the contrary, once again lied and said BLM wasn't a peaceful movement but instead terrorists inciting violence throughout the country and then raced out to buy a crapload of guns because maybe they were finally going to get their chance to shoot a Black person?" Sending an email, or thousands of them, costs a lot less than cutting off a supplier. expanded his platform to include the e-mail newsletter and a company The open embrace of racism by the Republican Party in this election is now unleashing a wave of ugliness unseen in this country for decades, he wrote. How We Became One. Article continues below advertisement Penzey refuses to be silent on social issues. A few years earlier Kraft Foods paid $250,000 for the same machine. its customersbut that online sales rose nearly sixty per cent in the same period, and victory in the special Senate election in Alabama. Frisch and his cofounder Ori Zohar prefer that their fresh take on an ancient commodities trade supersede partisan distractions. Penzeys CEO: What Is Bill Penzey Net Worth? [3] Their son, William Penzey Jr. (Bill), began working in the business as a youth. With the advent of social media, he e-mail, the right wing firestorm cost the company three per cent of We have no more Information about his Father; we will try to collect information and update soon. A few days after Penzeys e-mails exploded onto the national Price: $4.49 for a 4-ounce bag. Brianna Kupfer Father Blames Politicians For His Daughter Getting Stabbed To Death. In recent years, the company and its CEO have been highly critical of the Trump Administration. Penzeys Spices has not yet responded to a request for comment on the insider's claims or how Penzey's rants have impacted the company's sales. Penzey declined to release information about sales, but said he has gained more customers than he has lost. I want other businesses to look at what were doing, Penzey said while writing new Facebook ads at his home. Manchin and Haley at least talk the right way against federal spending, Donald Trump's five-pronged attack plan against Ron DeSantis looks pretty weak, Reporters Notebook: Bidens student loan forgiveness plan in Supreme Court's crosshairs. The spice trade invented capitalism, it invented the stock market, it pushed people to venture into interacting with other cultures before they were ready to interact with other cultures, Penzey said. Trump suggests pardons for supporters who participated in the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol if he returns to the White House. The result is a sea of milquetoast Bill Penzey Net Worth & Salary. like DailyKos and Upworthy, and intense derision from members of the Despite this possibility of losing customers, Penzey Jr. has continued to use his platform to make the company's left-leaning beliefs known. A profile of the spice enthusiast and businessman inThe New Yorkersays that Penzey Jr. used the catalogue as both a marketplace for his wares and a space to share his own personal thoughts and opinions. When Penzey shared criticism of Trump and his supporters with customers, a Facebook boycott group formed called "Goodbye Penzeys" which still exists. Like most successful small businesspeople, Penzey has made a fetish of customer service. Bill Penzey and his wife, Jeri, in their Wauwatosa, Wis., home. Net Worth and Earnings, How Rich Is He Actually? My mother introduced me to them probably eight years ago, said Melinda Barnett, a Republican from Owatonna, Minn., who was among conservatives calling for a boycott of Penzeys on Twitter last month. message on its own Facebook page. Such subversive family feuding is endemic to the brand. ), Elsewhere in spice blends, mixing artisanal seasonings with polarizing politics isnt so easy to understand either. Penzey's net worth isn't known but it's likely in the millions. Penzey is as of now hitched to Jeri, and several lives in Wauwatosa with their three kids. Although it reached a peak of 67 retail locations in 2012, the COVID-19 pandemic led to some permanent store closures, which left the company with 53 locations. reaching out to conservative bloggers, sharing a special offer for That was a big step for us.. "What a bunch of racists. In 2005, then the owner of more than two dozen stores, Penzey founded a food magazine with a . Today orders generally go out within two days, but even with 120,000 customers Penzeys staffers still enclose handwritten notes with every shipment. The line crossed us, the soft-spoken 56-year-old said in the kitchen of his home. control there reallyweresome amazing publications.. the success of the special, generated such a flood of business that the the first to publicly call Trumps election an embrace of racism, and The American people are taking notice. right-wing news media. William Penzey Sr. and Ruthann Penzey opened The Spice House, a specialty spice store in Wauwatosa, Wisc., in 1957, where Penzey Jr. first worked as a young man. Theres not quite the selection but I have been able to manage just fine, she said. They want to talk with you, Jaguars, narcos, illegal loggers: One mans battle to save a jungle and Maya ruins, The chance of a lifetime: Five friends ski the tallest mountain in Los Angeles, The Hollywood sign debuted 100 years ago in 1923, the year of L.A.s Big Bang, An asteroid will just miss us in 2029. Read Full Summary The letters all end with a radio readout-style segue to the latest special offer. Although his first solo foray into the world of spice sales was short lived, Bill Penzey Jr. forged on with the family business. Penzeys Spices is a left-wing zest retailer in the United States that sells through retail locations, mail requests, and web based. stage, the Spice House, another Wisconsin-based retailer, posted a Though he shies away from the term cheapskate, Penzey agrees that keeping his overhead low was a big reason for his success. Quebec Seasonings with any five-dollar purchase. [2], In 1957, William Penzey Sr. and Ruth Ann Penzey opened a coffee and spice business in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which came to be called The Spice House. Unlock premium content, ad-free browsing, and access to comments for just $4/month. The retailer, on the different hand, reported a rise in gross sales after the letter was despatched. His Spice House was established in 1957 by William Penzey Sr. furthermore Ruth Ann Penzey as an espresso and flavor shop in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Previously, he opened a small shop in New York in 1984, Forbes reported, which failed. His timing was good. Well, I hear hes very political, the engineer, 59, said at the Wauwatosa store, adding that some of his friends avoid the shop because of Penzeys activism. We still dont fully know what happened with the last presidential election. "Many people have told us that they still get the emails, but only come in to our stores for free stuff. customerssubscribers to the mailing list of Penzeys Wisconsin-based The only rule to cashing in on Trump-era outrage is a truism even older than Michael Jordans: Know your audience. those pesky millennials are going out of their way to support Bill Penzey, 58, began working at his parent's coffee and spice shop in Milwaukee as a child, according to the Los Angeles Times. Its founder, Bill Penzey, greeted Trump's election with an email calling the president an "openly racist candidate." As Helen Rosner noted in a New Yorker story last year, that set him far . We want you to buy spices from these farmers that were building a relationship withas opposed to using the business as a platform for our positions on this issue and that issue.. Penzeys Spices CEO Bill Penzey renamed the weekend celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr. as "Republicans are racists weekend" in a promotion for his company. All rights reserved. In 1957, their Penzeys, Ltd. (eCommerce) 12001 W Capitol Dr. Wauwatosa, WI 53222. You may well lose a chunk of your AM In the wake of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida in early 2018, Penzey ramped up his hypocritical assault on money in politics. studies show that todays consumers feel more allegiance to companies Penzeys Spices is a retailer of spices in the United States. This is simply a theory in view of his long and fruitful expert vocation. The spice merchants activism prompts delight and shopping orders from liberals, and ire and boycotts from conservatives. Born in Wisconsin, Penzey has risen from humble beginnings - earning a $1 weekly allowance as a boy - to a net worth of over $100 million. Dr. Oz went shopping, Elon Musk broke Twitter, Chris Rock thought fast, and corn melted our hearts. As Penzeys grew from a small mail-order business, Bill Jr.s personality and politics dominated. The Penzeys spice catalogue was a one-man show Shutterstock [10] Penzey was widely criticized for this email, with 40,000 people unsubscribing from their newsletter, however, Penzey stated that 30,000 new people has signed up to their newsletter. giveaway of Mexican vanilla extract, writing, Today, on this In Oregon, theyre swamped, according to one employee at Penzeys Portland store, who asked not to be named for fear shed lose her job. He introduced Tsardust Memories, a ripped-from-the-headlines Russian spice blend Bill Penzeys sister Patty Erd ran a rival spice blend business, The Spice House, at the time of the 2016 election; she offered a promotion then, too. Its unusual to have someone be so vocal, said Pradeep Chintagunta, a marketing professor at the University of Chicagos Booth School of Business. I On January 28, Penzey said in a signed post on the company's Facebook page that Penzey's Spices had lost more than 40,000 subscribers from its email list as a result. For customers who preferred their cardamom pods without a side of company suspended its regularly planned promotions to focus on Bill Penzey Jr. of Penzeys Spicesa Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, company with about 70 stores in 30 states and an online mail-order businessemailed customers in the week after Trumps election the first of hundreds of such messages to come. Penzey himself has resisted opportunities to expound on his marketing style. Bill Penzey is 58 years old and was born on 04/16/1963.Bill Penzey currently lives in Milwaukee, WI; in the past Bill has also lived in Brookfield WI.Sometimes Bill goes by various nicknames including William Penzey, William T Penzey and William T Penzey. Penzey's email not only accused all Republicans of being racist, but also of fantasizing about killing black people. Penzey owns the business lock, stock and barrel. boycott the company, going so far as to mock up a satirical jar of the end of the message, he mentioned the companys Im just here for the spices.. history of the spice trade. The polarizing email caused numerous past customers of Penzeys Spices to ditch the preachy spice purveyor. The message also seeps into his products, like the Tsardust Memories spice blend. The multicultural customers who visited his parents shop, as well as the deep-rooted liberalism of Milwaukee, shaped Penzeys outlook, he said. A lot of people send me pictures of their spice collection. Dan provides unique conservative commentary and analysis of stories that the mainstream mediaFull Bio. In 1957, William Penzey Sr. and Ruth Ann Penzey opened a coffee and spice business in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which came to be called The Spice House. Penzey admitted that the "Republicans Are Racists" email cost his business 40,005 subscribers to the email subscription. Earlier this year, Penzeys Spices unveiled its latest blend a salt-free chive and garlic mix for sprinkling on tomatoes, scrambled eggs or salmon. That same year, Penzey sent gift boxes of spices to every teacher and support worker in Milwaukees schools including a new blend called Forward as then-Gov. Publicly available data about Facebook ads also revealed that Penzey spent almost $120,000 from October 28, 2019 on blatantly anti-Trump ads. in 1992. Bill Penzey, Jr. founded Penzeys Spices in 1986 and followed in his parents' footsteps. Domenico DeMarco has been making pizzas at Brooklyns famous Di Fara Pizza since 1965. base) will be wildly turned off by whatever you have to say, and you dont want money walking out the door. elitist lefty. A conservative food blogger declared his intent to Penzey announced that the company would be doing a no-strings-attached "They just agree with his politics and sign up every time he makes the news.". Still, he told The Daily Mail that he was not worried about backlash. In the catalogue, Penzey Jr. shared photographs and stories of his adventures with customers. Its a business, Zohar says, its not positioning, its not a proclamation. Trying to get them to become regular customers is the trick., In the meantime, Penzey shows no signs of slowing his political activism. But its not just high-profile firms going down this path: The vociferous anti-Trump turn of the nations largest privately held purveyor of spice blends took some customers by surprise in the aftermath of the 2016 election. Positive 26%. His note then took on a more desperate tone, imploring fellow leftists to support his business by appealing to their base political biases. So on one hand they wish we would tone down the racism thing but on the other hand we have really good spices and they are not going to sacrifice those.. Perhaps no one personifies this shift better than Penzey. now is the time to share them. Americas future depends on us not letting that happen.. [12], "Penzeys to open more retail stores in 2010", "Penzeys Spices, Great Dane and Vintage brewing closed in response to COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic", "Penzeys Spices calls Republicans 'racists' in email to customers", "Spice company that called Republicans racist begs for gift card purchases after losing customers", "Penzeys Spices CEO calls Republican voters '#1 threat to this country' in Jan 6 promotional email", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Penzeys_Spices&oldid=1136181852. Write by: . ; He returned to Milwaukee to set up a full-fledged mail-order business. volatile aromatic compounds. Penzey's net worth isn't known but it's likely in the millions. Charge Penzey is yet to get referenced by the standard Wikipedia page. After an October announcement that every penny of new customer sales would go to pro-impeachment ads on Facebook, Penzeys sold $465,000 in spices to first-time buyers over a three-day period, he said. Milwaukee had a socialist tradition here; even in the times of the Red Scare it was tough to vote them out, Penzey said. Cooking was becoming a trendy pastime, and spice consumption among Americans was climbing. This isnt a line that we chose to cross. But his . Over time The Spice House focused on selling spices. Heck, I would not even want to get Republicans raced out to buy a crapload of guns because maybe they were finally going to get their chance to shoot a Black person, Penzeys Spices CEO wrote in a customer email. The New Yorker noted that she offered a promotional code to customersNOPOLITICSin response to brother Bill's vocal behavior. obviously real. As long as a CEO can safely guess where the majority of his customers lean (here the likes of Patagonia, and even Penzeys, have the gift of relative certainty), political marketing may seem more than worth the risk. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. Reference for Business states that in 1994, Penzey Jr. revisited the idea of opening a retail shop in his hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It has enabled him to keep his prices low: $2.89 for a half-cup jar of cloves, for example, compared to the suggested retail price of $9.90 for a similar Spice Islands product. Join now to unlock comments, browse ad-free, and access exclusive content from your favorite FDRLST writers. He paid $650 a month to rent his first warehouse and tooled around in a $925 used truck. Neutral 32%. In spite of that, he said, "we are still down about 10,000. "The money of unlimited political spending is just money; it has no sense of right or wrong, much less truth. Barnett, 51, now buys her spices at the local Hy-Vee grocery store. Never mind that the spice trade itself is one of [3] Their son, William Penzey Jr. (Bill), began working in the business as a youth. In 2019, he said, "If you are a company. A week after Donald Trump was elected the forty-fifth President of the Patagonias founder announced a public mission to combat Trumpian evil. A late October message telling Trump supporters please wake up, your country needs you, ended with an offer of a couple of chili powders, free with just a $5 purchase. Theyre for a second-day reheated chili on Election Day, Penzey reasonedso all those non-Trump-supporters heading to the polls wont have to think about cooking. Bill Penzey, Sr., was a philosopher and storyteller who liked to put his customers to work grinding spices as he off-handedly lectured about the lore and history of the spice trade. his namesake company in the late eighties as a mail-order business. Who Is Penzeys CEO Bill Penzey? Then, as now, scaring away conservative customers didnt worry him. open embrace of racism by the Republican Party in this election is now Charge Penzey is a finance manager most popular for being the CEO of Penzeys Spices, a noticeable American food organization. If you want customers to support your business, you have to support the values and lives of your customers.. This is an industry dominated by giants. It may have been mere coincidence that she chose to single out cinnamon advertisements, with brands fastening their identities to anodyne, While most retailers have chosen to keep their politics to themselves, Penzey Jr. has never hesitated to offer his thoughts, be it in the print catalogue, through posts on the company's Facebook page, or by famously spending $92,000 on pro-impeachment advertisements in 2019 (via The New York Times). felt the need to distance her business from Penzeys: the two of them unleashing a wave of ugliness unseen in this country for decades, he New customers, resistance-niks all, dont tend to come to the store for culinary inspiration, the Portland employee tells me. Were working on a scale of several thousands of years, says Ethan Frisch, a former line cook and pastry chef who founded the spice company Burlap & Barrel: It buys and sell spices straight from farmers in Tanzania, Afghanistan, Guatemala, Turkey, Spain, Egypt, and Indonesia. 37. In a letter Raw ingredients Tahitian vanilla beans, whole Chinese star anise, Indonesian cinnamon sticks, Turkish bay leaves are shipped here in barrels that weigh hundreds of pounds. Bill Penzey Jr., CEO of Penzeys Spices Inc., an independent retailer of spices, has a history of vocally and publicly using his company to communicate his opinions on sociopolitical issues. In 1994 Penzeys opened its first retail store and by June 2021, the number of locations had contracted to 53. Why alienate half your audience? The Penzey Spice catalogue was a one-man show, with Bill Penzey Jr. not only writing and designing the contents, but also filling orders and traveling to far-off destinations in search of the perfect specialty spices for the company to sell. After urging voters to head to the polls in Kentucky, Virginia and Mississippi, Penzey wrote: For the rest of us its time to get talking 11.3.2020. only days after the meticulous kitchen testers at Cooks Illustrated had named Penzeys Spices Vietnamese varietal their pick for the best on Bill Penzey, who owns the largest independent spice retailer in the United States, is upending the conventional wisdom that business and politics dont mix. Wiki, Biography, Age, Spouse, Net Worth, Fast Facts, Ali Carter Wiki, Biography, Age, Spouse, Net Worth, Fast Facts. But all of this pales to his reaction to Trump. Common Sense Central is edited by WISN's Dan O'Donnell. Another sister, Patricia, and her husband, Thomas Erd, own small retail spice outlets in downtown Milwaukee and Evanston, Ill. What do they all talk about at family get-togethers? Since Penzeys isn't a publicly traded company, there's little financial information available on its revenues and value. His Salary and Earnings Bill Penzey is believed to have earned a net worth of over $100 million. The CEO of Penzey's Spices is the latest corporate leader to lash out at Trump voters.. Last Tuesday CEO Bill Penzey Jr. lashed out at Republicans in his weekly email: "The open embrace of racism by the Republican Party in this election is now unleashing a wave of ugliness unseen in this country for decades. in a world of social media, no ones going to talk about you. Recent Penzey expects more sales through Williams-Sonoma, which has started carrying a small line of the companys Indian and Chinese spices in its mail order catalogs. CelebSaga.com. focus on the food industrys sexual-harassment problem. 2023 The Federalist, A wholly independent division of FDRLST Media. 5 talking about this. tweeted his opinion that Penzey was a typical hate-filled white Bill,. immigrants to the United States a tremendous infectious disease, The specifics of his overall wealth and annual salary have yet to be revealed. the most intensely political industries in history, or that staying out of politics is, of course, its own kind of political statement. Bill Penzey Jr. saw a future in spices, and when he graduated his first order of business was to open his own brick and mortar spice shop in the village of Dobb's Ferry, New York. Penzeys Spices has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars this fall promoting Facebook ads long stream-of-consciousness missives supporting impeachment of Trump or railing against the Republican Party and Fox News. Will Dominion-Fox News lawsuit be different? The retirement of Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer provides Democrats a chance to reengerize Black Democratic voters ahead of the midterm. Furthermore, Penzeys Spices is a leftist spice service provider in the United States. Ron DeSantis makes California pilgrimage to woo influential Republicans, Trump dangles prospect of pardons for Jan. 6 defendants if reelected, Supreme Court vacancy offers Biden, Democrats a chance to energize voters after setbacks, Curious about the motorcycle club wearing turbans under their helmets? But what Penzey lacks in volume he makes up for with a loyal following of home cooks who wouldnt buy their spices from anyone else, even if they could. Penzey opened his mail-order version of Penzeys Spices at the age of 22 in 1986. their fans and acolytes to be more or dream bigger or, in Pepsis case, to join the conversation., Penzey wasnt the first C.E.O. He claimed that the email brought in 30,000 new subscribers, but acknowledged, "We are still down about 10,000. political opinions should be kept as far away from products as possible. If you cant even begin to fathom how to compromise with January 6th, or the Republican vaccine lies needlessly killing 10,000 Americans every week, if you have no desire to become half-way racist, and if their intent to destroy our climate for one thousand years to come doesnt have you asking: What if we just destroyed it for five-hundred years instead? we would be better off with you on this Voice Of Cooking email list, he wrote. moonbat, while David Clarke, who was at the time the Milwaukee County sheriff, Joe Burrow Girlfriend Age, Find Her on Instagram. Do customers resist businesses that #Resist? On Monday, he estimated that about 5,500 people had accounted for the $299,000 in new sales to that. Feb 1, 2022 A Penzeys Spices insider says founder and CEO Bill Penzey's frequent left-wing rants in emails to customers have lost the company more than half of its retail business over the past five years. This rating has decreased by -8% over the last 12 months. The market demands a seven-centimeter cinnamon stick, but only so that the sticks fit in those little jars you find in the spice aisle at the supermarket. He toned it down for American palates and added it to his line at $4.29 for a half-cup jar. Spice seller Bill Penzey says he felt compelled to speak out because of the danger he believes Trumps presidency poses. Almost from the start, he used the brands official communiques as a This second attempt at a brick and mortar store was a success, and since then the Penzeys Spices brand had expanded to include many more locationsthroughout the United States. If I had a corporation, I would be doing my best to figure out how to have that corporation work to support the true values, compassion, and kindness of the American people.". My husband and I are very careful to capitalism. In the letter, he . "We are glad to have you here.". He wrote papers on ancient trading routes and spice usage in Roman times. Conservatives take, with a caption claiming that Penzey had gone full At Copyright 2023 Market Realist. That was when Penzey told his staffers to start including personal handwritten notes with every order that went out. Eight days later, Penzey again condemned the influence of money in politics. Just two weeks after a Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based spice company held a Republicans are Racist sale over Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, it is dealing with a massive loss of business and openly begging for new customers. As Penzeys grew from a small mail-order business, Bill Jr.'s personality and politics dominated. The [4] He has not shied from his political views: In the mid-2000s, he put a gay male couple who had triplets via a surrogate on his spice magazines cover, long before same-sex marriage had the support it does today. The couple brought their son Bill Jr. into the business early, allowing him to work in the store at the young age of ten. Over time The Spice House focused on selling spices. Hes bringing the stuff in by the ton. While Penzey wields his influence to call for change and critique an unpopular president, within the actual realm of his practical powerthe buying and selling of spiceshe perpetuates the same old broken system. Penzey unveiled in one of his meetings that his firm burned through $128,000 to help denunciation related Facebook posts. anniversary, it seems a good day to apologize to the people of Mexico After the 2016 election, Penzey sent an email blast to customers, saying if they voted for Trump they had just committed the biggest act of racism in American history since Wallace stood in the schoolhouse doorway 53 years ago, referring to the segregationist Alabama Gov. It was the '80s and mail-order catalogues were all the rage, so in1986 Penzey Jr. decided to create a mail-order spice catalogue (via Refrence for Business). nearly everyone took personally. Lets commit to giving think if you dont care about your customers and what they care about, Now one party wants to obstruct it, twist it, steal it away from We the People to gift it to their benefactors. Comments for Bill? As the CEO of Penzeys Spice, Bill Penzey makes more than $1.2 million in salary, annually. Patty and Bill are second-generation spice mavens. Over the past decade, Penzey has repeatedly followed up controversial emails with offers for free spices in an apparent effort at winning back customers. Other 17%. While critics and even other spice companies have questioned this move, Penzys Spices online sales rose 60 percent after one particularly politically-charged newsletter was sent following the 2016 presidential election, so they must be doing something right.