Buy Chips And Beer Elsewhere: 4 Companies to Avoid

May 25, 2010

The boycott of Arizona has been unofficially going on since the minute Gov. Jan Brewer signed SB 1070 into law on April 23. And by all counts, it’s been a successful, if largely unfocused, effort. But today, Arizona boycott organizers announced that they are going to start targeting specific companies whose owners have backed Arizona lawmakers that have supported anti-immigrant legislation and, in the words of Alfredo Gutierrez, chair of the Arizona boycott committee, "contributed to hate in Arizona." The four companies Gutierrez called out are: the Arizona Diamondbacks, Frito-Lay, Jimmy John’s Sandwiches and Anheuser-Busch beer. The announcement was joined by other calls for mobilization: immigrant rights groups are planning a national day of action in Arizona on May 29 and expect at least 50,000 protesters to join for a six-mile march through the streets of Phoenix. The hope with the boycott, says Gutierrez, is to now channel the national outrage against SB 1070 "to operate in a laser-like fashion" to start hurting specific companies. According to Gutierrez, the principal owner of the subway sandwich franchise Jimmy John’s, Jimmy John Liautaud, gave $10,000 to Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s re-election campaign. For this reason, organizers are calling for a boycott of the Illinois-based company.