Levi’s wants to make less money. No really. Levi Strauss CEO Chip Bergh posted an open letter in Fortune Magazine saying his company doesn’t want your guns (and, by extension, your money) in their stores. What’s more, Mr. Bergh’s utterly unconcerned about a boycott as “most boycott threats around this topic ultimately blow over.” Mr. Bergh apparently thinks gun owners are stupid, with short memories and no doubt other stubby attributes.
Mr. Bergh must think himself exceptionally intelligent, diving head-first into a very shallow pond of liberal politics following the recent election. Most smart folks would think it wise for an iconic American brand to avoid divisive politics, but not Mr. Bergh. He told Fortune, “You don’t need a gun to try on a pair of jeans.”
The prudent man isn’t worried about needing a gun to try on a pair of jeans. The prudent man or woman is concerned about the parking lot outside the business as parking lots are a favorite place of bad guys to accost unsuspecting shoppers. The prudent man knows that you never know where a bad guy will choose to prey on an innocent – maybe even a Levi’s store. We all know that signs and policies against good guys having guns act as a dinner bell for wackos, terrorists and thugs.
The denim company’s head honcho went on to further demonstrate just how out-of-touch his beliefs remain by tying the gun prohibition to high profile terror attacks.
“With stores in Paris, Nice and Orlando, and the company’s European headquarters in Brussels, I’ve thought more about safety in the past year than in the previous three decades of my career because of how ‘close to home’ so many incidents with guns have come to impacting people working for this company.”
Clearly strict Euro-style gun control worked so well to save lives across the pond, right Mr. Bergh?
That would be the aftermath of the Paris attacks on top, and then murder scene in Brussels below it. As for Florida’s blanket prohibition on licensed good guys carrying in establishments that serve liquor – even if they remain sober – it saved dozens at The Pulse nightclub, right Chip?
It’s more than a little alarming how Mr. Bergh conflates radical Islamic terror attacks with “gun” violence. Only a fool would think that asking customers to leave their personal defense weapons outside of his stores would render them — and the employees in a store — safer. Denial has no survival value, not even in Levi’s San Francisco home.
I only wish I still had a pair of Levi’s to burn. I quit wearing them nearly ten years ago and haven’t looked back. 5.11 makes more comfortable pants that allow me to carry my stuff. 5.11 and plenty of other companies welcome my gun along with my money. And they’ll surely do the same for any other soon-to-be former Levi’s customers.