Unfortunately, that appears to be the case. Oh well … just another company to boycott. And according to their comments you’ll read below … they don’t give a shit about your stinkin’ boycott.
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Is Black Rifle Coffee About to Throw Its Customer Base Under the Bus for Fun and Profit?
In the words of social and political philosopher Eric Hofer, “Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and turns into a racket.” So when I read this tweet by Andy Ngo, I was intrigued.
Was Black Rifle Coffee unfairly maligned, or was it on the glideslope to becoming just another grift aimed at conservatives, like anything associated with Ali (Akbar) Alexander or with “Patriots” in its sales literature?
Black Rifle Coffee burst on the scene in 2014. It was founded in Utah…not the place you associate with any caffeinated beverage, by three veterans
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It marketed heavily to a pro-gun, pro-police, pro-America, anti-political correctness demographic with ads like:
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The company management supported President Trump. It was unapologetic in its ethos (this is one of my favorites).
And they succeeded. The company’s 2015 revenue was $1 million. In 2020, it earned $163 million, and it is projecting 2021 sales of $240 million.
At first blush, the New York Times Magazine article seems to have the odor of corporate damage control and the initial signs that not getting invited to the right parties is taking its toll.
There is angst over some guy wearing a Black Rifle Coffee hat while taking an ad hoc tour of the US Capitol on January 6.
Like most Americans, Evan Hafer experienced the Jan. 6 insurrection at the United States Capitol from a distance, watching it unfold on his television and his iPhone from Salt Lake City. What he saw did not surprise him. Hafer, who is 44, voted for Donald Trump. He was even open at first to the possibility that Trump’s claims of sweeping voter fraud were legitimate until William Barr, Trump’s attorney general, declared in early December that he could find no evidence that such fraud occurred. Still, Hafer told me recently, “you’re told by the commander in chief for months that the election was stolen, so you’re going to have a group of people that are really pissed.” While he disapproved of those who stormed the Capitol, he didn’t believe that they or their actions constituted a real threat to the republic. “I’ve seen an insurrection,” said Hafer, a former Green Beret and C.I.A. contractor who served in Afghanistan and Iraq. “I know what that looks like.”
But Hafer’s distance from the incident collapsed that same afternoon when he was alerted to a picture taken by a Getty photographer in the Senate chamber that immediately went viral. The photo showed a masked man vaulting over a banister holding several sets of plastic restraints, an apparent sign that the insurrectionists planned to take lawmakers hostage. The unidentified man, soon dubbed “zip-tie guy,” was dressed in a tactical vest, carried a Taser and wore a baseball hat with an image of an assault rifle silhouetted against an American flag — a design sold by the Black Rifle Coffee Company, of which Hafer is the chief executive. “I was like, Oh, [expletive],” he recalled. “Here we go again.”
When teenager Kyle Rittenhouse, the victim of an Antifa mob was released from jail after defending himself, his benefactors tricked him out in a Black Rifle Coffee t-shirt (he improved the Wisconsin gene pool using a Smith & Wesson M&P-15…a black rifle, get it?) This led the company founder to cut this rather craven video disavowing any connection with Rittenhouse.
A message from our CEO @EvanHafer. #brcc #americascoffee pic.twitter.com/QCAvGQezXo
— Black Rifle Coffee (@blckriflecoffee) November 22, 2020
My gut feeling is that the company management is making a move to moderate its image before going public. Black Rifle Coffee has transitioned from a subscription-based coffee company to one that has a brick-and-mortar presence; however, to really make that move work, it will require a volume of cash that can’t be generated via increasing sales or borrowing.
For most of its existence, Black Rifle has been a “direct to consumer” operation, selling its coffee and merchandise primarily through its website. The company opened its first brick-and-mortar store in San Antonio last fall; others are open or under construction in Montana, Oklahoma, and Tennessee, with plans to have 15 in operation by the end of this year and 35 by the end of 2022. Black Rifle has also struck a deal with Bass Pro Shops and Cabela’s — which already sell Black Rifle coffee beans and merchandise — to operate Black Rifle cafes in some of their stores. (“Their brand is very popular with our customers,” a Bass Pro Shops spokeswoman said.)
Tom Davin, a former executive at Taco Bell and Panda Express who two years ago became Black Rifle’s co-chief executive, says: “Our customer is driving a tricked-out Ford F-150. It’s blue-collar, above-average income, some college-educated, some self-made-type people. It’s people who shop at Walmart rather than Target.” Hafer put it more bluntly in a 2017 interview with Maria Bartiromo of Fox Business: “Progressives hate me, and conservatives love me.”
In fairness, I think the Andy Ngo tweet takes a quote out of context or seems to add a context to it that doesn’t appear to be there.
“You can’t let sections of your customers hijack your brand and say, ‘This is who you are,’” Best told me. “It’s like, no, no, we define that.” The Rittenhouse episode may have cost the company thousands of customers, but, Hafer believed, it also allowed Black Rifle to draw a line in the sand. “It’s such a repugnant group of people,” Hafer said. “It’s like the worst of American society, and I got to flush the toilet of some of those people that kind of hijacked portions of the brand.” Then again, what Hafer insisted was a “superclear delineation” was not too clear to everyone, as Munchel’s choice of headgear vividly demonstrated.
“The racism [expletive] really pisses me off,” Hafer said. “I hate racist, Proud Boy-ish people. Like, I’ll pay them to leave my customer base. I would gladly chop all of those people out of my [expletive] customer database and pay them to get the [expletive] out.” If that was the case, I asked, had Black Rifle — which sells a Thin Blue Line coffee — considered changing the name of its Beyond Black coffee, a dark roast it has sold for years, to Beyond Black Lives Matter? Surely that would alienate the racists polluting its customer base.
Hafer began to laugh. “You wouldn’t do that,” I ventured.
“I would never do that,” Hafer replied. “We’re trying to be us.”
Absent the tape, we don’t know if the “repugnant people” were people who yelled at Hafer on Twitter over his decision, or if they are people who supported Rittenhouse, or if it refers to the “racist, Proud Boy-ish people.” But it does seem as though the Rittenhouse video was much more a function of being scared of the left’s disapproval hurting business (all those Antifa guys love Black Rifle Coffee, ya know) than any other motivation.
We also learn that a coffee that was to be named after St. Michael the Archangel was scrubbed out of corporate fear:
Hafer and Best were talking in a glorified supply closet in the Salt Lake City offices, where potential designs for new coffee bags were hanging on the wall. One of them featured a Renaissance-style rendering of St. Michael the Archangel, a patron saint of military personnel, shooting a short-barreled rifle. In Afghanistan and Iraq, Hafer knew a number of squad mates who had a St. Michael tattoo; for a time, he wore into battle a St. Michael pendant that a Catholic friend gave him. But while the St. Michael design was being mocked up, Hafer said he learned from a friend at the Pentagon that an image of St. Michael trampling on Satan had been embraced by white supremacists because it was reminiscent of the murder of George Floyd. Now any plans for the coffee bag had been scrapped. “This won’t see the light of day,” Hafer said.
Wall Street doesn’t like conservative companies, especially ones with a political face. The mopes that will flock to Black Rifle’s board of directors will be left-leaning types who won’t like the way it is run and its zero-f***s-left-to-give attitude. If the company does go public, then Hafer will be dancing to the tune of a bunch of gutless wonders who are afraid to offend anyone.
Going back to Hofer’s aphorism, I’d like to add Robert Conquest’s Second Law of Politics, that is, “Any organization not explicitly right-wing sooner or later becomes left-wing.” (Check out the conservative media landscape and look at the outlets and think tanks that were doctrinaire conservatives a decade ago but today are defending Joe Biden and who tried to defeat President Trump twice.)
Just as Black Rifle Coffee is on the cusp of changing its financial structure, it is also arriving at a philosophical decision point. Will it stay conservative and cater to the people that made it successful? Will it go “woke”? Will it complete the transition from a cause to a grift? Unfortunately, the signs aren’t all that great.
SOURCE; niapurenaturecom.wordpress.com
Andy H A F E R??? Sounds likely, but from Utah???
Nah, well, ok, lets look, can’t hurt right?
A little research later, and here it is, in his own words…him and his COO, part of (((them)))….why is it that they always let the cats out of the bag??
Because they think they’re superior to us deplorables…
Every.
Single.
Time.
https://mobile.twitter.com/evanhafer/status/1256172030573064192?lang=en
Good eye. Another major ‘chosen’ grifter in sheep’s clothing. How long before they drop the word ‘Rifle’ from the title? I often wonder; are these types really smart con men that come up with this stuff and make money or do they just always ‘magically’ get the right breaks?
I have come down on the latter. I know a lot of good hard working people with businesses and good ideas that never get off the ground or barely make it but scumbags like these rocket pass them all the time. Kinda makes me sick.
It is pretty easy to find major examples of “magically” getting the right breaks, because they don’t cover their tracks like they used to.
There is a show that celebrates avarice and usury called “shark tank” that wouldn’t even be possible if the western economy wasn’t a complete fraud. The system is just fucked, because fake money doesn’t have to make a profit directly.
They sold out for money.
Honest to God truth – Evan and I were on an SF team together many moons ago. He’s genuine (we were also Clowns in America GRS, but never together OCONUS). However, I don’t know about any of the machinations behind the scenes…..but the $$$ always seems to trump all else.
DOL
K7C
NAILED IT!
Money is the root of all evil.
No godlessness is. And one of the shortest paths to that is usury.
Love of money. Not money. But we’ve been over that before here. Again and again.
Fiat, government-protected money, is the root of all evil. Everything else has to be acquired through voluntary exchange and is thus limited by market actors.
Which really can not manifest as a problem for most people unless usury is allowed.
Actually, the love of money is the root of all evil:
1 Timothy 6:10
For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
You cannot serve two masters.
Why not? Biden does….Xi and Obama.
Francisco d’Anconia:
Read the whole speech here
I tried some when they first hit the market; didn’t like it and assumed it was a personal preference thing. However, I’ve heard most in the retired Marine community (at least the one I routinely hear from) all say it tastes like crap.
They have about 14 different blends. Some of them are excellent. Some aren’t. I’ve tried them all. Sitting here typing with a steaming cup full of “Canadian as Fuck”. It’s delicious.
You gonna keep buying, or boycott?
Keep buying.
The problem with corporate growth (and they’ve had a lot), especially when you’re conservative leaning, is having your brand hijacked. You can and will be attacked in this manner. People will try and drag your name through the mud. They will bait you and if you take it the media will run with it until you’re destroyed. It’s a team effort against which you have little defence.
That being said, from my point of view a better response would have been:
“Anyone can put on our shirt. It doesn’t mean shit. It’s our brand and it stands for what we say it does. And here’s what it stands for…”
Sadly, most COOs and CEOs don’t know how to defend themselves from these sorts of attacks. So they panic and say stupid stuff. It’s a bad approach but common. It takes the heat off but alienates the thinking end of their consumer base. It costs them customers but doesn’t cost them their business – at least not in the short run.
In the long run, if a different strategy isn’t adopted, the brand will sputter or go mainstream (bought out) at which point the original message/mission/marketing platform will be dismantled or the brand will just die altogether.
In other words according to you, be spineless.
Everything in this shit show country can be classified in three categories, Ponzi, scam, or a platform for advertising .
This would fall under scam.
This has been hashed over at another site I visit. They are going public in an IPO at some point. The IPO will be the payoff for selling out.
They bought a LOT of air time on conservative radio. The Scumbag Trinity of Limbaugh, Hannity, and Levin all lent their own voices hawking that stuff. They’re PATRIOTS! They’re HEROES. They’re SOLDIERS! They’re TRUE ‘MURICANS!!! Drinking their coffee … the best motherfuckin coffee evah … will give you a red white and blue boner!!
It all sounded so legit.
Until it’s not.
So your boner was not multi-colored? I’d sue.
I’m all bothered now. I am awaiting delivery of some Colombian Supremo medium roast bean. Not from Black Rifle.
I got a 3 pound can (Remember the days of actual 3 pound cans of coffee?) from Sam’s Club Members Mark Ground Columbian. It had the right price and was way cheaper than the Boyer’s Denver Blend I’ve been drinking for the past two decades. Age and income level I will slide back towards the type of coffee I started out in the navy on. Acceptable and taken from a 35# can. With a sister as a coffee snob I have tasted all the best, even the beans passed through an animals anus. I find that the smaller the bag the pricier it is. No thanks.
GTFO!! You’re shitting me, right?
Kopi luwak is made from coffee beans plucked from civets’ feces. This is bad news for civets. It’s the world’s most expensive coffee, and it’s made from poop. Or rather, it’s made from coffee beans that are partially digested and then pooped out by the civet, a catlike creature.
Interesting. Learn something new every day. Thanks. It sounds absolutely putrid, though.
Looked up “civet”. There are several species. Weird looking cat. I wonder who the first human was who said “Hey,Krishna! Let’s make a drink from that lumpy stuff in this cat’s shit?”
Those beans are just a scam. I’m a professional roaster and it’s just pure BS that it tastes better. Green coffee beans also stay fresh for years which they don’t want you to know either because it cuts their sales. Beans roasted in an air roaster last the longest, then after that the beans roasted in a hybrid roaster, which is a drum/air combo. The beans that gets stale the quickest are from a drum roaster because the beans are heated by conduction not convection. You’ll save yourself a lot of money if you never turn into a coffee nazi. LOL.
My personal favorite is a one third Ethiopian Yirgacheffe and two thirds Colombian all organic because coffee beans are very heavily sprayed.
The grifters at Conservative Inc. love marketing to the braindead conservacucks. TP-USA and Charlie Kuck ran the grift for AIPAC last week but apparently the goyim are starting to know.
The TP wasn’t a grift. The GOP coopted them and destroyed a grass roots attempt at organizing outside of the GOP.
Hafer is also the guy that had his unit order an $18k espresso machine on the tax payer dime. Gotta have that bourgeoisie caffeine bro.
I lost a shit ton of respect for them when they pulled the Rittenhouse house shit. I get that he is trying to protect his brand, aka, revenue stream, but man the fuck up and stick to your beliefs. The left feeds on bullying the masses via social or economic pain.
Their ZFG attitude left the fold when they caved on bullshit branding perception and risk of lost profit. Everyone has a price.
Money or principle? I choose principle.
ZFG, out.
The founder is an ex CIA operative which is a pretty good guarantee you don’t have a conscience.
He was top of his class in Phaggotry.
If they keep their name, I think it is helpful to support them(?).
Anyone who knows how the world works could have seen this coming, because I did. (((every single time))). I tried to tell people if it came up “I think they are just taking advantage of ‘conservatives'”.
“The racism [expletive] really pisses me off,” Hafer said. “I hate racist, Proud Boy-ish people. Like, I’ll pay them to leave my customer base. I would gladly chop all of those people out of my [expletive] customer database and pay them to get the [expletive] out.”
CONVERGED. 100%
That little b**** turned on us? Glad I never bought that potting soil, although I considered it several times. Maybe he can re-brand for his new best friends, since “Black Rifle” isn’t PC. Maybe “Non-White Sponge Bath”?
Frank Luntz … another fucken JOO TRAITOR
Every. Goddamned. Time.
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“This week, Luntz resurfaced and made headlines for all the wrong reasons. Biden’s former coronavirus response coordinator released an interview that made public Luntz’s involvement with President Biden’s COVID-19 task force. Allegedly, Luntz crafted focus group sessions for members of the president’s team to advise them on a more effective communication strategy for vaccine outreach. Reports indicated that Luntz was also involved with calls between the White House and television networks across the nation to persuade them to employ different arguments and vocabulary when promoting the vaccine to listeners. This level of cooperation between the White House and media networks is already troubling, and Luntz’s involvement, given his more notorious reputation among the GOP today, drew conservative Twitter’s ire.”
Deys joooos….stop giving them respect with the capitalization. Otay?
Otay.
BTW, thanks for your late contribution to my arthritis question!!
It’s less what the NYT put in their article. We all know they slander, lie and present opinion as fact. The bigger issue is that BRCC promoted the NYT article. That suggested they were okay with the contents of the article. No one would call me right-wing under any circumstances but it’s clear to me that the backlash caused them to backpedal. I found BRCC due to Mat Best’s videos, which I found hilarious. Something changed with them.
Black Rifle Coffee Company has never been a conservative coffee company and it’s owners are not and never have been conservative. In fact, they have never claimed to be conservative. They are simply ex-military (thank you for your service) business people taking advantage of a pro-gun customer base. Which is fine and dandy, but why are we getting our panties in a wad when a bunch of foul-mouthed and half naked women defame conservatives? These knuckleheads wouldn’t know a conservative or constitutional concept if it bitt them in the butt. I call this when they first started distancing themselves from conservatives as nothing more than posturing for an IPO. BINGO! Hello??