How many Papa John pizzas do progressives eat, anyway? How much is our stamping our feet and boycotting Papa John's going to hurt Papa John's? My guess is not a lot.
So whom are we directing our ire at? Franchisees, who almost certainly have fewer than fifty employees each, unless they "own" multiple stores. Causing a loss of profits for individual franchisees should not be our goal. IMHO, we need to persuade [obscenity redacted] Papa John's CEO John Schnatter of the error of his loudmouth, anti-worker ways.And this goes for the Darden (Red Lobster/Olive Garden/etc.) "people" as well.
I don't eat any Papa John's or Domino or Pizza Hut; I live at the Center of the Universe, where we have real Italian food and great (wonderful, amazing!) pizza. Really, Wolfgang Puck is a piker. So my "boycott" is pointless. But what I can do is sell my stocks (of which I have none) and create and sign petitions. Petitions urging divestment from Papa John. Hey, I'm not saying it will work, but it didn't hurt ending apartheid in South Africa. Incidentally, this wasn't my idea, I credit a comment from quaoar.
How do we take action? Follow me below the branding iron design I hope someday to have the money to commission.
I will be the first to admit that Divestment in South Africa was only a small part in the ending of apartheid. But it certainly didn't hurt. Also, we can't treat a corporation as a country, since corporations are only people. ("Corporations are people, my friend!") And the way to get the attention of a corporate mule is with a 2x4, otherwise known as his wallet.
There are two paths that I know of to the wallet of [obscene Rand-ite expletives] John Schnatter. One is by having his franchisees start hollering, "Shut up you [obscene gerund] you're costing us money!" The second is by making his stock price tank. The latter is where we may, and I stress may be able to make a difference.
I am a citizen of San Francisco. Okay, I have been reduced to living in the suburbs of late, but I am still a California resident, and as such, many of my neighbors, friends, customers and folks I bump into belong to CalPERS.
As of December 2008, CalPERS managed the largest public pension fund in the United States with $179.2 billion in assets; however, that represented a 31% decrease from the peak value of its assets of $260.6 billion in October 2007.[4] CalPERS is known for its shareholder activism; stocks placed on its "Focus List" may perform better than other stocks, which has given rise to the term "CalPERS effect"
And wouldn't you know it, they have a
contact page.
Here is my first petition to CalPERS, please sign it and cross post this or anything you need to anywhere. Anyone from Richard Trumka's band of merry men/women following this, let me paraphrase Abby Hoffman: Steal This Diary!
We have the right to petition government for redress of grievances of which I believe CalPERS is one. If I'm wrong, too bad, they get the petition. But what does this mean to you? Do you have a 401(k) left? Do you have an investment portfolio? Sell, sell, sell! Why? Well, it's not as if the stock is doing badly;
July 31, 2012
Papa John's Announces Second Quarter 2012 Results
EPS Increased 29.8% on Strong Comparable Sales of 5.7% for North America and 6.1% for International
LOUISVILLE, Ky.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Papa John's International, Inc. (NASDAQ: PZZA) today announced financial results for the three and six months ended June 24, 2012.
Second quarter earnings per diluted share of $0.61 in 2012, or an increase of 29.8% over earnings per diluted share of $0.47 in 2011.
"We had an outstanding second quarter as our system continued its strong sales momentum with significant comparable sales increases for our North American and International operations," said Papa John's founder, chairman, and chief executive officer, John Schnatter. "We continue to win with consumers, as we recently were recognized with Brand of the Year honors in the Pizza Chain Category of the 2012 Harris Poll EquiTrend Study, and we achieved the highest rating ever by an individual brand in the Limited Service Restaurant Category of the 2012 American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI)."
But $0.14 cents more per
[indigestible insult] pie? No Way! Who cares that your pizza may be made by someone who can't afford antibiotics...wait, what?
I've been using Papa John's John Schnatter as an example, but there's still Darden, etc. Here are some quick numbers I've found at CalPERS site from the CalPERS 2011 annual investment report (pdf).
Company shares book value market value
PAPA JOHN S INTL INC 65,585 1,053,296 2,181,357
DARDEN RESTAURANTS INC 345,082 10,416,620 17,171,280
MURRAY + ROBERTS HOLDINGS 2 ,682,789 17,888,458 11,872,499
LOWE S COS INC 3,701,936 34,049,307 86,292,128
Anyway, these are the Big Four that have been hitting the blogs, I haven't been through CalPERS for others but this might be a place to start.