Seattle restaurateur thanks Amazon, progressive mob throws a fit

Amid a fight over the deeply controversial head tax promoted by the Seattle City Council, chef and restaurateur Ethan Stowell publicly thanked Amazon on his business Facebook page. The progressive online mob of trolls were not happy.

Stowell owns and operates some of Seattle’s best restaurants, including Staple and Fancy, How to Cook a Wolf, and Tavolata. Over the weekend, along with a picture of the Amazon spheres, Stowell posted a simple message: “Hey, Amazon. We appreciate you. Thanks for supporting the restaurant industry.”

“Do I have a dozen examples of how they have helped me directly? No, I don’t,” Stowell told our show on Monday morning. “I just think good paying jobs in your community are a good thing.”

This message isn’t remotely controversial.

LISTEN: Ethan Stowell joins KTTH’s Jason Rantz on Monday

Amazon is undoubtedly to thank for the hundreds of new, local restaurants popping up around town. But if you’re a fringe ideologue who hates capitalism or unjustly blames Amazon for problems caused by poor leadership in the council, you become unhinged. Stowell received some complaints from followers and professional online activists.

“I now [sic] I may have to reconsider dinner at staple and fancy, thanks PR firm,” was one post.

There’s no indication this guy had any dinners planned there. This is likely one of those strategies meant to scare businesses from taking positions. People with no intention of ever using the business will claim they’ll stop using the business they don’t frequent unless the business person takes on a political position they agree with. And when that business gives in, still the activist resists becoming a customer.

“Because while amazon may have helped the restaurant industry, they do very little in the way of actually supporting Seattle,” said another poster, “For someone who actually does a lot for Seattle and actually seems to care about the community, I’m suprised [sic] you would post this.”

Her complaint about Amazon is demonstrably untrue, and Stowell, thankfully, pushed back.

“Why would you be surprised?” asked Stowell. “I don’t agree with the jobs tax and I think the city council unfairly vilifies business and especially Amazon. I’m sure Amazon would be happy to write checks to a solution to homelessness that would actually work. They’re also huge supporters of Farestart, which is one of our company’s favorite organizations.”

Amazon’s charitable work, however, goes much further. Locally, they contribute to Alliance for Education, America SCORES, American Red Cross, Art with Heart, Arts Fund — and those are just the nonprofits they help that start with the letter A. Check here for a complete list.

My favorite response comes from a local music producer Spekulation. On Twitter, he called Stowell a “suck up” that’s “licking Amazon’s boot…” A quick perusal of his Twitter feed shows anti-Amazon posts. The kicker, however, is Spekulation sells his music on Amazon. Guess his concern doesn’t extend to refusing to profit off of Amazon. Oops.

“I’m just a person that believes a little bit more in positive reinforcement,” said Stowell. “Let’s go partner with them and say hey, let’s actually work on this together instead of saying how bad they are and what they need to do because they’re bad.”

I’m glad Stowell is speaking up. The Amazon head tax is dangerous, misguided and virulently anti-business. Stowell isn’t the only one speaking up. Dick’s Drive-In and Rachel’s Ginger Beer are also pushing back. They argued they’d support a more innovative way of letting businesses help deal with the homelessness crisis, like tax credits for donating funds directly to organizations that help, instead of a tax going to Seattle politicians. Representatives of both businesses wrote in the Seattle Times:

If the City Council insists on passing this misguided tax on jobs in order to throw more money at a significant problem without a plan, we propose a compromise: Let businesses deduct donations directly to charities serving the homeless or building low-income housing from their proposed jobs-tax burden, rather than have the money be processed through government bureaucracy with the inevitable waste that entails.

In other words, the City Council can’t be trusted with our money; they’d rather directly contribute to the groups on the ground who know how to address the issue. This makes sense. After all, how long has the Council been aiming to solve homelessness while the problem gets worse?

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