Penzeys Spices
Penzeys Spices is a retailer of spices in the United States. It operates retail outlets as well as mail order and online shopping. The company is headquartered in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, and had 600,000 catalog customers in 2007. History. In 1957, William Penzey Sr. and Ruth Ann Penzey opened a coffee and spice business in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which came to be called The Spice House. Their son, William Penzey Jr. (Bill), began working in the business as a youth. Over time The Spice House focused on selling spices. In 1986, at the age of 22, Bill launched a catalog  business of his own. The business grew steadily, and in 1994 Penzeys opened its first retail store. By 2013, 69 Penzeys stores were open throughout North America. Retail contraction. In 2012, Penzeys had 67 retail locations in 29 states. In March 2020, Penzeys announced closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic. By June 2021, the number of locations had contracted to 53. 2022 Newsletter controversy. On January 14, 2022, CEO Bill Penzey sent out a newsletter announcing the he would be renaming the extended Martin Luther King Jr. Day sale weekend to "Republicans are racist weekend", with the reasons given including  alleged voter suppression in Red states and their response to the George Floyd Protests. Many criticized Penzeys Spices for this email, with 40,000 people unsubscribing from their newsletter, however, the controversy did bring in 30,000 new subscribers to their newsletter. This email was not the first time Bill Penzey had made these type of statement, as he had previously done it with a similar email being sent out on the anniversary of the January 6th Capitol riot calling Republicans the "#1 threat to this country".