apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

From the news, about the owner of UO:

"While the typical Urban Outfitters shopper is likely to be liberal-minded--as is the province and privilege of youth--the fiftysomething Hayne is mom-and-apple-pie conservative. He and his wife Margaret have contributed $13,150 to the campaign coffers of Paleolithic right-wing Republican Sen. Rick Santorum and his Political Action Committee over the years."

I'm sure there are plenty of reasons not to shop at plenty of places, but I find this one to be particularly convincing.

Will this be available in the Canadian stores? I need one so bad!

P.S. UO owns Anthropologie as well. Who knew?

I did :p

greyny: from what "news" is that oddly worded (being liberal minded the province and privilege of youth, like I'm gonna grow out of it. pffft.) tidbit? I am intrigued by this revelation and would like to site the source.

Yeah, the wording is bad. I should have left off that sentence.

Its from the Philadelphia Weekly... I think Hayne gets Philly/PA press because UO started there, and by the looks of Hayne's donations to Santorum, is still rooted there. But if you google "Richard Hayne" and "conservative" or "replublican" you can see this verified in other sources. Icky, right?

Nora - A quick Google search sources the quote back to the Philadelphia Weekly. Article here: http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/view.php?id=5725

However if you are questioning the validity of the statement because of the way the author talks about youth, you needn't... it's pretty well known that Hayne is very conservative and has donated thousands to the Republican party. While he is the founder/owner, it is a publicly traded company. Which means shareholders benefit from the company's profits. But of course, the largest chunk of this benefit goes to Hayne's wallet. And from there, a portion is likely going to the conservatives.

However I would like to point out that in the end if you are a liberal type to begin with, you should probably be shopping at local mom and pop shops anyway... keep your money local to support local economies. Buying local goods also reduces the amount of carbon released and fuel used. Of course, that isn't always possible for a lot of us. But we can do our best :)

you can also buy them from retrowonders.com

Thanks to all for spreading the word about Hayne. While I do like items offered by Urban Outfitters, long ago I stopped patronizing them and have sought out other more like-minded retailers to support. And while "I need my daily therapy", I have to admit that everytime AT mentions UO, I vomit in my mouth just a bit.

Glen Senk is Anthropologie's openly gay CEO. He confronted Hayne about his support of Santorum:

"Glen Senk, the company's openly gay chief executive of business, told the Pink Paper: "There is nothing homophobic about Dick Hayne."

"When he made these donations I said to him: 'I'm personally offended by the fact that you would support this guy. If he had his way I’d be in jail.' And he said to me: 'You’re right, I hate his views regarding homosexuality, but I’m not a one-issue voter'."

See this article for elaboration: http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-8158.html

The issue of Hayne making a $13,000 contribution to Rick Santorum comes up practically every time there is an Anthropologie/Urban Outfitters post on APT. I'm a little tired of the kneejerk reaction.

I dont know how i feel about discontinuing to shop somewhere due to the political views of the owner. Shouldn't we be accepting of other peoples' opinions, as others should be about our own?

I wonder if this record player has any type of external output on it, so it can be run into a stereo, or if you have to rely on the built in speakers, which probably don't sound too good. I'd be very interested to find out...

Just because a store is part of a corporation is not a good enough reason not to patronize it. Of every dollar you spend at an Urban Outfitters, the majority of it goes to cover the cost of inventory, then overhead - rent for the building, employees, security, utilities, and then whatever is left goes to the company, and is used to pay corporate salaries, not just Haynes, but also the accountants, the in house designers, and the central offices overhead, and THEN share holders and Haynes get paid.

And in case you didn't notice, places like Starbucks and UO and even *shudder* Walmart employ a LOT of people. people who live, work, go to school, shop, support and are otherwise a part of YOUR community. The rent likely goes to a property management firm in your community, and the utilities payments go to your local utility company.

Don't buy UO because it supports different causes than you, don't buy it because its shoddy quality, and don't buy it because you just think its tacky and trendy, or you don't agree with its business/labor/ fill in the blank practices but don't refuse to buy it just because you think it takes away from local business and is a "blight on your community." Yes, for every UO there is at least one less mom and pop business. But there are also 100 employees who are spending money in YOUR community and making sure the local businesses stay in business. (Especially the UO employees and their quest for locality, newness, and first to own/one of a kind aesthetic)

Thats just ignorant.

I agree we should be accepting of other peoples' opinions, but that doesn't mean we have to financially support them. I honor the fact that the founders of UO (and other companies such as Bolthouse Farms juices) have the right to their opinions, I just don't want to aid them in advancing those opinions by stuffing their coffers with my dollars.

Hmmm...I wouldn't call this a "kneejerk reaction"; such terminology belittles what amounts to blatant discrimination against a section of our society.

And please don't make the assumption that there are no AT readers who are "mom-and-apple-pie-conservatives". This is not a political website. While I respect your right to express your political views, please find a more appropriate venue to do so.

I welcome the information and I think it's perfectly appropriate, no matter what your political affiliation. Hell, if you're a "mom and apple-pie conservative" then now you have reason to go shop there!

...And I resent the fact that some people think they're in a position to tell others what they can and can't post about here. If you have a problem with someone posting publicly available information on a public site, stay away from the Internet. Nobody died and made you the arbiter of what is and isn't related.

If that's a "mid-range" USB turntable, it's priced too high. There are better ones available at lower price points.

@dr_mk Thanks for the only post relative to the topic.

If you want to go to a big box store for a retro looking record player, I saw one at target last week that was under 100 dollars, they also had a retro radio set with a cd player and turntable.

I wouldn't pay $160 but I think its very attractive. I wonder how many people why buy it actually own records - or do they then have to go out and buy records.

Dan Savage and the image of "frothy" have ruined Rick Santorum for me, forever.

>I'm a little tired of the kneejerk reaction.

And I'm a little tired of self-appointed moral guardians who want to accord second class status to law abiding, taxpaying citizens simply because of who they sleep with, which is none of their damn business to begin with.

Sorry, Urban Outfitters isn't getting a dime of my business. They're free to support whatever bigoted loons they want - with somebody else's money.

Most of their stuff is overpriced junk to begin with. I'd rather shop at IKEA.