Community ‘buy-cott’ counters online boycott campaign
Community ‘buy-cott’ counters online boycott of pizza shop
In early July, Miles Tamboli, the owner of Tamboli’s Pasta & Pizza in midtown Memphis, announced he would not serve National Guard troops deployed to the city by the Trump administration, which President Donald Trump said would reduce the city’s crime rate. The announcement came days after National Guard soldiers fatally shot Tyrin Johnson, 20, on July 5, during a police pursuit in which authorities said he turned toward them with a weapon.
Local activist Hunter Demster highlighted Tamboli’s post and linked to a wider “buy-cott” — a coordinated campaign to patronize businesses refusing service to the taskforce. Social media accounts including Libs of TikTok and Fox News Radio host Todd Starnes responded by calling for a boycott.
The result, according to Tamboli and patrons, was the opposite of what boycott organizers intended. A few days later, the restaurant opened with a full house and had a waiting line by 5:30 p.m., The Guardian reported. Waitstaff said the shop was never that crowded that early; extra crew was brought in. Business is up “a great amount,” Tamboli said.
“I stand by businesses refusing service as a form of resistance and protest,” said Sarah Jones, a patron dining with her husband and five-year-old daughter. She said police overreaction and a general sense of exhaustion limit public protests, pointing out that police fired teargas at demonstrators at a No Kings march.
“If you have a business — a small family-owned business — that says, ‘You know what, I’m sorry, I can’t serve you, I just don’t believe you should be here,’ it really should be OK,” said Carol Bigam, a Memphian retired from FedEx, as she ate cannoli with a friend. “Is he not allowed free speech? He was very professional about it. Give me a break, man.”
The Memphis Safe Task Force was established by Trump via executive order last year. Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee amplified the initiative by activating the National Guard, which engages in high-visibility patrols on Beale Street and elsewhere downtown. The governments of Memphis and Shelby County have largely acquiesced to the presence of federal agents conducting traffic stops on I-40 and armed troops patrolling sidewalks on Beale Street, The Guardian reported.
This summer, a string of fatal shootings by federal law enforcement personnel in Memphis has begun to erode that detente. On May 13, taskforce agents shot and killed 41-year-old Darrin Pigram while serving an arrest warrant at a Burger King in the Frayser neighborhood. On May 21, a Homeland Security special agent killed Jonah Neal, 25, at a home where police said Neal was armed and threatening to harm himself. On July 5, National Guard soldiers fatally shot Johnson during the pursuit. On July 8, Drug Enforcement Administration agents operating with the taskforce killed Alphonso Ivy, 47, at a Memphis motel on Poplar Avenue.
Patrons at Tamboli’s said the encounters shaped their calculus about what forms of action feel safe. “People are going to participate in a much less public endeavor,” Jones said. “So they’ll do the 901 boycott, or they’ll do the 901 ‘buy-cott’, but they’re not going to put their lives on the line.”
Tamboli said he has faced review bombing on Google and threats of violence against him, his wife and child, who are now staying elsewhere. He described detractors as “unhinged.” He said he engaged with one person who responded with a screenshot of the individual’s conversation with Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot, Grok.
“He had asked Grok if it was possible that Tamboli’s was doing well this week, and Grok said no. And he took a screenshot of that and sent it back to me, calling me a liar,” Tamboli said. “I feel like that tells you everything you need to know about this group of people and their hold on reality.”