New York grocery store sparked backlash with a 20% discount offer for Trump supporters

• A New York grocery store that advertised a discount for supporters of President Donald Trump on Wednesday received a torrent of criticism and boycott threats this week.
• “We’re supposed to live in a free country,” store owner Jose Colon said to Fox News. “This is weird. It’s crazy.”
• Colon, who backs Trump, was resolute in his support, saying that he was a strong supporter of the president’s economic agenda.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

A New York grocery store that advertised a discount for supporters of President Donald Trump received a torrent of criticism and boycott threats this week, prompting the owner to include shoppers who backed Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden for the promotion, according to Fox News.

On Wednesday, the Fresh Food Supermarket in the Long Island hamlet of Oakdale posted a Facebook advertisement that announced a 20% discount for shoppers if they informed cashiers of their support for Trump in the grocery checkout aisle.

Beer was excluded from the store offer, according to the post that racked up more than 1,000 reactions and more than 1,500 comments as of Saturday.

Jose Colon, the owner and a native of the Dominican Republic who became a naturalized US citizen, said that he was immediately criticized for the advertisement.

“We’re supposed to live in a free country,” Colon said to Fox News. “This is weird. It’s crazy … We live in a free country where we support democracy, where we can go both ways, we can support left, right — whatever you want. I decided to vote and support the best interest, I believe, for this country.”

“But at the same time, I meant to post, to do the 20%, also for Biden,” he added.

Colon, a Trump supporter, was disturbed by the backlash to the post, sand told Fox News he was a strong supporter of the president’s economic agenda.

“I made my comments, I made my point, I think I gotta live with it,” he told the outlet. “If this is gonna cause me losing my store, I’ll run it until Election Day. I’ll run it until the last day.”

Colon mentioned that he has provided complimentary lunches to police officers, emergency medical technician first responders, seniors, and health care workers during the coronavirus pandemic without much notice from the public.

“Nobody shared those posts, nobody put a nice comment on those posts,” he said to Fox News.

The supermarket set up a GoFundMe page titled “Let’s Keep The Door Open” on Friday after the backlash to the post. As of Saturday, the page had raised just over $600 of its $15,000 goal.

Trump and Biden are currently locked in one of the most contentious and consequential presidential races in US history, with voter turnout rates that are expected to shatter modern records.