It’s business decision

I couldn’t disagree more with Jake Tidmore’s letter pertaining to the Colorado baker who declined an order from a gay couple. This issue has nothing to do with religious or personal belief.

Owning a business for seven years, I dealt with all types of customers. Some were rude, some impatient, some dishonest. When the business is your livelihood, you have to swallow things you don’t want to. But there were times when I said, “Enough … I don’t want to do business with you. Good luck elsewhere.” A private business owner who receives no breaks or subsidies from the government deserves that right.

Consumers certainly exercise it. I’m willing to wager there are any number of businesses Mr. Tidmore doesn’t transact with based on any number of reasons: bad service, location, rude employees, employee appearance, etc. We all make those choices every day of our lives. It’s a little concept called free-market capitalism. It works.

Tidmore also doesn’t acknowledge that had the baker made the cake, as modern times might dictate, someone on social media posting him as the “gay baker” might hurt his business.

He made a choice, knowing it could hurt him. There would be business consequences, and he would have to deal with them. That is the baker’s choice, and even in this age of “sue, sue, sue,” I believe this issue has no business in a court.

I leave Tidmore with this thought: A baker makes a swastika cake, at a customer’s request, with anti-Semitic writing. According to Tidmore, he has to. Would Mr. Tidmore frequent that bakery? By his logic, it would be discriminatory not to do so.

Hey … can’t refuse your cake and eat it too, Jake. Pun intended.

ANTHONY LLOYD Hot Springs