Wegmans store

A Wegmans store is pictured at 3195 Monroe Ave., Pittsford, NY.

(Gary Walts | gwalts@syracuse.com)

Wegmans is consistently named one of the best companies to work for, recently scored the second-best corporate reputation in America, and has had a cult following among fans for years.

So why are customers suddenly threatening to boycott the Rochester-based grocery store chain?

The Democrat & Chronicle reports Wegmans is facing boycotts for carrying products with President Donald Trump's name on them. The company has 10 locations in Virginia that sell bottles from the Trump Winery in Charlottesville, Va., drawing the ire of the National Organization for Women and other groups.

"Certainly if Wegmans is carrying Trump wines, I personally will not shop there," Terry O'Neill, president of the nation's largest feminist organization, told the Washington Post.

"Events during Donald Trump's campaign made it clear that Eric Trump, the president of Trump Winery in Charlottesville, Virginia, shares the views of his father," the group Stop Trump Wine added. "Let's demonstrate through economic action that the residents and businesses of Charlottesville will not stand for the hatred espoused by Eric Trump and those like him."

Wegmans' Virginia stores sell 237 different wines from 58 wineries in the state. According to the D&C, President Trump purchased one of those wineries -- Kluge Estate Winery and Vineyard -- for $6.2 million in 2011 and gave it to his son, Eric, to run.

"I'm really interested in good real estate, not so much in wine," President Trump said at the time of the purchase. "This place had a $28 million mortgage on it, and I bought it for $6.2 million. It's a Trump deal!"

The winery's bottles have appeared in Wegmans since 2008, but have only recently become controversial since Trump's successful presidential run. Many businesses have faced criticism if they support Trump -- as Under Armour and Uber have recently learned -- or if they show any signs of opposition, like when the president attacked Nordstrom for dropping his daughter Ivanka Trump's clothing line.

One Virginia resident from Upstate New York, who declined to use her first or last name, told the Post that she's been a lifelong Wegmans fan but has started shopping elsewhere to avoid seeing bottles of Trump Blanc de Blanc and Trump Winery Chardonnay.

Jo Natale, vice president of media relations for Wegmans, told the newspaper that the company stocks products based on how well they sell, not politics.

"Our role as a retailer is to offer choice to our customers," she said.

"Individual shoppers who feel strongly about an issue can demonstrate their convictions by refusing to buy a product," Natale continued. "When enough people do the same, and sales of a product drop precipitously, we stop selling that product in favor of one that's in greater demand."

Nordstrom said its decision to remove Ivanka Trump's line was based on poor sales. Burlington Coat Factory, Sears and Kmart have also stopped selling some Trump products.