The story behind the ban of sale of Genocide T-shirts at Americana
Monday, November 30, -1Three young Armenian entrepreneurs rented a cart last month at the Americana in order to sell Genocide-themed T-shirts.
On the opening day of their business, the three Armenians were unexpectedly told by Americana’s management to keep their cart family-friendly and remove all pictures of protests. Even though there were no pictures of any protests on the cart — just posters of people wearing the T-shirts on sale.
Americana issued an ultimatum telling the entrepreneurs that within 24 hours they had to change the kind of merchandise they were selling, claiming that there had been public complaints about the ‘genocide’ clothing. Otherwise, they would have three days to vacate the premises.
Fearing that they were on the verge of eviction, the three entrepreneurs agreed not to display the Armenian T-shirts, and sell them only if requested by a customer. Later that afternoon, an Americana official announced that all clothing items with the ‘genocide’ theme had to be completely removed from the cart.
This was a clear interference in the three Armenians’ business. Americana had no right to ban the sale of ‘genocide’ T-shirts — a violation of the owners’ freedom of expression.
The attorney told the entrepreneurs that even though Americana’s actions were clearly illegal, she had no choice but to comply, since she was up against a major corporation with a powerful legal team.
Americana is owned by Rick Caruso who has enjoyed friendly relations with Glendale’s large Armenian community.
On March 11th, The Americana at Brand issued an apology to Armenian cart vendors after the shopping center’s management chose to bar them from selling their merchandise saying that it was inappropriate.
“We would like to apologize to our cart tenants, Tina Chuldzhyan, Alex Kodagolian and Armin Hariri, for the regrettable misunderstanding regarding their cart’s merchandise,” the Americana at Brand posted on the company’s Facebook page. “The cart tenant is more than welcome to have its product in question displayed on the cart.”