Beth Dryer saw the news about Armed Forces Brewing’s closing early Friday morning and was amused by the company’s CEO blaming a “local woke mob” for the brewery’s fortunes.
By that afternoon, she’d made pins from materials she had floating around 757 Creative Reuse Center, the nonprofit arts-and-crafts thrift store she runs.
The design features a watching eye surrounded by the words “Local Woke Mob” and Norfolk, with the city spelled with an expletive.
“I think that so many people can find humor in this, and can find, not like ‘the little guys won’ but in some way, we did it. We didn't support them, and so they left,” Dryer said.
The brewery stirred up the ire of many neighbors with marketing and statements by its spokesman which critics called misogynistic, transphobic and hateful.
Dryer and hundreds of others tried and failed to stop the city from permitting the brewery when it moved to Norfolk in 2023. Now, with its closing with less than a year of operation, they’re taking a victory lap.
Dryer made 16 pins, giving them out in exchange for a donation to the store, but the interest was overwhelming and coming from ex-Norfolk residents now living all over the country.
Dryer put in an order for 200 more Local Woke Mob stickers which will be arriving soon. Others have gotten in on the action as well.
One man posted on Facebook designs for T-shirts with the phrase, saying he was getting them printed and part of the proceeds would go to Norfolk’s LGBT Life Center.
And then there’s the bespoke scented Woke Mob candle courtesy of Norfolk Candle.
Dryer thinks people are waking up to the power of voting with their dollars and wielding it to reject those who don’t share the community’s values. Adapting the “local woke mob” label is a way to celebrate that.
“We can push our agenda of inclusivity and folks who aren't in line with that have no business being here,” she said.
“And of course, they said it was because of the ‘local woke mob,’ but in fact, it was because they weren't paying their business taxes.”
FINANCES FACE SCRUTINY
Financial records filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission show that Armed Forces Brewing was struggling before it arrived in Norfolk in 2023.
Despite tripling its revenues in the first half of 2024, the brewery posted a $1.7 million loss for the first 6 months of the year. That came after two consecutive years of operating in the red.
Companies have sued Armed Forces Brewing in court to recoup unpaid debts and former employees have complained on social media they haven’t seen their last paychecks.
A notice posted on the door of Armed Forces Brewing’s building dated December 26 says the company owed delinquent taxes.
Norfolk Treasurer Daun Hester told WHRO the amounts due and how long the brewery has been delinquent is private information she couldn't discuss.
This week, a new notice posted on the brewery door says Hester's office now plans to seize machinery and tools to settle the delinquent tax bill.
In the wake of the closing, others have raised questions about the state incentives used to lure the brewery from Maryland to Virginia.
Some public officials have criticized the more than $300,000 in incentives offered by the state, including Norfolk Delegate Jackie Glass.
“The governor gambled taxpayer dollars on a marketing stunt, a brewery that doesn’t actually brew beer, hoping to cash in on anti-Bud Light sentiment. Instead of securing a thriving business, Virginia subsidized a failing one, and the only return we’ve gotten so far is bad beer and unpaid bills,” Glass wrote in the statement.
She questioned whether the state had “a plan to recoup the money from this failing investment.”
It’s unclear how much, if any, of those incentives ended up paid out to Armed Forces Brewing.
Part of the incentive was tax breaks on equipment, but the bulk was cash grants.
More than $213,000 of the incentive package was for creating 35 high paying jobs and investing in $9.6 million to improve the former O’Connor Brewing property. The Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development oversees those grants. Inquiries made to VDHC about whether Armed Forces got any of that money were unanswered as of press time.
The Virginia Economic Development Partnership manages a small piece of the incentives - $24,500 to help recruit and train those 35 new jobs. The agency told WHRO that Armed Forces Brewing qualified for the Virginia Jobs Investment Program, but never requested or received any money.
