A video showing empty shelves at a Florida grocery store went viral just days after the state’s governor, Ron DeSantis, signed a sweeping anti-immigration bill into law.
In a recent video, PJ (@pjs_journey) showed viewers grocery aisles completely devoid of products. As of Wednesday morning, his video had over 7.8 million views.
“No groceries smh sad these truckers weren’t playing when they said they were not delivering anything to Florida!!!” PJ wrote via text overlay.
@pjs_journey Keep playing Florida! You about to find out! #fyp #rondesantis #florida #home #foryoupage #fypシ #foryoupage ♬ original sound – PJ’s Journey
News of the empty shelves comes days after truckers threatened to boycott Florida after the state’s legislature passed a restrictive immigration law. Signed in response to the expiration of Title 42, the law includes a requirement that businesses with more than 25 employees use E-verify, a federal system that determines if employees can legally work in the U.S.
The law will take effect July 1.
The Daily Dot has reached out to PJ via TikTok comments. As of publication, it was unclear whether a shortage of truckers were to blame for the bare shelves.
Still, the sight of empty aisles left a number of commenters overjoyed. In fact, many offered their support for the boycott.
“My husband’s truck company did this, they said NO TRUCKS TO FLORIDA,” one user said.
“Florida is canceled,” another added.
“Omg hope the truckers read these comments,” a third viewer wrote. “We are so grateful and proud of them.”
Still, it’s unclear whether the immigration bill is the sole culprit of the vacant aisles. Some commenters noted that other grocery stores weren’t affected, for instance.
“Wish this were true, but [I] heard it’s literally a few stores only,” one comment read.
“I live in Florida and none of the stores around me are like that lol,” another viewer added.
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Source: https://www.dailydot.com/news/florida-trucker-boycott-empty-grocery-shelves/