The Sur La Table NOligarchy Profile
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Sur La Table scores 95.12 on the NOligarchy scale — a profile defined more by gaps in available public data than by documented spending or violations.
Current Pillar Scores
Political Access
100.0
Wealth Extraction
74.6
Playing by the Rules
100.0
Score history — 23 quarters
Tier bands show where each quarter's score falls — no numeric y-axis needed. The dashed ring marks the year-over-year comparison point. Tap any quarter but the first to see its pillar breakdown.
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Political Access Grade: 100/100. No federal lobbying filings, no Political Action Committee (PAC) activity, and no tracked executive donations have been matched to Sur La Table from Q3 2024 through Q2 2026. Because no records were found rather than confirmed zero activity, that score reflects the current limit of available public data.
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Wealth Extraction Grade: 74.62/100. As a private company, Sur La Table is not required to publish executive compensation data, and no buyback or dividend records have been found. What is available — from industry benchmarking — suggests the pay gap between the person at the top and the workers on the floor may be meaningful, though the actual figure is not publicly disclosed.
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Playing by the Rules Grade: 100/100. No fines, regulatory penalties, or public violations have been matched to Sur La Table in the tracked sources. That 100 reflects the absence of matched records, not a verified clean sheet.
Sur La Table ranks 4th out of 9 companies in the Furniture and home furnishings retailers sector — above the sector average score of 78.3. That standing is largely an artifact of what has and hasn’t been found in available public records, rather than a documented record of restraint.
The Bottom Line: No Matched Records Yet — The Picture Remains Incomplete
Across the eight quarters from Q3 2024 through Q2 2026 — the two-year tracking period — no lobbying filings, PAC activity, executive donations, CEO pay disclosures, stock buyback data, regulatory fines, or public subsidy records have been matched to Sur La Table in any source this project tracks. That may mean the company genuinely has no federal political footprint or violation history — or it may mean that matching records exist but have not yet been linked to this company. What is certain is that the current state of available public data does not support a finding of compliance or spending in either direction.
Outside Current Tracking Coverage
From Q3 2024 through Q2 2026, no federal lobbying disclosures under the Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA), no PAC contributions, and no tracked executive donations to federal candidates have been matched to Sur La Table across the Senate LDA and Federal Election Commission (FEC) databases. Whether that reflects genuine non-participation or a gap in record matching is not something the available data can resolve.
For a specialty kitchen retailer, there are real policy debates that could draw corporate attention — import tariffs on cookware and cutlery, consumer product safety rules governing kitchen equipment, small-business lending standards, and retail labor regulations. No filings have surfaced connecting Sur La Table to any of those issue areas at the federal level during this period. No outside lobbying firms, no revolving-door hires, and no shared-firm network appear in the record.
EXHIBIT — THE RESERVED SEAT
$0 in lobbying · $0 in PAC money
Sur La Table filed no federal lobbying and ran no corporate PAC in this window — the reserved seat at the witness table sits empty.
A Pay Gap the Public Cannot Measure
Here is what the public record cannot tell you about Sur La Table: what its chief executive earns, and what the average sales associate takes home. Because the company is private — and therefore not subject to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) mandatory pay-ratio disclosure rules — those figures are Sur La Table’s to keep.
The best available benchmark comes from AFL-CIO Executive Paywatch industry data for comparable companies in this sector: 24:1, based on AFL-CIO Executive Paywatch industry benchmarks for comparable companies in this sector. Whether Sur La Table’s actual gap is higher or lower than that benchmark is not publicly disclosed — that is precisely the accountability gap private-company status creates. No stock buyback or dividend data has been matched to Sur La Table either, which is consistent with its structure as a privately held company.
Outside Current Tracking Coverage
No regulatory fines, violation penalties, or enforcement actions have been matched to Sur La Table across the tracked sources during the two-year period from Q3 2024 through Q2 2026. That absence reflects what is currently visible in available public databases — not a verified finding that no violations occurred. Similarly, no public subsidies, government grants, or tracked tax incentive records have been matched to the company.