A quarter of US shoppers have dumped favorite stores over political stances
A new poll also found that four in 10 Americans have shifted spending to align with moral views in recent months
I cancelled everything. Amazon, Walmart, Netflix, ect... I have a costco account and I shop local when I can. Learn to sew and fix your clothes. Maintain an older car instead of buying new. Vote with your wallet. The only power we have is our money.
So... no power, is what your saying.
There is another power we have, but it requires organization. Voting with your feet. Walkouts, strikes.
Seeing a nationwide general strike is extremely unlikely, but my god it would be magical to see.
Please if you have the opportunity to start buying from small businesses. It may be a bit more inconvenient and probably a bit more expensive but it is a great way to help out your neighbor.
Additionally the money you spend locally usually stays local and not go to a CEO or Chairman of the board that really doesn't need another vacation home in Italy or Aspen.
I don't know about your area, but my local small businesses are disproportionately right-wing. Target's trying to appease the government from fucking them with a red hot poker by quieting down DEI, The body shop near it has trump signs all over their building.
Hell, even local minority-owned shops aren't a sure bet.
I struggle with this narrative, because it's just not that simple. This is pretty much just something that small business owners like to say to guilt people into buying their stuff. Small businesses still need to compete on price and quality.
Large retailers still employ local people, and your pension fund probably owns shares in them, or you can buy shares directly yourself.
Some small local retailers have very shady employment practices. I don't think employees are necessarily paid or treated better in small businesses. Some might be great, others are terrible.
Having said that, buying locally produced seasonal food directly from growers makes a lot of sense. Fresher, more nutritious, fewer food miles, less middle men.
Basically, local Butcher baker and green grocer.
It really is that simple. Sure the big box stores hire local but the money doesn't stay local if there are no smaller shops. Their paychecks go to other large corporations that have their big box stores in the area. So no money actually helps the businesses but instead just enriches a small group of people that really don't give a shit about the people of the town.
This isn't a guilt trip to get you to buy local, this is the truth. It's been happening since the 80's starting with Walmart.
Small business can't compete on price but a good business will compete and win on quality. It means that their products will be more expensive and I get that some people will not be able to afford it. But for those people that have the means its a win-win for the business and the consumer.
Some small businesses have shady employment practices, so do large corporations and every sized business in between. This isn't a good argument not to try to buy more locally, but it is a good argument for better labor laws.
Basically, local Butcher baker and green grocer.
So local butcher's, bakers and green grocers somehow get a pass on possibly having shady employment practices?
Aren't you advocating then that people are taking from the pension plans of large grocery stores by buying local ?
Your logic only makes sense if you completely ignore we're in the middle of a class war...
Goods Unite Us is a free app that tells you which political party companies donate to
I tried this out by searching for Amazon, and if this website was all you knew, you'd come away thinking it was a rather left leaning company, with a donation distribution of 68% Democrat and 32% Republican. That may or may not be true, but it ignores all of the hostile working conditions and anti-union behavior they are responsible for.
Just saying, don't rely solely on this app for evaluating companies.
Not to mention Bezos lining up for the Broligarchy
I prefer the no thanks app
I avoid Target because they bailed on trans people. I should get rid of Amazon, now that I think about it.
We cancelled Amazon Prime, and I won't buy on their platform anymore. I bought something off Ebay, and sure enough it came from Amazon anyway. I guess they either dropped shipped or they fulfill their orders. I've bought a few things straight from the company and the price was the same. Shipping took a little longer, but I'll gladly wait if means not supporting these companies that grovel to dictators.
I bought something off Ebay, and sure enough it came from Amazon anyway. I guess they either dropped shipped or they fulfill their orders.
Argh, this drives me crazy! I went to ebay and was willing to pay more to avoid Amazon, but the stuff comes from Amazon anyway. I'm pretty sure this is just 3rd-party sellers drop-shipping stuff. I don't believe ebay sells anything themselves.
Anyway, I finally figured out that anything being sold new on ebay with only stock photos for a higher price than amazon has a very high likelihood of being cross-shipped from amazon and the seller is pocketing the difference (minus ebay fees?). Either look for non-stock photos, prices less than 5-10% higher than Amazon, or ideally both to avoid this.
A couple of times that I fell for this I made it a point to return the products for a refund. I didn't give the sellers a negative review because I figured that it's just some poor slob trying to eek out a living, but I came close.
Buying direct also gives those companies a higher profit margin; meaning they have the opportunity to expand, or better pay their employees (whether or not they do, is a seperate matter).
I finally got a different credit card to use outside of my Amazon Prime card because all that did was encourage me to have a prime subscription and buy shit on amazon...so "I'm doing my part" I guess.
I also canceled Prime and wrote something that would crack up whomever read it (presuming anyone actually reads those things).
Kudos for supporting trans people and you should absolutely get rid of Amazon who's responsible for union busting and dangerous labor practices that have resulted in the death of their employees.
When it's the people you love, you sorta get angry that someone's trying to hurt them. Go figure.
I jumped off Amazon and am now using Target. Target tried, but took so much backlash they took a step back.
cklash they took a step back.
I think target will re-engage, but they're not going to do it until the people do it.
You can't expect them to put up a good fight to their own detrement when we are hardly in the streets.
Not everyone can be Costco.
The things that matter in this country have been reduced in choice, there are two political parties, there are a handful insurance companies, there are six or seven information centers.. but if you want a bagel there are 23 flavors. Because you have the illusion of choice!
George Carlin
Well I mean, it's usually one company making 23 bagel flavors. Look at toothpaste. There's Colgate and then 15 Colgate variants. But if we go higher, the parent company owns 2-5 toothpaste beands, and those toothpaste brands have multiple variants.
And then we go even higher, and those parent companies are actually owned by the same group of people.
I mean if we want to get real about it, do we really want that fake choice either?
I'm degoogled, deappled, no more amazon. There's a website and boycott app to tell you which companies to dump and also buy nothing days.
This has been good for me overall because I looked into ethical consumerism and feel a lot better about how I spend. I used to do this stuff years back but I'd gotten lazy.
What are these apps and websites? Really struggling to dump Amazon…
Not alternatives, but the apps I use to see what companies own what and who they donated money to are GoodsUniteUs and Buycott. As far as getting rid of Amazon, depending on where you live and what you're looking for, you might be able to find the store or product on amazon and then go to their website if it isn't some dropship scheme or finding a local place that has an alternative, hard to beat that same day shipping, but might be viable.
Ebay and buying direct is working for me. Their streaming service is shit so thatvwas an easy one for me
Dumped Amazon in November for Costco or local retailers. We are saving literally hundreds a month for slightly less convenience. Wish we had done it years ago. Highly recommended.
Yeah, Costco is great. One of the few places I don't feel bad shopping at here in a red state.
Soon enough Leon is gonna start suing people for not buying his cars, for political reasons or otherwise
Hello citizen! It's time for your annual physical, please relax your anus while your physician installs this years Tesla Chess Tracker™ and calibrates it to remove left leaning thoughts. You may feel some discomfort in your intestines however it is normal while focusing on un-American thoughts like empathy or critical thinking. To disengage please reduce thoughts to a minimum level and remember to not vote again! Thank you, please remember to tip your doctor 20% on top of your medical bill you will receive 4-7 months from now after you've completely forgotten this mandatory annual appointment.
Yep. Dropped amazon for their support of the orange waste of space
I think that everyone who is in a position to stop driving should do so, and everyone else should reduce as much as possible. There could be a no-drive Sunday (assuming that's the day the least amount of people have to drive to work). Electric cars are still unaffordable for most of us, but everyone buying bikes in a short span of time could send a message.
Trump can't "drill baby drill" if demand plummets.
China has insanely good and affordable EVs, US is so backwards
Honestly, I don't want to buy anything at all anymore because I don't know which of the lot voted for Trump
i wish i had the luxury of choice. being in a small town, away from everything. i can choose walmart, dollar store (bad choice, period. prices are high on stuff you actually want or need), or a local (pay our exorbitant prices because we aren't walmart) grocery. everything else is an hour or two away.
Even worse is when you try to "support local" and discover that, sure, the local hardware store sponsors the town's little league team, but the owner also reposts racist memes on his personal social media page. You can't win.
pretty much how it is here, too. both hardware stores owned by maga nuts.
I mean, even in the cities you're lucky to have a choice of three different corporate grocery stores that underpay their workers to choose from. Costco is alright but, from a non-member perspective, I don't think it's practical to make that your only source of groceries.
if i was in a city, it would probably be costco, aldi, and co-ops/farmers markets for everything.
The other options in small towns/wannabe cities are “boutique” shops where Karen charges $120 for a plain white t-shirt with a hole in it.
I went to a small town recently and this was it.
The small "boutique" shop absolutely has a Karen-looking gal who was selling things from Temu but with her sticker on it.
Real sad state.
You can order stuff online, including groceries. Dry and canned goods are available online from a lot of retailers. Meal kits are surprisingly economical if you rotate through them like streaming channels, and use a promo code.
Tesla swasticar sales 📉🔥
I put the distilled and brewed booze(alcohol), from the red states, back on the shelf. Yeah, I read the labels or find out where stuff is produced.
Ideally also don't take vacations in red states.
You may want to consider any lvmh brands. Which is hard, but doable.
That's a very large amount. I'm impressed.
My wife and I have been boycotting Target which is a really a bummer because we were going to use target to boycott Amazon. We were doing really well about not buying from either until we needed clothing quickly. So we ended up doing Amazon because we could get it fast and knew what they had. I guess you have to just make a choice and nothing is going to be perfect.
Its so hard to avoid because most stores don't have any inventory. So you can go to a store to grab your clothes and they are all sold out so you just buy them online after wasting your time. This is especially true for basic items.
It's not fast, but you could try Ebay if a Goodwill isn't stocked enough for you
I've been having good luck with Mercari. It's an online flea market where individuals sell their stuff. It helps that I dress boring and know my size in a few specific brands/items.
I used to use eBay a lot when I was younger. I haven't used it in a while though. Not a bad idea
partner and I have been gradually modifying our consumption habits to favor what we see as more ethical models such as pro-labor entities & environmentally-minded ones
Yeah! Also WHAT FUCKING MONEY DO YOU THINK THEY CAN SPEND?
Me too. But mostly because I'm poor and can only afford food and rent. For now.
I have had a lifetime of listening to people say "I vote on my wallet not your party" ... well then let me spend on my politics not your bottom line.
the cool part about voting with your wallet is 99% of your mandatory budget spend where you are locked in and have little to no control over what company you use (power/water/garbage utilities, rent or mortgage, internet, health insurance) all goes to companies that support the fascists anyway!
There are a lot of fake options in this country. Most of stores probably have mostly same things.
Dumping shopping would be the real statement.
I’m a huge advocate of using “ugly but serviceable” stuff. That said, my-day-to-day shoes are wearing to the point that I can tell what the ants had for lunch. Not sure I can get away with making my own leather moccasins.
But I like, need food, almost every day
That's the most powerful, non-violent action we can take. The oligarchs and CEOs are falling in line because they think it's the best move for their bottom line. Show them they're wrong.
How much faster we could've change the world if we only were as smart as these Americans and stopped shopping at certain stores.
What a revolutionary act that will destroy fascism in no time!
Besides, Americans will do this for a week and then feel it is too much effort.
Or when they get a good deal on a vat of Coke.
In response to the executive orders, the activist and Baptist minister Rev Al Sharpton announced in January that a council with his organization, the National Action Network, would conduct a study on companies that are ending their DEI policies. By May, the council will select two companies to focus on. Sharpton and his organization will then publicly scrutinize the companies for backing away from their DEI goals.
“Donald Trump can’t make us buy your stuff. The Senate can’t make us buy your stuff,” Sharpton said at a speech last month. “In the name of Dr [Martin Luther King Jr], we’re going to do what King did.”
This is my huge takeaway from this entire article. Another opportunity has risen for Sharpton to run his big fat mouth and be the two-faced individual that he is. He's not here because he legitimately cares about the DEI programs, he's here because he knows he can be racist himself in a subtle matter against white people, as he has long been for years.
The irony.
What is racist about what you quoted? Help me understand.
Al Sharpton is a racist. Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X he is not.
You cannot advocate for the rights of your own race while turning around and taking opportunities to speak in public forums about how bad you think the white man is. Can't have it both ways.
Oh, we got some people who don't think so?
Here's proof: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/BILLS-106hconres289ih/html/BILLS-106hconres289ih.htm
Now try and tell me he isn't a racist. I'll take downvotes as admission of guilt.
Sharpton might have a history of putting his foot in his mouth on occasion but your accusation of anti-white racism seems to be a bit much.
Yeah be selective.