DoctorJ asks:
They have made it a point to support “progressive” causes; many of which are anathema to me. I expect that if I were to sift through a pint of Rain Forest Crunch I would find a tiny little bleeding heart in there. No thanks.
Haven’t you heard? Thats their new flavor!
Victoria’s Secret. I read that they use slave labor, and besides, their prices are way too high for the quality of their products.
I hate the BODY SHOP, but for entirely different reasons than previously mentioned.
A couple of years ago they had these window posters featuring “retro art” – Donna Reed-ish mom with pearls and Pepsodent smile, that sort of thing. Well, one of the posters had a headline that read something like:
“Why test on animals? You can use my husband instead!”
I swear I literally gasped when I read that male-bashing, double-standard horseshit. I walked right in the store where the teeny-bopper salesgrrrl and her ever-so-slightly older manager/coworker were, and said, “Do you have any idea how offensive that poster is? If a store had a poster that read, ‘Don’t test on animals, use my wife instead’ it would be picketed and closed in a day.”
The TB salesgrrrl just stammered and stared at me, her PC feminist brain choking on the concept that she was being accused of working for a sexist company. The manager-type had the presence of mind to see that I was making a reasonable point; she apologized for offensive poster and promised to mention my objections to the higher-ups.
The next time I passed the store, a few days later, the poster was gone, but the whole Donna Reed-style poster campaign was gone too, so it was probably a marketing cycle that killed the offensive headline, not my complaints.
True, I never did shop at the BODY SHOP before this event, but I certainly won’t shop there in the future. And, at least I gave the two clerks something to think about as they get older.
Walgreens. They’ve screwed up my prescriptions too many times, and it’s not like I can do without insulin for very long. Besides, they are becoming borg-like. The dratted stores are popping up everywhere.
Intel. Only if I have to. Dratted proprietary technology.
Tyson chicken products, because of the way they treat their employees. This one is easy, cuz their stuff tastes like crap anyway.
I don’t patronize any of the places mentioned in this thread, except the occasional mega-store. That’s because there truly aren’t any alternatives if you live in a small town.
One reason, of course, is because the big guys drove the little guys out of business.
But another reason is that when the little guy decides to retire, often there’s no one interested in keeping the business going.
Nike - sweet shops that lead to the destruction of 3rd world economies, yea WTO
Wall-Mart - for destroying local Businesses
AOL - they are taking over the world, I swear it
Disney - DITTO
Starbucks - do I need to say it?
CompUSA - I worked there and don’t ever buy a computer there, the dumb asses that work in the PC sales are a bunch of Dumb F*ks, they sell overpriced PCs that are old and they lie bold faced to you.
Judging from the responses on the ice cream thread, I should probably put my flame-proof underwear on for this, but…Breyer’s.
And hey, Homer…under what circumstances must you wear Nike? You a pro athlete whose team’s uniform is Nike?
Boy I’m going to take crap for this, but it’s how I really feel.
I LOVE THOSE BIG-ASS CATEGORY-KILLING MEGA STORES! Every single one of 'em: B&N, Home Depot, the works.
I live in New York City where everything costs too damn much. Because there are so many people with too much money and no time, the “mom & pop” places didn’t have to do squat to turn a lively business. Just keep the doors open, they figured, and the money rolled in.
Well, now even NYC has mega-stores, and all the mom & pop places are crying the blues all the way to bankruptsy court. I say good riddance!
Have you been in a NYC mom & pop store lately? First of all, if mom and pop still work there – to their credit they WILL probably speak English – they will not have a friggin’ clue about any product introduced after the Nixon administration, let alone stock it. (Where would they put it, with all the mustache wax and Aqua Net taking up the shelf space?)
But, more than likely, mom & pop are in Florida now. Sonny runs the place by dropping in once a week from Great Neck in his SUV to pick up the receipts. That leaves Julio to manage, and Shawndeekwa to work the register. If it’s a hardware store, you better not need anything more complicated than a pack of light bulbs, and it better come in a blister pack or else they don’t have it. English as we know it is not spoken here, so direct your questions about the product or its use to the label on the can or your Time Life Handyman books.
Now let’s direct our attention to the DARLINGS of the retail wars: those poor, poor itty-bitty book stores. First of all that’s one of their biggest problems; they’re too damn itty-bitty. I like selection. And I like it NOW because I’m here NOW. So no, I don’t want you to special order it so I’ll have to come back in two weeks, asshole!
Did you ever actually drop into one of those boutiquey NYC neighborhood bookstores – before B&N came to town, that is? If you didn’t shop there three times a week and have tea and crumpets with the owner, or if you didn’t have a Masters in English Lit or better, or if you were in the slightest bit of a rush, or if you actually wanted to buy a book that they considered beneath them, well sir, you weren’t exactly “their kind of people,” if ya’ catch my meanin’.
So, give me my selection, my good price, my customer-friendly store policies, my coast-to-coast accessability and my corporation-trained help (who have supervisors who will take MY side when I have a complaint).
Mom & Pop, God bless you. Enjoy your retirement, but tell Sonny to get a real job and sell the ol’ place to Starbuck’s!
(You may fire at will.)
You should know that Nike & those other companies are now amoung the BEST of those that have their labor overseas. It is true that they were not very caring, but they have changed. And, PULEEEZZEE don’t tell me about 1.00 a day, if you have no idea what that will buy there, or how it compares to LOCALLY run shops. Compared to them, Nike runs a Spa.
And to those of you flaming big businesses because they are, “umm, well, er, uh, BIG, yeah, that’s it BIG!” Somebodys GOT to be the biggest in any field. B&N, Disney, Walmart, etc are not evil, they are just big. So what? Stuyguy makes a good point. Now, when B&N opens a store, then discounts heavily just to run the opposition out of business, then drops the big discounts, THAT’S unfair.
Now, HYPOCRITES like the Bodyshop & Breyers will NOT get MY business, no matter their size. Old navy and others, because of their stupid horrible commercials, yes, absolutely, but I will go back when the commercials stop.
I had not heard about the Body Shop, but I think I bought their products exactly twice, and I will not again. Also don’t buy from ANY fast food restaurant (I’m a vegeterian anyway, why bother?), **Starbucks, any chain bookstore **(they’re soulless and devoid of the true thoughtfulness that should be inherent in a bookstore), and Nike. Whatever Daniel says about Nike, if they are so blameless, why did they just pull sponsorship from the University of Oregon when UO decided to make a statement that they would not support companies that used sweatshop labor?
Well, Danielinthewolvesden, I think you’ve been reading too many Nike press releases. They still don’t pay a living wage to many of their employees, and they hide behind the smokescreen known as subcontractors to keep from having to answer for their transgressions. Something is very wrong when the largest cost component of a pair of shoes is the royalty to the athlete whose name graces the box. Tripling the hourly wage (another joke - it’s mostly piece work) for the factory worker will increase the cost by what, 4 bucks, tops? Phil Knight can’t see fit to do even THAT?
Nope…Nike wants you to THINK they’re one of the best, and have gone to great lengths to commission “independent audits” (what an oxymoron, eh?) to prove it. Well, my dad used to say…tell a lie often enough, and people will start to believe it.
I am, however, disappointed to hear about the Olive Garden and Red Lobster…I used to like going to them places…sigh
Oh, don’t get me wrong, it is still a shame what those 3rd world workers get paid, and the only reason Nike changed is because of the negative publicity. But, still, in order to be fair, ya gotta compare them to other overseas 'sweatshops", and to the local pay. Based on that, Nike is pretty good, NOW. Just about every athletic shoe is made by overseas “sweatshops”, and so is much of our clothing. Picking on Nike, while buying from their competitors that have not even made the small effort Nike has to change, is unfair. So, check the label- if it is made in an overseas 3rd world country, it is made in cheap sweatshops.
And, hell, most USA retail & “piece-work” does not pay a “living wage”, either.
Toshiba, if I can ever avoid it, will never get another dollar from me. I say “if”, because a few years back I bought a VCR from some other company that turned out to just be Toshiba in a different case.
But why, you ask?
Because, in a violation of both laws and exclusive contracts with the U.S. DOD, they sold secret technologies to the Soviets during the eighties that allowed them to design and cut lower-noise propellers for their submarines. Prior to that, our subs had a substantial sonic advantage. Toshiba put the lives of thousands of submariners (of which I’m one) at risk to make the almighty dollar. Read more at http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=23287
Never mind animal testing or low wages, these guys could have gotten me killed.
woah. As the token Vermonter here, I’d like to know what causes you find disagreeable, the fact that they created a program in inner cities to have the locals make the brownies for Fudge Brownie, the fact that they provide a TON of money for educational programs, their policy of only using all-natural ingrediants (which they do, I have a friend who is in the chemistry department there, it makes his job WAY harder…) or the fact that unlike other companies, instead of whining about the issues, they actively give money to the causes they are pushing. A bleeding heart whines about the problem and doesn’t do anything about it, Ben and Jerry’s sends all the profits from Rain Forest Crunch to the Brazilian farmers to give them an incentive to stop clear cutting.
How is that a bad thing? Everything they do is to help people, they’re not harping about issues and then not following through. At least they’re not now. Just wait till Unilever takes over. Feh.
I don’t buy Nike. It’s hard to justify paying Michael Jordon so much and the workers so little. I don’t buy Old Navy or Gap, last time I checked they still had state-sponsored sweat shops in modern Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. I don’t go to Denny’s. Yea, I know, they “reformed” their race-policy, but I still have a bad taste in my mouth from it. (maybe it’s the coffee. Blech.)
Both my SO and I have agreed to purchase NOTHING that uses Michael Jordan in their advertising.
Oh - lee, thanks for the info on Olive Garden/Red Lobster. Hadn’t heard about that but will read up.
I refuse to go to the Olive Garden simply because it is sacrilegious to call its food “Italian.” It might be tasty, it might be a good value, but Italian? Hardly. It’s an insult to my ancestors to go there.
Hey, I’m with ya. When it comes right down to it, I do NOT enjoy shopping - even at the cute lil’ helpful Mom & Pop stores. I have much better things to do with my time than shop, and when it’s unavoidable, I wanna go to ONE place and have a reasonably good chance that it’s going to stock what I’m looking for. I’ve heard that some places (New York City comes to mind) have pretty decent independent bookstores, but here in the flyover the independents are shitty. I can’t count on them having what I’m looking for, but the Barnes & Noble down the street always has it. I now go there first.
Same thing with other types of goods. Yeah, the local butcher has good meat, but quite frankly the quality at the local grocery stores is almost always as good, and it’s half the price. The big stores also have generous return policies. I can take my nifty new Bass-o-matic home and play with it for a while and see if I like it. If I don’t, I can bring it back no questions asked. Last time I tried to do this at the cute lil’ Mom and Pop store I got unending grief about how their return policy doesn’t allow such things, and I’d have to talk to the manager, and even if I could persuade him to take it back I’d have to pay a restocking fee. Target just takes it back, no questions asked.
Long live chain stores. Better yet, long live web based stores where I don’t even have to go there - I just click a button and my stuff arrives a couple days later.
In Defense of Toshiba, what they sold to Russia was a numeric drill press, a tool, that was considered consumer technology, not military. They apologized after they found out what Russia was using it for. But I can hardly fault them for their actions. They can’t tell what a customer is going to use their tool for. If they had sold a wrench or screwdriver that was later used to assemble a bomb would you hold them in the same contempt?
Lexus. I don’t have a thing in the world against foreign vehicles, but Lexus’ ad campaigns depicting Jeeps as ‘inferior’ SUVs really pisses me off. There is no way a fragile little Lexus could take on half the off-road terrain a Jeep can.
Dude… maybe compared to some stores in new york, B&N is great, but I’ve found B&N, for example, to be the worst in customer service. Most times, unless the customer service drone happens to read, they won’t have a clue as to what you’re talking about, most will be blatently rude, and the supervisors could give a flying crap about what you think.