Do you boycott any local businesses?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I’m not talking about boycotting businesses because you disapprove of their stock, like fur coats, or blood diamonds. I’m talking about a local business for which you said “I’m never shopping here again!” and really mean it.

There’s a local toy store, not a chain business, that I wouldn’t shop in if I still had young kids to buy for. Back when my nephews were young, and the shop was smaller and downtown, I went in there twice and did not recieve service. Both times I’d just gotten away from worked and looked a little scruffy. They would go to the other well dressed people that came in, but not to me. I contacted them and got apologies both times, asking for a third chance, but I never went back.

Another is a chain fast food joint that said they’d welcome members of my dad’s classic car club, for a cruse night. But when they arrived(and were buying food), the pimply faced teenage manager told them they couldn’t stay. They left, and contacted the manager, who basically just said “oops!” So I don’t patronize their local outlets.

So yes I can hold a grudge with the best of them, but do you?

2

There is a convenience store near me that would constantly try to rip me off. They never wanted to give you a receipt, and the totals did not add up to the purchases.

When pressed on it, eventually, they would “realize” that they had wrung in an item more than once, and then fix the total.

After the third time this happened, and not with the same cashier, I decided it was not just a mistake.

It’s not that I hold a grudge that I won’t go back, but that I don’t trust them not to try to rip me off again.

3

Pretty much all local stores and businesses except bars and restaurants are de facto boycotted since I don’t ever buy anything other than food or booze…or gas.

4

There’s a chain Tex-Mex restaurant that I wont enter again. It’s just filthy inside, the crew attitude stinks worse than the toilets and I’m willing to bet it gave me food poisoning more than once.

There’s also a grocery store that’s fine for everything except fresh produce. It’s just stored and displayed in a nasty disgusting mess with wilted greens and I can almost always find mold on something.

5

I had two bad repair experiences at the ford dealer nearest me.

I drive across the city to a different ford dealer for service now.

6

There are a few, for reasons similar to those posted above.

7

There’s an oil change place down the road from me that always puts Bible verses on their marquee. Even though I’m Christian, I’m uncomfortable with that, and since there are plenty of other places where I can go for that service, I choose not to go there for that reason.

8

There’s a mechanic nearby that had a habit of charging slightly lower prices, but the damn cars never seemed to get fixed, another trip to the garage, so yeah, we don’t go there anymore, ever. There’s another mechanic just as close and does good work.

9

I had to stop going to a tire/oil change place because the idiots who put my new tires on didn’t screw THREE of the caps on tightly enough, with the result that the 3 tires in question soon went all flat. After the first one did I went in and complained, he just kept mumbling “I’ve never seen that happen here”-checked them when I had to go to a gas station to use the airpump, and yep all 3 caps were significantly loose.

10

I can boycott things cheaper and easier at home.

11

Liquor store, because I’ve been charged twice, twice.

Oil change place, because they’re pushy about transmission service which they’ll do for a discount today. And the last time (last) they changed the oil on my wife’s car it leaked, then when they fixed it it still leaked. And it wasn’t leaking clean oil, either, so I honestly wonder if they were changing anything at all.

12

Do your tires have some special valve caps that actually hold the pressure? The valve caps I’m familiar with just prevent debris from getting into the valve.

13

Not really a boycott, but there’s a Mexican place near my apartment that should get my business, but their insane credit card policies drive me insane, they’ll go from $10 minimum one day to no cards accepted at all the next.

I probably eat there one a year during summer festival season when I’ve got a lot of cash with me.

14

I won’t go to the local Chick-fil-A, but that has nothing to do with the local franchise. I used to boycott one of the local grocers because they constantly had out-dated product, but then they closed.

15

There’s a building supply/hardware store down the street from me. When I (a female) went there to rent a chipper my friend (a male) came with me because he had a truck to tow it. Even though I was the one signing the paperwork and paying for it they never said a word to me or looked me in the eye. Fuck them. I shop at Home Depot now.

16

Lou, 'zat you?

My friend Louis pretty much ends every meal out with the phrase “Welll, never eating here again…”

After the thirtieth time I heard him pronouncing “I am never shopping here again!” or “WHY would I ever see a movie here again?” or “That’s it! Never darkening this doorstep again!”, I asked him how many places in town he can still go to. It’s gotta be in the single digits by now.

By the way, he’s making these pronouncements to someone besides me and my wife. We had enough, and now go out (to some of those “banned businesses”) with more positive people.

17

I don’t know if I have any boycotts currently. Used to be a lovely coffeeshop that I’d go to when I had a couple of hours of schoolwork to do and needed to get away from my wonderful but demanding children (don’t worry about them, they’re crate-trained). The coffee was great, the atmosphere was chill, the workers were friendly.

The workers were friendly, but the owners, it turned out, were pickup-artist bloggers who would use the coffeeshop to pick up women and then blog about the sexual conquests in loathsome detail–rating the women, insulting them, and generally being as repulsive as possible. On one episode they made a joke that implied they’d raped one woman–it was never clear to me whether the joke was that rape was funny, or that they’d gotten away with it.

Word got out.

I boycotted them, but not for long, and these days I go back to that location pretty happily. Those assholes were drummed out of town and within a few weeks sold the coffeeshop to some new owners with a sterling reputation.

18

When I was working at the ambulance we picked up dinner one night. We drove the ambulance there & went in, in uniform. When we got back to the station we opened the bag to realize we were given the wrong order. We called them up & told them this, put the order back in the bag & drove back there.

They waited until we got back there, they confirmed it was wrong & only then started to cook what we actually wanted. It took ½ hr - 45 mins until we got back to the station the second time.

Many places would give on-duty first responders some discount; they didn’t, which is their prerogative. However, they didn’t offer to refund (any of) our money or offer a free dessert; nuffin’. This was clearly their mistake as we didn’t bring the order out from the back & place it on the counter.

I specifically mentioned we were on duty because, unlike civilians, we could potentially be dispatched to a call at any second. Yeah, it’s on us if/when it happens, but when you delay our meal so long, it’s on you if we don’t get to eat.
Never been back in the 10-15 years since that happened; there’s plenty of other restaurants around.

19

I will never visit one of my previous employers, because my former boss was an asswipe. Always understaffed, then getting pissy at us not being able to do two or even three people’s jobs fast enough. Regular unpaid overtime. Insulted my girlfriend. Just, you know, general piece of shit.

20

Not very often, but yes.

There was a car dealer that, twice, messed up repairs on my car. A computer control chip had failed in the car, totally shutting it down. I had it towed to the dealer, they replaced the chip, and sent me on my way. 20 miles later, that chip failed. Another tow, another chip, and that time, I requested them to drive the car around for a while before giving it back to me. “Yes, we did that.” They replaced the chip, gave the car back to me…and the chip failed, again. I had a different dealer finish the repair, and never went back to the first dealer. Several years later, they went out of business, and I had a moment of schadenfreude.

There was a Lone Star Steakhouse that my wife and I liked to go to; we probably ate there once a month, for maybe five or six years. One evening, my steak (a filet mignon, which I’d ordered “medium”) came out well done. I alerted the server, he apologized and went back to the kitchen to request a replacement. It took at least 20 minutes for the replacement to come out – it was clear that the replacement had been put at the back of the order queue, rather than the front (as it should have been). By the time it came out, my wife was done with her dinner…and the second steak was rare. I asked to see the kitchen manager, explained (calmly, but I was clearly frustrated) what was going on, and he apologized. Steak #2 was sent back to the kitchen, and finally, a steak that was something close to medium came out, 10 more minutes later.

I was willing to chalk all of that up to a bad night in the kitchen – but, on our next visit, the exact same thing happened: first steak was well done, replacement steak took forever to arrive, and it was rare. It felt like Groundhog Day, and it was the last straw. We never went back to that restaurant – and, like the car dealer, it closed not too long after, which again suggested to me that there was a management problem there.