So, I love Hobby Lobby’s yarn. I think the wool, acrylic, and cotton yarns are all great.
But as I’m sure you know, they donate to anti-gay and other right wing causes, none of which I support. In fact, I am bisexual myself, so I feel like buying their products essentially means giving money to causes that are against my best interest.
However, lately I have come up with a way to buy from them and still justify it to myself. What I do is wait until they have a 4 cent shipping deal. Then I apply a 40% off coupon (they always have these) and buy a single skein of yarn. This generally ends up costing about $2 for one skein of yarn. Now, I figure there is no way they are making profit from making and shipping 180+ yards of yarn for a mere $2.
What do you think? If you agree, you are free to give it a try as well.
If not, let me know why. Also, feel free to share how you justify purchasing things from businesses you feel guilty supporting.
I didn’t know they did that and don’t know the details of it, but look at it this way, would you rather donate $5.00 to Salvation Army or $1.00 to Salvation Army.
Salvation Army is very openly anti-gay. They’ve reeled it back in the last few years, but they used to have it plastered right on their website. A few years back one of their members even said something along the lines of ‘homosexuals should die’.
It’s a tough call, I guess, since presumably they do good work too. (I haven’t really looked into them.)
I guess it’s somewhat the same here. Clearly I like what Hobby Lobby has to offer but don’t want to support all of their business practices. I suppose what I have devised is somewhat of a way to have my cake and eat it too. In other words, as long as they exist, I can benefit from their nice yarn without giving them much, if any profit.
So, get exactly what you need and the best possible price and leave. It’s not like the few cents they make off of you is going to set the gay rights movement back 20 years. And, to ‘justify’ it, be sure to check out the yarn selection at other stores when you get the chance. Maybe you’ll find something else somewhere else that you like better.
To actually justify it, each time you buy yarn from them send a letter to them stating how disappointed you are that they do that. Explain to them that they can still be a religious company without actively hurting their customers and if they did that they’d make more money from you etc etc etc (I always like the phrase ‘you must have a hateful god’, but it’s hard to work into conversation and using it here is going to put the other person on the defense which isn’t what you’re trying to do if you really want them to change). I’d probably give it the tone of ‘if I fine something better before you change your ways, it’s the last time I’ll shop there, if you stop donating, I’ll spend more money and so will my friends’ or something like that.
Anyways, I’d try to find the CEO’s email address. Honestly though, you’re not going to get anywhere until he kicks the bucket. He gave 10.5 million dollars to Jerry Falwell, $70m to Oral Roberts and sued the feds for forcing him to provide an insurance plan to his employees that included ‘abortion inducing drugs’ (birth control).
They wouldn’t make those offers if they didn’t expect some people to use them. They don’t WANT anybody to actually USE them. They just want people to see them and think of shopping at Hob Lob, then forget to use the coupon. And if you think you are sticking it to The Man, who closes his stores on Sundays and prevents me from taking my wife on our mutual day off, knock yourself out. Revenge is best served warmly wrapped in a rainbow-striped afghan.
Ah, yeah, one thing I forgot to mention (although I did allude to it) is that I shop on their website. I do not go into their stores. This is why I think they are actually losing money by selling me a $2 skein of yarn. Surely they can’t ship it across the country (priority? it always arrives in two days) for less than that.
The thing is, though, there is better yarn out there. The bulk of the yarn I buy is from other companies, but when I notice they have one of these sales, I decide to treat myself, partially because I suspect it is not actually giving them profit.
But yeah, the majority of it I suppose is just that I like cheap, decent yarn.
Hmmm … a mathematical kind of guy seeking a logic-based solution to a philosophical question …
I suggest you take a look at “The Virtue of Selfishness: A New Concept of Egoism”. Not that you’ll find an answer there – but it may help you totally twist yourself up.
I think this might be how religious people get that way. They seek the right answer and when that proves difficult they seek a good answer, and when that gets tough, they settle for ** an** answer.
My way: If it makes you feel good, do it. If it makes you feel bad, don’t do that.
Boycotting companies or brands because you disagree with their political connotations is part of what I feel is a really destructive trend. We are Balkanizing ourselves as a nation, breaking into little tribes where you watch the same TV, read the same websites, eat the same food, attend the same places of worship, go to the same schools ,and yes, shop at the same places as people that are exactly like you in both past, present, and future. It’s makes the recreational outrage so much smoother.
And companies love this. Free markets suck for firms. In a free market, you have to compete on prices. Much better to subtlety creates a connotation that the right sort of people should shop at your store, no matter the price. And everyone wins: if conservatives only shop at Hobby Lobby, Hobby Lobby can charge more to them, and if Liberals only shop more at whereever, whereever can charge more to them.
So I don’t boycott any companies based on what the owner believes. I can see boycotts based on what the company does: if this company doesn’t hire minorities, or whatever, that’s a reason to avoid the company. But once profits have been realized as profits and paid out? That’s not my money anymore, and I’ve no worries about what it’s used for.
I absolutely agree with everything you have said here. And yet, I don’t shop at Hobby Lobby because their politics make me sick and every time I see them sanctimoniously closed on Sunday my blood pressure goes up a bit. Ridiculous I know. But, it’s my money.
You may think you’re sticking it to the man, but all you’re doing is advertising for them. Because of you we now know that Hobby Lobby has a good yarn. They should paying you for the free advertising.
I think boycotting brands and businesses based on politics is an exercise in futility. Possibly admirable, but bound to fail (do you know your dry cleaners politics? Your bankers? The veterinarian?) But seems to me that if you’re going to badmouth a business, you need to not be a hypocrite. I internally roll my eyes when I hear people complaining about the evil Walmart (and I agree that it is evil) in one breath, but then they admit to shopping there for the low, low, low prices in another.
Yeah, you’re probably right, but let me say a few things.
I literally think that I’m costing them money by using this method. I cannot see how you can produce quality pure cotton (or even acrylic) yarn, pack it up, and send it across the US for $2.
On the advertising front - True, but any knitter or crocheter who lives anywhere near a Hobby Lobby already knows they have good yarn. I admit I might be advertising for their online business a bit.
On the politics front - I don’t care what they believe. It’s about them donating money towards causes that directly go against my self interests.
This is fine, really. But unless you’re grilling everyone you do business with about where they donate to charity, what churches they pay tithes and offerings to, and which businesses they do businesses with, boycotting HL doesn’t change anything. It just makes you feel better. And since it’s a feel-good thing, it doesn’t matter what you do.
I don’t like Hobby Lobby either, not just because of their political affiliations, but because I was a cashier there as a teenager, and they don’t treat their employees very well. I had many a lunch break taken away from me on busy days working there. They do, however, have pretty good deals, and I will sometimes shop there if I can they have something I can’t get anywhere else.
Why not donate to a group in favor of marriage equality every time you shop there? I’d say that would cancel out any bad karma.
The difference here is that they’re very public about it, apparently. John’s Hobby And Craft Store down the road might give 10% of their profit to DOMA supporting politicians and march with Fred Phelps when he’s in town, but they just keep quiet about it. At least when you give money to John’s store you’re not knowingly supporting something you dislike.
Something my parents (who own a business) taught me a long time ago is that you don’t talk about money, religion or politics. You’ll just end up in an argument or losing customers.
People who twist themselves into knots trying to justify things like this make no sense in the world to me. So you don’t like their politics - do you like their cheap yarn? Then buy the cheap yarn and enjoy it. If you find yarn you like better somewhere else, buy it there. If you insist on boycotting them, then boycott them, don’t come up with complex moral justifications about why THIS ONE TIME its ok to shop there.
I’m 100% certain I do business with companies who probably donate to or lobby for causes I don’t personally agree with, or whose owners would make me want to punch them in the face if I cared enough to find out what their beliefs are, but it stops me not at all from doing business with them. And as a result I have a whole lot less anxiety and stress in my life.
Lord, it’s like our whole society is transforming into millions of Tweaks from South Park right before our eyes…
I don’t know their politics, but if one of them put up a big “We Don’t Serve Gays Here” sign, or (more likely) started publicly campaigning under their business name to ban gay marriage, or publicized their donations to anti-gay charities, then I would know, and would probably stop patronizing them.
No, I don’t check into the politics of every business I shop at before deciding to spend my money there. But if a business wants to get loud and obvious about how it donates money to an organization I don’t want to support, then I’m not going to support the business. I’m not operating under the delusion that losing my $5 purchase of embroidery thread is going to put someone out of business. I just don’t like spending my money at businesses whose owners are dicks.
But this means I’d stop patronizing them, period. I wouldn’t bend my back justifying my purchases with crazy rationalizations that only make sense to me. And I wouldn’t delude myself into thinking I’m changing the system in any meaningful way. I am simply shopping with my conscience.
The OP thinks he or she is hurting HL. But really, she is hurting their competitors…the ones who can’t afford to cut prices that low because they’re donating all their profits to marriage equality campaigns. If I had a small, independent, pro-gay yarn business, I’d really want the OP’s business. And when my business folds and HL continues to do well, I’ll find little consolation in the OP’s small “victory”.
I’m probably sounding harsher than I intend. But I’m just saying. If you’re trying to be principled–which I think all of us should be–then fucking be principled.