This.
Also some products that have ads that piss me off.
There is a chain of convenience stores/gas stations in central Indiana called Ricker’s. They have gone to a new and sinister type of member’s rewards card. To be a member and get a card, you have to go online and give them your bank account information. They then send you a Ricker’s debit card good only at their stores. For this “members” get ten cents off per gallon on gasoline. That’s right- non-members, including cash customers, pay a ten cent penalty.
Ricker’s gets my business no longer.
I was a CfA customer. Not now. Not until their corporate position on SSM and general human rights changes.
But then, I’m a hippie from the first generation of hippies.
That’s what we do.
We also protest against unfair labor practices.
I wonder if a directed boycott ever actually affects the bottom-line of a corporation enough to cause a change in policy. I know that (unfortunately, in my opinion) nuclear power has been effectively stymied in the US for generations because of protests and general public fear.
Did Nike change its labor practices after the boycotts?
Yes. Although I am a fan, I have him in the Death Pool.
I think that boycotting a (cosmetics) company because they test their products on animals is silly. The FDA won’t allow products to be sold in the U.S. unless they are deemed safe for human use. This means that either the company itself goes through the hoops of proving to the FDA that their unique combination of components won’t harm the user, OR they simply use combinations already deemed safe…which, by definition, means that someone ELSE did the necessary testing.
I, personally, wouldn’t put anything near my eyes that wasn’t FDA-approved (and animal tested), but to each her own. However, if I was concerned about the welfare of animals, and I am, I’d investigate to see who treated their animals humanely.
As far as boycotting companies, I believe in supporting companies that treat their (staff/animals/customers) well. But rarely do I go to the trouble of writing letters to try and force change from the companies who don’t. It’s a backhanded boycott, I suppose, but at the end of the day, they’re not getting my money, so I guess you could say I’m voting with my wallet.
Yours ain’t bad either. What are your favorite obscenities to shout at the Queen? 
I wholly agree with this. If there’s a situation like with Chick-Fil-A where I might be part of a critical mass of boycotters, it makes sense, IMHO, to join the boycott if I believe in its purposes, and see if it works.
If after awhile, it’s clear that there aren’t enough others involved to make a difference, it’ll come down to whether I simply can’t countenance doing business with the company in question, regardless.
No. They bought the University of Oregon Athletic department.
I’m not seeing any more Clint Eastwood movies. He’s a good filmmaker but there are plenty of films by people who don’t support Mitt Romney.
In general, I have no issues with Chick-Fil-A’s religious aspect. The owner is of strong faith and wants everyone to have the Sabbath off? Cool. But when, as a spokesperson for his company, they start spewing anti-gay stuff, I can’t accept it.
Salvation Army is tougher for me. Same religious bent, closed on Sundays… but they do a lot of good things, also. We love supporting the Angel Tree drive, for example (not that they make that easy - there is literally no way to find out where those are located around here, short of phoning the local SA offices). The other charity work, etc. Not to mention, it’s a fantastic place to unload old-but-usable household stuff. But with the anti-gay agenda, I’m very torn. They do good, but they spew hate. If Chick-Fil-A goes under, who gives a rat’s ass. But Salvation Army helps people.
I’m disgusted enough with Mel Gibson that you’d have to sedate me to get me into one of his movies (not that he’s doing much of that these days). Ditto Tom Cruise.
And Papa John: not just them, but Domino’s and (not local to me any more) Godfather’s. What is it about the pizza business that seems to attract ultra-right-wing owners?
You do know the Salvation Army is a church.
I do, actually. And their church activities are their own business and none of mine. However, my prior support has been in the form of donating stuff to their thrift stores, and/or supporting the Angel Tree program.
With the church’s official stance being so anti-gay, I’m very torn about supporting the charitable arm.
It is my understanding that the Salvation Army helps people only as a form of proselytization, and does that aspect aggressively if not coercively. I can’t seem to find any source for that now that I come to Google it, however.
Oh, I have quite a lot of these, not all (any?!) of which I think actually make any difference to anyone but me. Examples: I don’t donate (money or goods) to the Salvation Army. I avoid Nestle and its subsidiaries, and that is hard: they own some really surprising things as well as making some of my favourites - Aero, I miss you. That’s as much because of the way they treated the workers when they took over Rowntree’s as their wider business practices (I grew up near York and knew a lot of people who worked at the Rowntree’s factory). I avoid Murdoch and McDonald’s. Generally I’ll always buy something locally made/grown or at least from a small producer/retailer rather than big companies, especially multinationals.
When I was a kid, my parents wouldn’t buy anything from Argentina during or just after the Falklands conflict, though I’m pretty sure they’re over it now. That was pretty common, especially among military families, which we were. We also took part in the South Africa boycott, which I understand actually did make a difference to the ending of Apartheid. Our purchasing habits during my childhood were also heavily influenced by my father’s “buy Commonwealth” policy, which seems to have leached into my adult life somehow. I still look for bananas from the Windward Islands.
Mitsubishi cars - they fought a fairly obvious and egregious sexual harassment claim.
Whole Foods - not over the health care thing - because the owners business practices are abhorrent and I shop the co-ops he wants to put out of business.
I avoid WalMart, but it really isn’t a political boycott or a boycott over business practices - its just that when I walk in, I loose ten IQ points.
I actually liked Wendys. It was my fast food choice after Whataburger. Then I found out their founder was anti-abortion, pro-adoption, and haven’t ate there since. Ignoring the Angel Trees at Christmas was hard because it felt good to be able to do something for someone in the face of my own family’s overtop Christmas excess. One year I broke down and donated a Barbie in a witch costume (Halloween leftover) and bunch of teen occult fiction books (hopefully the Salvation Army didn’t toss them). Luckily, I found a women and children’s shelter that professed no religious commitments.
My extreme disdain for Walmart started years ago with the music censorship thing and then the birth control flap. They have an overall religous, oppressive bent that I never wanted anything to do with. It was an easy “boycott” because I didn’t neccessarily need their cheap products. Flash forward to today when I need to save every penny I possibly can, but I’ve expressed my dislike for them for so long I would feel like an absolute hypocrite shopping there. So, while I still don’t “like” them, I guess you can say I’m boycotting a store I probably need.
I actually thought CfA’s breakfast burrito was the best you could find in fast food and I hadn’t paid much attention to what their practices were much before. We probably ate there a couple of times a week. But now, hell could freeze over and I’d never darken their doors again.
Beyond that, I can’t think of a singly thing I boycott that I’m broken up about to lose from my life. I don’t mind doing without Mel Gibson, Dominos, Cracker Barrel, Hobby Lobby or “fighting for the cure.” there are so many places / people / causes that do what they do better than these assholes, I’m happy to have any reason to find them.
I don’t like
- Homophobia
- Rainbowashing
- Love-in-a-canoe American corporate beer
So I don’t drink Coors, but I think the third renders the first two irrelevant
I have three boycotts currently in place where I’d otherwise use the services:
- Gloria Jeans Coffee, because I don’t want my money supporting their political aims
- Max Brenner Chocolate, because I don’t want my money supporting their political aims
- Anyone who sends me junk mail, despite the sign on my letterbox. One election I ended up voting for the looney right-winger (Fred Nile’s Christian Democratic Party) because they were the only ones who hadn’t left me junk mail. I’ve stopped eating at restaurants I’ve been to for 15 years because they left me garbage in the mailbox. Gods, I really hate that stuff.