# Stores/Merchants you stopped business with due to Moral or Political reasons **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 21, 2018, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-merchants-you-stopped-business-with-due-to-moral-or-political-reasons/824885 "2018-11-21T11:27:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![harmonicamoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/65b543/32.png) [@harmonicamoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harmonicamoon)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2018, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-merchants-you-stopped-business-with-due-to-moral-or-political-reasons/824885/61 "2018-11-22T11:34:01Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > What’s everyone’s beef with Walmart? 😕 Don’t know about the other folks. But I won’t spend a peso there. Here in my country, they paid off local officials to build a store on protected land. Then used a backhoe to develop the land. The law says you can only use a shovel. So the artifacts wouldn’t be destroyed. They are the devil. ---
**Author:** ![DummyGladHands](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/49beb7/32.png) [@DummyGladHands](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DummyGladHands)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2018, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-merchants-you-stopped-business-with-due-to-moral-or-political-reasons/824885/62 "2018-11-22T12:42:49Z")
Jimmy Johns. Asshole trophy hunter. Papa Johns, of course. The man yells NAZI at the screen at every PJ commercial. ---
**Author:** ![ASGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/838e76/32.png) [@ASGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2018, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-merchants-you-stopped-business-with-due-to-moral-or-political-reasons/824885/63 "2018-11-22T13:29:00Z")
I have two. (1) A year or so ago a barber I went to for years installed a big flat screen TV in his shop. Every time I went in it was tuned to Fox News. I’m not a Fox News fan and preferred a quiet shop anyway. I mentioned it to the barber and took my business down the street. The barber wasn’t quite as good but it was, and still is, a no-TV shop. (2) Way back in the late 1970s, IIRC, the Firestone Tire Company manufactured a huge quantity of poorly made tires – quite a to-do at the time. Never again would I even consider a Firestone (or Bridgestone) product. BTW: in the '80s or '90s it happened _again._ ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2018, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-merchants-you-stopped-business-with-due-to-moral-or-political-reasons/824885/64 "2018-11-22T13:49:31Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > Basically has there been a specific place of business you used to frequent all the time but suddenly stopped due to something that you found out about them that you felt conflicted with your own personal opinions? Basically personal boycotts you have? Stopped trading: Camping World/Gander Mountain Outdoors. The CEO said something to the effect that anyone who voted for Trump should take their business elsewhere. I didn’t vote for him either, but the broad-brush pronouncement demonizing half my countrymen offends me. This policy is followed with friends/relatives also. A large number have been jettisoned from my life over this type of political pronouncement – from both sides of the political divide. Personal boycotts: To the extent possible, I do not patronize businesses which limit my constitutional rights. I would no more trade where my gun is forbidden than where my speech is forbidden. I consider gun-free zones as predefined hunting ranges for the deranged and prefer to do business elsewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2018, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-merchants-you-stopped-business-with-due-to-moral-or-political-reasons/824885/65 "2018-11-22T14:04:24Z")
Recently, Abe Books, online used-book giant, which turns out to be owned by Amazon. Won’t shop at Amazon either. However my husband loves Amazon, because for him, convenience and price are the only two criteria for shopping. So my vote gets canceled out. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2018, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-merchants-you-stopped-business-with-due-to-moral-or-political-reasons/824885/66 "2018-11-22T14:30:15Z")
Does “The United States” count? Living in Canada, it’s basically physically impossible to _completely_ boycott the US, but since Trump was elected, and particularly since he started bad mouthing Canada and imposing stupid tariffs on our trade, I’ve been doing what I can to reduce the amount of money I send south. The biggest part is probably travel. Probably 80% of my vacations before this involved the US in some way, even if it was just one night in a hotel before getting on a cruise ship. There was a period of about 10 years when I went to Vegas at least once a year, and in a few years, twice (and one year when I went three times!). Now, I’ve eliminated all of that. For my upcoming vacation to Asia, I even chose my flights to avoid a connection in the US. I’m not even doing work-related travel to the US any more, which I used to do about every other year (and this is actually being subtly encouraged by my employer). ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2018, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-merchants-you-stopped-business-with-due-to-moral-or-political-reasons/824885/67 "2018-11-22T14:45:13Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Burger King, since they bought Tim Horton’s so they can move their headquarters to Canada to avoid paying US taxes. Oddly enough, a lot of Canadians started boycotting Tim Horton’s because they let themselves get bought out by Burger King. Not me, personally, but others. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2018, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-merchants-you-stopped-business-with-due-to-moral-or-political-reasons/824885/68 "2018-11-22T15:17:40Z")
Exxon and it was incredibly satisfying to watch Costner blow up and sink the Valdez. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2018, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-merchants-you-stopped-business-with-due-to-moral-or-political-reasons/824885/69 "2018-11-22T15:40:21Z")
> [@ASGuy](#): > > (2) Way back in the late 1970s, IIRC, the Firestone Tire Company manufactured a huge quantity of poorly made tires – quite a to-do at the time. Never again would I even consider a Firestone (or Bridgestone) product. BTW: in the '80s or '90s it happened _again._ Yep. I won’t even consider a Firestone product. I’ll throw away new ones if they are on a car I buy. > [@Horatius](#): > > Does “The United States” count? Sure. And so does “Canada”. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2018, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-merchants-you-stopped-business-with-due-to-moral-or-political-reasons/824885/70 "2018-11-22T15:45:46Z")
> [@BwanaBob](#): > > I despise their policy of being closed on Sundays, and the whole gay treatment episode. I’ve never been to Chik-Fil-A so I can’t claim to be boycotting them, but I don’t hold a “we close on Sunday” policy against them. There’s a UK toy store chain (The Entertainer) that does likewise, and they are very clear about wanting Sundays to be family time for their employees, and I respect them for that. But on the other hand my shopping time is highly limited so if I need to buy toys on a Sunday I’ll just go somewhere else. Mind you, I’d probably boycott Chik-Fil-A over the gay thing but as I said, it’s a non-issue. Likewise Hobby Lobby, which I’ve never been in. I did stop buying pizza from Papa John’s over Schlatter’s persistent assholery despite really liking their pizza (I dunno why PJs is better in the UK than in the US but it is), and have switched to Dominos which is probably not much of an improvement. I stopped buying Russian vodka (not that I buy a lot of vodka overall) when they went into full gay pogrom mode. And the wife won’t let me shop at Primark due to worker exploitation issues (yet she’s fine with Gap for some reason). > [@Quartz](#): > > There was a restaurant nearby that had an outrageous policy on tips. It was in the press. Basically they charged the wait staff for serving food. I never went there again. Local or chain? Pizza Express got dinged for management keeping server tips but I think they’ve been forced to change their practice. > [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Any store where to person in charge watches me like a hawk and follows me around. Yes, I look and dress like a really poor person, but I’ve never shoplifted. Yeah, that keeps me away from stores too, as does overzealous in-your-face salesstaff, but since those are usually “once and done” experiences they’re not really boycotts. ---
**Author:** ![DinoR](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dinor/32/2821_2.png) [@DinoR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DinoR)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2018, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-merchants-you-stopped-business-with-due-to-moral-or-political-reasons/824885/71 "2018-11-22T16:11:37Z")
I’m not boycotting anyone. I overwhelmingly boycott boycotts. [They don’t really work](https://www.ipr.northwestern.edu/about/news/2017/king-corporate-boycotts.html) to influence business behavior. > [@](#): > > “The no. 1 predictor of what makes a boycott effective is how much media attention it creates, not how many people sign onto a petition or how many consumers it mobilizes,” he noted. The early wave of bad publicity talking about the boycott can affect a company’s actions. The boycott itself doesn’t typically do much to affect revenue. Companies can and do shrug that off. Why go out of my way to do something ineffective. ---
**Author:** ![Corry\_El](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecae2f/32.png) [@Corry\_El](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corry_El)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2018, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-merchants-you-stopped-business-with-due-to-moral-or-political-reasons/824885/72 "2018-11-22T16:14:39Z")
> [@Flyer](#): > > Please explain what exactly is so horrible about taking a day of rest. I find the idea of boycotting a store because they close on Sundays as some matter of principal to be way over the line of politicizing everything in life. You can do it, but seems utterly ridiculous to me. I’d never heard that one and it’s actually hard to believe, being offended ‘on principal’ that they’d close on Sunday. OK if you’re a person who wants a chicken sandy when they feel like it and once you get in the habit of eating Chik-Fil-a it’s so annoying you can’t satisfy the craving on a Sunday you give it up altogether…maybe, but that doesn’t seem like what it is. The idea of boycotting companies because you don’t like their founders’ support of traditional marriage, or you don’t like that somebody wanted to change the traditional definition of marriage, is to me still too political a way to live my life, but not as extreme. ---
**Author:** ![Royal\_Nonesutch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecb155/32.png) [@Royal\_Nonesutch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Royal_Nonesutch)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2018, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-merchants-you-stopped-business-with-due-to-moral-or-political-reasons/824885/73 "2018-11-22T16:59:37Z")
> [@pullin](#): > > The CEO said something to the effect that anyone who voted for Trump should take their business elsewhere. I didn’t vote for him either, but the broad-brush pronouncement demonizing half my countrymen offends me. This policy is followed with friends/relatives also. I don’t know, but this sounds vaugely Un-American to me somehow. I thought in 2018’s America, if a favorite brother or sister, lifelong best friend, elderly next door neighbor, cherished high school guidance counselor, grocery store cashier or Good Samaritan who donated a kidney to provide your child with a lifesaving organ transplant said even the smallest, most innocuous thing that did not 100% conform to your political outlook you were required to immediately, publicly denounce them as a “Vile, heartless Nazi!” organize a boycott of their workplace, spit in their children’s faces and rally a group of racially diverse, politically active Dartmouth Cultural Studies students to take shifts defecating on their grandmother’s grave? ---
**Author:** ![Wolf333](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf333/32/3460_2.png) [@Wolf333](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolf333)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2018, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-merchants-you-stopped-business-with-due-to-moral-or-political-reasons/824885/74 "2018-11-22T17:17:12Z")
> [@pullin](#): > > Stopped trading: > > Camping World/Gander Mountain Outdoors. The CEO said something to the effect that anyone who voted for Trump should take their business elsewhere. I didn’t vote for him either, but the broad-brush pronouncement demonizing half my countrymen offends me. This policy is followed with friends/relatives also. A large number have been jettisoned from my life over this type of political pronouncement – from both sides of the political divide. > . You should probably to some research before boycotting. Preferably not on the gateway pundit. > **[FACT CHECK: Did the CEO of Camping World Tell Trump Supporters Not to Shop at...](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/camping-world-ceo-trump/)** > > Marcus Lemonis didn't target Trump supporters as such, but appears to have directed comments at supporters of Trump's response to events in Charlottesville. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2018, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-merchants-you-stopped-business-with-due-to-moral-or-political-reasons/824885/75 "2018-11-22T17:22:23Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > You don’t. They are not telling you that you have to have Sunday as a day of rest, they are just closed then- you can do anything you want, just not buy their product. Many stores close on the weekends. Hell almost the whole US government shuts down. Do you boycott USPS because it is closed on Sundays? You may have also noticed the Supreme Court case on contraceptive coverage? Personally, I haven’t set foot in a Walmart for 20 years for all the reasons mentioned above. Besides, the few cents I might save aren’t worth dealing with the clusterfuck that is every Walmart I might have set foot in before then (I think there are 2 or 3). I won’t patronize Reza’s, a local Persian restaurant that I used to go to regularly (they were within smelling distance of an old apartment of mine and have great food) because of what assholes they were to a client of mine who was an employee. Salvation Army: all the reasons mentioned above. United Way: why should I let an umbrella org take a cut when I can give directly to the recipient charity? Plus they cut funding to a program that my mom managed when I was a kid, and she was unemployed for a long time after that. Russia: I don’t boycott Russian-made goods, and I love Russia, speak the language, and have a master’s in Russian and East European Studies. I spent 2 semesters of my life there, but I will not spend my hard-earned vacation time traveling there while Putin is running the show. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2018, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-merchants-you-stopped-business-with-due-to-moral-or-political-reasons/824885/76 "2018-11-22T19:03:45Z")
I can’t really call it a boycott, because I’ve never gone there, but there’s a local car repair place that I’ve decided I would never take my car to. Back in 2009, I was working for the Census Bureau, and my job was to travel around the local area handing out pamphlets notifying people that the Bureau was hiring for the upcoming count. I would ask businesses if it would be okay if I left a few flyers for their customers to peruse. If they said no, no big deal, I just left. But the guy working in this particular car repair place was extremely rude. When I asked him if I could leave some pamphlets, he said, “No. Get out.” So, no need to go there, ever. ---
**Author:** ![TSBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2018, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-merchants-you-stopped-business-with-due-to-moral-or-political-reasons/824885/77 "2018-11-22T20:04:33Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > My favorite hot dog brand is Nathan’s Famous. I switched to Hebrew National, my second favorite, when I read that the owner of NF was a big friend and supporter of President Chump, even holding a fund raiser for him. Oh God no this is the worst news since election night 2016. Nathan’s are the ONLY hot dog. Sigh, no longer for me I guess. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2018, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-merchants-you-stopped-business-with-due-to-moral-or-political-reasons/824885/78 "2018-11-22T20:26:56Z")
> [@harmonicamoon](#): > > Don’t know about the other folks. But I won’t spend a peso there. > > Here in my country, they paid off local officials to build a store on protected land. Then used a backhoe to develop the land. The law says you can only use a shovel. So the artifacts wouldn’t be destroyed. > > They are the devil. What nation? Cite? ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2018, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-merchants-you-stopped-business-with-due-to-moral-or-political-reasons/824885/79 "2018-11-22T22:35:28Z")
> [@TSBG](#): > > Oh God no this is the worst news since election night 2016. Nathan’s are the ONLY hot dog. Sigh, no longer for me I guess. Yes, it’s sad. Here’s a cite: > **[People are threatening to boycott a beloved hot-dog brand because its...](https://www.businessinsider.com/nathans-hot-dogs-faces-backlash-over-trump-fundraiser-report-2018-8)** > > Nathan's Hot Dogs is facing backlash after a report that its executive chairman is holding a fundraiser for President Donald Trump this week. Howard Lorber, the hot dog chain's executive chairman and one of Trump's best friends, is holding a... ---
**Author:** ![HelenGawn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@HelenGawn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HelenGawn)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-merchants-you-stopped-business-with-due-to-moral-or-political-reasons/824885/80 "2018-11-23T01:44:09Z")
> [@Hapax\_Legomenon](#): > > I quit going to a local gastropub because they started adding a ‘service charge’ to the bill, which I consider to be a form of fraud. If they wanted to pay their employees more, great! Time to raise your declared, printed-on-the-menu prices! Similarly, a restaurant recently wanted to tack on a $5.00 charge for paying by credit card. I ranted about the illegality and fortunately had the cash, but will never go back. Fortunately there’s another Mexican restaurant within walking distance, so it was an easy stance to take. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-merchants-you-stopped-business-with-due-to-moral-or-political-reasons/824885.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stores-merchants-you-stopped-business-with-due-to-moral-or-political-reasons/824885.md?page=5)