The usual suspects: Walmart, Circuit City, McDonalds, Starbucks, anything associated with Tom Cruise or Steven Spielberg, etc. Nothing different, really.
I used to be moved enough to boycott things. But I’m just not anymore.
WalMart? Yeah, they are pretty much the retail anti-christ, but I have shopped there a few times (felt dirty afterward, but that doesn’t bother me as much anymore either).
Veal? Sorry but I am partly Italian and married into more, and I love osso buco.
Nah, nothing offends me enough to boycott it.
Add Domino’s Pizza (for their anti-choice bias) to the list of banned and add independent clothing stores to those I will frequent and our lists are pretty close to identical.
That’s not a boycott. A boycott is when you refuse to engage with a business you would otherwise engage with were it not for a particular ethical or moral objection. If you don’t like Starbucks’s products, you just don’t like them.
Walmart. Some people on this board claim that the Walmarts in their area are decent and respectable. This is not such an area. The Walmarts around here are dirty and depressing, and staffed by employees who are depressed and unhelpful. Plus, their insistance on the lowest possible prices hurts American businesses. I’ll shop at Target or Meijer before entering Hellmart any day.
Yeah, but nobody was expecting the Spanish Inquisition.
I am a big person. Really fuckin’ huge. I also fly for business on an almost weekly basis. I flew Southwest for about 12 weeks straight and not once was I given any trouble. I need to use a seatbelt extender but the criteria they use is if you cannot lower the arm rest and are intruding on the space of the person next to you. I’m all in favor of large people’s rights but I think an ariline is justified in charging for two seats if you take up two seats.
Oh, I hate Wally World too but I’m not so deluded to think that boycotting it will make a perceptable dent. Fortunately Target is closer to me. Wife loves wal-mart so it cancels out anything I might do.
Whoops, sorry. I posted this before reading the Mod’s comments.
Currently only Rite Aid and Circuit City.
Circuit City will probably never get my business again.
Rite Aid: I was in their store the day after Thanksgiving. I got 20 little Christmas bags to use to “wrap” ornaments. They all came off of the same rack. 5 of them wouldn’t scan. The guy scanned it once, twice, three times. Then he called over another teller. Scan: once, twice three times. They call the manager. She comes up and scans it (only twice.) How much were these? she asked. 99 cents I reply. These are not 99 cents!
WTF? You don’t know how much they are, but you tell me I’m lieing when I give you a price?
OK I say, I’ll get them elsewhere. She says that is fine with her.
As far as I’m concerned, they clearly don’t need my business.
I may forgive them one day, but until then CVS gets all my business. Even if they had stocked them wrong, the difference in price couldn’t have totaled more than 5 dollars for the lot. So for five bucks they have lost hundreds of dollars of my business and thousands depending on how long I carry that grudge.
I’d boycott The Good Guys! for the lousy service ten years ago that had me running back-and-forth to their store for an entire day, except the company imploded last month. Happy dance
Continuing with my boycott of Dominos Pizza. Been going strong for ten years, now.
And I need to kick the Wal-Mart habit.
Is this still true? Monaghan has not been involved with the company since ~1998. (Though he does still own a good-sized chunk of it.)
Refuse to boycott anyone, because whenever I hear about boycotting, I think about the American Family Association boycotting Disney over their giving their gay employees the same priviledges as their married employees. Also, I don’t believe they will ever work. Note the U.S. boycott against Cuba. Sure, the country is poor, but Castro is still in charge.
I started the boycott because of word-of-mouth (when I was 15, no less). Guess there’s no reason for me to. Well, their pizza sucks :p.
Not a total boycott, but ones that I avoid as much as I can.
Goods made in China
Walmart
Red Lobster (something happened about 20 yrs ago - I still haven’t forgiven them - have never went there since - that’s all I want to say about this)
I have ended my ‘boycott’ on the local toll road, but reserve the right to ‘boo’ the toll plazas
Just to add
AT&T for a cell phone bill that had a extra charge of $30 which they could not explain but insisted I owed.
Due to perserving my credit I paid it.
I won’t deal with them unless then pay be back with interest.
As noted in another thread, still boycotting Chiquita, aka United Fruit Company.
Walmart
Abercrombie & Fitch
Urban Outfitters
The Gap/Old Navy - for being annoying as hell for one with their ads, (though the Gap does have an occasional nice one), but also for their record with sweat shops. They have improved, but not nearly enough.
Nike - same as above.
Pretty much all designer/name brand products.
Sony Music - because of the DRM malware (which sucks since I love Shakira, so I decided to go grey market and donate the difference to her charity.)
Microsoft - too much market power. (need to upgrade my laptop to Linux, and find another media player).
Store to support:
Thrift stores - especially St Vincents and Goodwill.
Indy shops - book stores, music stores, coffee shops.
Local businesses - regional brands, like dairy and bakery items. Farmer’s markets.
Fair trade/organic products.
By the by, why the hate on Circuit City? Hate to admit, but thats where I got my laptop last September. They had the best deal by far, and have not seen a better one yet either. They are one of the last of the big boxes I still shop at.
CVS. Ivylad has a lot of prescriptions through Workers Comp, and they mess it up Every. Single. Time. The most recent batch, he specifically told them the prescriptions were through WC. They ran them through his other insurance and charged me for them when I went to pick them up. I tried to point out the error but the clerk shrugged and said I had to call the insurance company. I also wasn’t told that one of the prescriptions hadn’t been filled, and Ivylad found out the next day when he went to the pharmacy and spoke to the head pharmacist, who didn’t understand the mix-up because it was clearly marked as WC. She apologized, but it had been screwed up so many times we have given up.
Airbus airplanes. Only because I work for the competition.
I don’t really boycott places, but I’ll avoid them or not shop there for various (sometimes good) reasons.
Circuit City - Last time they got my money was in 1995. I still use the store for shopping, but I’ll buy the item elsewhere.
Old Navy - I refuse to buy anything from this company because of their adverts.
Starbucks - I just added these guys to my list yesterday. They either can’t get my drink right (4 shots, 20 oz cup, soy, no whip, one squirt of chocolate) or the drink tastes like crap.
Walmart - Because it’s icky in so many ways.
George Lucas & Steven Speilberg - I will not pay a dime to see any movie
these guys are involved in. I might watch them, but I refuse to pay for them.
Spam & Telemarketing - I refuse to buy anything sent via spam or by a telephone sales pitch. Also, to the ass who put a handwritten post-it note on my car that said “Please call me about your car - Pat” and when I called it was a company who fixes windscreens, you will NEVER get my business.
Burger King - Sadly, I have to avoid this company. The last three burgers made me feel like crap (the last two of those made me puke about an hour later). I hardly ate there, but I like the food. Too bad it no longer agrees with me.
McDonalds - Like Walmart, icky in so many ways.
Christian & over-patriotic adverts - If a company puts a flag or a Jesus fish in their adverts, I’ll avoid them. I know an ISP company that started not long after Sept 11 and they named their company “freedom something” and used an American flag in their logo to, quote, “cash in” on the patriotic fever. Sick really. As for the Jesus fish people - it just bugs me that people feel the need to state their religion in their adverts.
Extended warranty - Any store that won’t take one “no” for an answer. The last time this happened I had a salesguy spend a deal of time helping me with a Palm TX. He asked if I wanted the warranty, I nicely said no thank you. As we were walking to the cash register with the Palm TX he started in again. I said “I already told you no on the warranty, you won’t take no for an answer. I’m now walking out of the store any buying this same unit across the street.”
I’ll also avoid buying things in stores that pressure sale in any way (extended warranties included)