# What do you boycott? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 25, 2008, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-boycott/435024 "2008-01-25T22:28:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Carol\_Stream](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c2a13f/32.png) [@Carol\_Stream](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_Stream)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2008, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-boycott/435024/41 "2008-01-26T04:22:28Z")
[QUOTE=Maastricht] Are you always this witty? Ha, ha, those crazy sentimental animal lovers. :rolleyes: Well, since you brought up the [topic.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldfish)of goldfish, let’s hear it from Wiki: [/QUOTE] Witty, not so much. The idea that pet stores shouldn’t sell pets is the silliest thing I’ve heard today, though. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2008, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-boycott/435024/42 "2008-01-26T04:31:57Z")
Wal-Mart, for being anti-union as well as being a god-awful shopping experience. Comcast cable internet, for outstandingly shitty customer service. Lest you think I am kidding, we briefly lived in an apartment where DSL was not an option, and I used my 56K dialup modem rather than send Comcast another dime of my money. ---
**Author:** ![fatgail](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fatgail/32/7285_2.png) [@fatgail](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fatgail)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2008, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-boycott/435024/43 "2008-01-26T04:33:24Z")
[QUOTE=Carol Stream] Witty, not so much. The idea that pet stores shouldn’t sell pets is the silliest thing I’ve heard today, though. [/QUOTE] Then you should do a touch of reading on the horrendous conditions of puppy mills and how female dogs are bred to DEATH, carrying litter after litter that are crammed into pet stores and sold for ridiculous prices when every day thousands of mutts and dogs that people swore they’d keep forever are gassed because everyone’s looking for a puggle. ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2008, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-boycott/435024/44 "2008-01-26T05:34:18Z")
Wal Mart. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2008, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-boycott/435024/45 "2008-01-26T05:48:50Z")
I completely avoid Wal-Mart and McDonalds, and I only buy fair-trade coffee beans (I’m not that picky about the coffee I buy in cafés, though I do prefer coffee shops that sell fair-trade and will buy the fair-trade option if it’s there). I generally avoid stuff packaged in too much plastic. As for diamonds, I’m not so sure about Canadian diamonds, even there. I can’t say I approve of tailing ponds full of dangerous chemicals just above the Nahanni watershed, though admittedly it beats small Sierra Leonean children with hacked-off limbs. I’ll basically be forgoing diamonds altogether, I suspect. So nice to know that so many things one can’t afford anyway are ethically questionable. And I don’t intend ever to have a car, even if I eventually do get my driver’s license. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2008, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-boycott/435024/46 "2008-01-26T05:50:12Z")
Department stores. I use them as window-shopping, but don’t buy there unless it’s pretty much unavoidable. Why do I buy most of my computer supplies in the local hypermarket and not in a computer store? Because most computer-supply-requiring projects take place on weekends and storeowners are dumb and closse on Saturdays :smack: But in general, when a store has “market” somewhere in the name I’ll use it to buy only food. Chocolate comes from the fair trade store. Coffee would only nobody at home has coffee any more. ---
**Author:** ![BlueKangaroo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3d9bf3/32.png) [@BlueKangaroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlueKangaroo)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2008, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-boycott/435024/47 "2008-01-26T06:14:53Z")
Wal-Mart, for a variety of reasons. [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com), a very recent addition, because they have taught me repeatedly that I get what I pay for, and I am no longer paying for horrendous customer service and blatant money grabs. (This is so true that I just refused to consider buying something from [target.com](http://target.com) because their website is powered by Amazon.) At this point I would like to spend a little more money and get something in a brick and mortar store where I am at least helping to keep someone employed locally. If it’s a local mom and pop store, so much the better. Provided I don’t need to eventually boycott said “mom 'n pop shop”. Ironically, this all happened while I was unemployed, and price should truly have been the main driver for my decisions. And still Amazon managed to so thoroughly screw the pooch that I decided to spend more and get better customer service from here on out. I try to avoid large stores like Target and Wal-Mart in general, but I admit that Wal-Mart is the only one I steadfastly refuse to shop in. It’s got all the problems of other stores like that, and somehow manages to be even more depressing. There have been other, local places over the years, but as I’ve moved they have been forgotten, since they are unlikely to come up again. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Real\_Thing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@The\_Real\_Thing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Real_Thing)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2008, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-boycott/435024/48 "2008-01-26T06:17:06Z")
East Side Mario’s because of that idiotic “Badda boom, badda bing” ad campaign. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2008, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-boycott/435024/49 "2008-01-26T06:53:18Z")
[QUOTE=BlueKangaroo] [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com), a very recent addition [/QUOTE] Oh yes – I shop at independent bookshops if in any way possible and never order off Amazon unless it’s literally unfindable elsewhere, though I’ve made the occasional impulse purchase at Indigo. I never, ever buy queer books from mainstream bookstores – they never have anything new or interesting or that I haven’t read anyway. Now that the queer bookstore in town has closed (again), anything remotely queer gets ordered from Little Sister’s in Vancouver, who’ve been leading a series of valiant court battles for years against Canada Customs censorship. There’s only ever been one exception – when I ordered a queer comic book from Amazon because the author specifically asked people to do so on a certain date to bump her ratings. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2008, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-boycott/435024/50 "2008-01-26T07:32:36Z")
**A particular electronics company that also happens to be one of my clients**. This is purely personal. Having to look at one of their products in my house would make me feel sick. I’ve written many rants about them, but this one from last year pretty much sums it up: > [@me](#): > > Early in my career, I encountered one of their managers who was the most miserable people I’d ever had to work with. No life, no family, no friends, no regard for anyone else’s time, no ability to come to a decision, and a pathological need to keep changing everything. She has no idea what she wants, but she knows what she doesn’t want, except that she can’t tell you what that is and she may change her mind again later. When we produced a new product brochure that consisted of eight paragraphs, she showed up at 9pm to discuss corrections, and then proceeded to spend more than an hour on each paragraph, hemming and hawing and making wrinkly faces at everything we suggested and trying to rewrite everything herself. She knows enough English to mis-interpret everything, and freaks at the thought of using any word that has more than one meaning unless we painstakingly walk her through each possible interpretation until everything has been turned into bland nonsense. > > And then, when I started working on other projects with the same company, I found that everyone there is exactly the same as she is! Whatever corporate culture they have has selected out all but those with the right combination of spinelessness, entitlement and insecurity over their own incompetence. One project had five of us at a series of orientation meetings with developers, all of which turned into us sitting there watching the developers argue for three hours over what the product did, then promise at the end to email the materials we needed since they hadn’t actually covered anything they were supposed to in the meeting. Any time you think things are finished, they come out of left field with changes for things that have been in plain sight since the very beginning. At the end of one three-month project, after they’d pushed everything behind schedule because they couldn’t provide feedback on time (“we’re still looking it over, we’ll get back to you tomorrow” for weeks in a row), they call us just 12 hours before a 30-page catalog is to go to final printing to say they’d like everything in a different font! I don’t get angry at a client for pointing out mistakes I’ve made; they’re mistakes, they shouldn’t be there and they need to be fixed, so hunt them all down, please. I don’t mind when information changes (this option isn’t available anymore, that attachment has new specifications, etc.); it happens all the time, and it’s nobody’s fault. It doesn’t even bother me when a client keeps making arbitrary style changes because they can’t make up their mind, _as long as_ there’s some acknowledgment of who’s responsible, even just a “Sorry, but could you…?” when the revisions come in. But nope, everything coming from them is treated (on their side) as though it were the only possible answer, it’s been decided since the beginning, and the only reason to revise anything is because _we’ve_ obviously screwed up. Even when the new request flatly contradicts an earlier request, it’s still presented as our mistake that they’ve just caught. And they killed my dog. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2008, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-boycott/435024/51 "2008-01-26T08:04:33Z")
**What do you boycott?** Well this thread for one. ---
**Author:** ![Caractacus\_Pott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@Caractacus\_Pott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caractacus_Pott)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2008, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-boycott/435024/52 "2008-01-26T11:30:42Z")
Pepsi. Their commercials, until recently, made their customers look like idiots. Their winter ads were the worst. They ran an ad with a man trekking across a bright, snowy pasture. As he pauses to enjoy the sight, he pops open a Pepsi and takes a swig. The can sticks to his mouth. He tromps all the way back to town, can still stuck to his face, passing staring townsfolk. It’s bad enough that he’s a dumbass, but when he opens the door to the doctor’s waiting room, it’s full of dumbos with Pepsi cans stuck to their faces. Even a St. Bernard dog! I’m not quite cool enough to pull off that look. Don’t get me started on the one where the Coke route man pulls a Pepsi out of the cooler and all the Pepsi’s fall out. Two problems with this. Do I want to risk getting buried under a pile of soda cans because Pepsi’s coolers have rickety shelves? Then again, from the sound, all the cans were empty, but I’m not stupid enough to pay half a buck for nothing. Sony products. Two reasons. They usually break just after the warranty expires. Usually the product is perfect _sans_ one feature, but that one feature is a biggie. I remember a digital FM radio. Great size for traveling, great sound for the size, but it wouldn’t autotune stations. Nowhere on the box did it mention this. I got it for travel because I didn’t know the local stations. I renewed my boycott when I recently found out that their photo printer doesn’t have Mac drivers. Great output, small size, reasonably inexpensive supplies, but it won’t work with my photo processing computer. Marriott properties. I was a Platinum member, so I’ve obviously stayed at them more than a few times. Even at the highest level of their loyalty program, they still hassled me about little stuff and forgot things in my profile. Forwarding my concerns up the chain of command did nothing. So now I’m with Hilton. Enterprise Rent-a-car. They don’t recognize insurance coverage by credit cards, then they try scaring you to buy their expensive coverage. Nuh, uh, no way baybeee. NBC. A few years back, they were exploring a weekly TV show starring Bill Clinton. As I understood it, he wouldn’t just be reading the lines but part of the creative process, too. I couldn’t stay awake through his seemingly interminable State of the Union speeches. Then to see this every week? Too much. I don’t boycott WalMart, but I do avoid them when I can. It’s never a pleasant experience. ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2008, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-boycott/435024/53 "2008-01-26T11:48:25Z")
[QUOTE=freckafree] \ The first (and last) time I went to one, I saw a manager with a tub (the kind you bus dishes into) full of pizza. I asked him about it, and he said it was going in the dumpster. “Can’t you send it down to the Salvation Army?!?” I asked. “Nope,” he replied. “It’s against health department rules.” Holy shit. There are hungry people sleeping on the streets, and hundreds of slices of pizza are going in the dumpster. I was appalled. \ [/QUOTE] Here, [this video link](http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/ver/251.6/popup/index.php?cl=5917607) is for you, I think it might make your day. I was touched when I saw it myself, and e-mailed it to friends and sent a copy to myself. (Glad I did.) Link is to a news clip popup. ---
**Author:** ![SomeUserName](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e480ec/32.png) [@SomeUserName](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SomeUserName)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2008, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-boycott/435024/54 "2008-01-26T12:04:26Z")
Jacks Tavern. The owner of the business is a drunken cunt and I wish the place would be closed down. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2008, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-boycott/435024/55 "2008-01-26T13:29:53Z")
[QUOTE=FairyChatMom] China. It’s getting harder and harder to avoid Chinese made products - they’re everywhere. Heck, it’s harder and harder to avoid any foreign made products. I’m not anti-imports, I just hate that American industry is disappearing because corporations are moving their factories overseas. This country is going to be royally screwed when we lose our manufacturing skills and we have to depend on politically iffy nations to keep us going. [/QUOTE] I make a concerted effort not to buy anything made in china, or as I like to put a different spin on the matter, I go out of my way to Buy American ( This includes our Canadian relations as well.) I won’t shop at Walmart, for all the reasons cited and because every time I have gone in there it’s such a freaky mix of the lower end of the gene pool. Myspace. Besides the fact that I am neither hip or young, the one thing I’ve noticed about Myspace is that it seems to be the Trailer Park of the web. ---
**Author:** ![Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4da419/32.png) [@Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gala_Matrix_Fire)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2008, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-boycott/435024/56 "2008-01-26T13:51:03Z")
[QUOTE=Shirley Ujest] I won’t shop at Walmart, for all the reasons cited and because every time I have gone in there it’s such a freaky mix of the lower end of the gene pool. [/QUOTE] Before or after you go in? Not to single you out, because I’ve seen this snobbery all over this board, but do you walk into every room and every situation thinking “I’m the smartest, bestest one here”? A lot of those old guys you see in WalMart, wearing floppy hats or ball caps and ten-dollar shorts, are millionaires. They have that kind of money because they aren’t too snobby to shop at WalMart and have done so for decades. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2008, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-boycott/435024/57 "2008-01-26T13:58:27Z")
[QUOTE=Maastricht] Pet stores should be in the business of selling pet _supplies_. [/QUOTE] Phew! I was afraid someone might be buying dead puppies. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2008, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-boycott/435024/58 "2008-01-26T14:09:59Z")
At this time, Gateway for incompetent handling of notebook repairs, and the weekday 9pm-12m bloc of WHAS 840-AM for removing the wonderful local affairs host Joe Elliott and replacing him with the loathsome MIKE SAVAGE!!! ---
**Author:** ![fluiddruid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fluiddruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fluiddruid)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2008, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-boycott/435024/59 "2008-01-26T14:25:13Z")
Qwest, for being gigantic fuckups. I had to escalate all the way to the CEO to get a mysterious, unexplained $100 collections bill resolved. Turned out they were charging me for dialup somehow, though I had broadband. Until then, every single person treated me like a crook. I know a lot of people from their call centers. They pay commission to customer service agents to sell stuff, and focus so heavily on selling that it results in slamming like this. (On a separate account, no less, that didn’t have the right address until the collections agency got it!) Though, Mediacom is getting so incompetent with their customer service (30+ minute holds, every time you call…used to be less than two minutes), and charges me so much more, I’m concerned I may have to go back. Also, XM, for similar reasons. I really liked their service, but my account was fucked-up from the get-go and their outsourced Indian call center really sucked. Move to a US call center, for Christ’s sake! ---
**Author:** ![El\_DeLuxo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_deluxo/32/9043_2.png) [@El\_DeLuxo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_DeLuxo)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2008, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-boycott/435024/60 "2008-01-26T15:00:38Z")
**Coors beer.** I’m unforgiving, and besides, Coors is utter swill even for an American big-brew. \*\*Nag Champa incense \*\*because it’s made by followers of Satya Sai Baba, who I consider to be one disgusting individual, and whose devotees I have an even lower opinion of. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-boycott/435024.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-boycott/435024.md?page=4)