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Do you ever boycott businesses?

Do you ever boycott businesses?

  • I boycott often.

    Votes: 11 19.0%

  • I boycott, but usually only over political/social issues.

    Votes: 2 3.4%

  • I boycot, but usually only over customer service issues.

    Votes: 12 20.7%

  • I occassionally boycott, but the issue has to be especially egregious.

    Votes: 17 29.3%

  • I pretty much never boycott.

    Votes: 16 27.6%
  • Total voters
    58
radcen said:
Do you ever boycott businesses?

If so, why?
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If a business cheats me, provides inferior product and won't make it good, or otherwise treats me badly, I don't do business there. And though I'm not dogmatic about it, I choose to shop with stores who allow Salvation Army bell ringers and other good acts whenever reasonable. I suppose that is a form of boycott though I see a difference between a choice not to do business with somebody and an organized boycott as a statement or punitive measure.

Years ago I did participate in, and also helped organize, a boycott of the Nestle Corp. because of unconscionable evil marketing practices--they were giving their baby formula free to third world mothers until mother's milk dried up and then started charging for the formula which those mothers could not afford. There is no way to tell how many babies suffered malnutrition and/or death as a result of that practice. When they blew off the complains and objections, we boycotted everything Nestle made and you would be amazed how many products of theirs there are. Because of a national effort, we were able to make a negative economic effect for them and they ceased and desisted in that terrible practice. And then we all started buying Nestle products again.

It would take something like that--a practice that actually physically harms people who aren't educated enough to protect themselves--to get me to participate in a boycott.

I think boycotts against a business or personality or their suppliers or advertisers etc. for no other reason than they expressed a politically incorrect point of view or follow their conscience in what products and services they offer is not only mean spirited, but is way more evil than anything that business might be guilty of.
 
AlbqOwl said:
If a business cheats me, provides inferior product and won't make it good, or otherwise treats me badly, I don't do business there. And though I'm not dogmatic about it, I choose to shop with stores who allow Salvation Army bell ringers and other good acts whenever reasonable. I suppose that is a form of boycott though I see a difference between a choice not to do business with somebody and an organized boycott as a statement or punitive measure.

Years ago I did participate in, and also helped organize, a boycott of the Nestle Corp. because of unconscionable evil marketing practices--they were giving their baby formula free to third world mothers until mother's milk dried up and then started charging for the formula which those mothers could not afford. There is no way to tell how many babies suffered malnutrition and/or death as a result of that practice. When they blew off the complains and objections, we boycotted everything Nestle made and you would be amazed how many products of theirs there are. Because of a national effort, we were able to make a negative economic effect for them and they ceased and desisted in that terrible practice. And then we all started buying Nestle products again.

It would take something like that--a practice that actually physically harms people who aren't educated enough to protect themselves--to get me to participate in a boycott.

I think boycotts against a business or personality or their suppliers or advertisers etc. for no other reason than they expressed a politically incorrect point of view or follow their conscience in what products and services they offer is not only mean spirited, but is way more evil than anything that business might be guilty of.
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Our thoughts are pretty similar. And yes, Nestle is particularly insidious. The more I learn about them the more I dislike them. And yes, too, they are huge and have dozens of other brands under them, if not hundreds.
 
years ago, my wife and I went to a "steak and shake" near our house. It was about 9 Pm on a thursday night-not exactly rush hour but not anywhere near closing or at a time when staffing was almost non-existent. One car ahead of us-took 45 minutes the drive thru. Never have been back. WE don't have Ben and Jerry's here but I wouldn't patronize them if they were here or if I am in an area where they exist.
 
AlbqOwl said:
If a business cheats me, provides inferior product and won't make it good, or otherwise treats me badly, I don't do business there. And though I'm not dogmatic about it, I choose to shop with stores who allow Salvation Army bell ringers and other good acts whenever reasonable. I suppose that is a form of boycott though I see a difference between a choice not to do business with somebody and an organized boycott as a statement or punitive measure.

Years ago I did participate in, and also helped organize, a boycott of the Nestle Corp. because of unconscionable evil marketing practices--they were giving their baby formula free to third world mothers until mother's milk dried up and then started charging for the formula which those mothers could not afford. There is no way to tell how many babies suffered malnutrition and/or death as a result of that practice. When they blew off the complains and objections, we boycotted everything Nestle made and you would be amazed how many products of theirs there are. Because of a national effort, we were able to make a negative economic effect for them and they ceased and desisted in that terrible practice. And then we all started buying Nestle products again.

It would take something like that--a practice that actually physically harms people who aren't educated enough to protect themselves--to get me to participate in a boycott.

I think boycotts against a business or personality or their suppliers or advertisers etc. for no other reason than they expressed a politically incorrect point of view or follow their conscience in what products and services they offer is not only mean spirited, but is way more evil than anything that business might be guilty of.
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LOL-on a corner nearby where I lived in College, was a small food market that I often shopped at. One day, I heard that the local "rent a protest" group was going to picket this market. It was the same group of losers who had-over the years-picketed the college over South African investments, labor issues, etc. And when I went in and asked the manager-why-he said it was because he sold Nestle candy and the rent a riot was upset because of the formula issue-except in 1980 or so it was over the fact that mothers used contaminated water-DESPITE BEING TOLD TO boil the water first-and this led to a bunch of third world children dying from dysentery because the mothers were using water from the same river that people crapped in etc.

well I thought it was unfair to boycott the store so I and martial arts training partner and buddy (a Marine Reserve NCO and later a PKA professional fighter) went to the store a few minutes before the planned protest and I went up to the manager and handed him some bucks and said-give me all the nestle crunch bars this will buy (it was a lot). and we set up a couple chairs outside the store and handed out nestle crunch bars while the picketers got nastier and nastier. well that put a serious dent in the rent a riot and none of the fruitcakes picketing seemed all that interested in starting anything with us. in fact the two cops that were assigned to keep and eye on the protest grabbed up a few of the candy bars.

our counter protest was mentioned in the school paper. A law professor commented that it was an effective way to defang a protest.
 
TurtleDude said:
years ago, my wife and I went to a "steak and shake" near our house. It was about 9 Pm on a thursday night-not exactly rush hour but not anywhere near closing or at a time when staffing was almost non-existent. One car ahead of us-took 45 minutes the drive thru. Never have been back. WE don't have Ben and Jerry's here but I wouldn't patronize them if they were here or if I am in an area where they exist.
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How do you not have Ben and Jerry's?

Also, their icecream is delicious. But my favorite, From Russia with Buzz, was discontinued several years ago and I cried about it. Not really, but good lord did I love that. Coffee ice cream with coffee liqueur and chocolate ice cream with chocolate espresso chips.

Also, are you boycotting all Steak n Shake restaurants, or just the one? I love me some Steak n Shake. Don't have them as much out CO way, I think there might be one "close" by though. Back in Illinois, they were all over the place.
 
Ikari said:
How do you not have Ben and Jerry's?

Also, their icecream is delicious. But my favorite, From Russia with Buzz, was discontinued several years ago and I cried about it. Not really, but good lord did I love that. Coffee ice cream with coffee liqueur and chocolate ice cream with chocolate espresso chips.
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Cincinnati has three local ice cream businesses. The most famous and the most (overrated in my opinion) critically acclaimed is called GRAETERS. Their main place was a 5 minute bike ride from the home I grew up in. 10 minutes further was the other big favorite called Aglemesis which was the main competition in hand made ice-cream. The place I liked-far more plebeian- was United Dairy Farmers which was started by late billionaire Carl Lindner Jr and are essentially a chain of gas station/Convenience stores/Ice cream parlors now. we used to have Baskin and Robbins when I was a kid-right across the square from Graeters
 
TurtleDude said:
Cincinnati has three local ice cream businesses. The most famous and the most (overrated in my opinion) critically acclaimed is called GRAETERS. Their main place was a 5 minute bike ride from the home I grew up in. 10 minutes further was the other big favorite called Aglemesis which was the main competition in hand made ice-cream. The place I liked-far more plebeian- was United Dairy Farmers which was started by late billionaire Carl Lindner Jr and are essentially a chain of gas station/Convenience stores/Ice cream parlors now. we used to have Baskin and Robbins when I was a kid-right across the square from Graeters
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Local, real icecream is the tops for sure. If you happen to have a great local store, that's pretty awesome. When I was in Jersey, there was one sort of near by that was pretty good. Way back when I was a kid, there was a place called Ted Drewes in Missouri which was good. I probably should try to see if there's anything like that in the Denver area, but I never really saw anything along those lines yet (though I haven't really looked either).
 
radcen said:
Our thoughts are pretty similar. And yes, Nestle is particularly insidious. The more I learn about them the more I dislike them. And yes, too, they are huge and have dozens of other brands under them, if not hundreds.
Click to expand...

But even an enormous mega corporation like Nestle can be persuaded to cease a bad practice that actually injures people if they are hit sufficiently hard in the pocket book. And Nestle does do some pretty impressive philanthropic work now including dealing with poor nutrition problems in the third world. I think they might have learned their lesson and if they did, good on them.
 
ttwtt78640 said:
OK. What do you think of the current Breitbart/Kellogg boycott effort? Will that hurt, help or have no effect on Kellogg?
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Childish squabble mostly. Kelloggs I believe was in the wrong and that lowered their stature with me. Breitbart was wrong to try to organize a boycott to punish Kellogg for a self serving reason and that lowered esteem for their brand with me. Bottom line: much ado about nothing.
 
TurtleDude said:
LOL-on a corner nearby where I lived in College, was a small food market that I often shopped at. One day, I heard that the local "rent a protest" group was going to picket this market. It was the same group of losers who had-over the years-picketed the college over South African investments, labor issues, etc. And when I went in and asked the manager-why-he said it was because he sold Nestle candy and the rent a riot was upset because of the formula issue-except in 1980 or so it was over the fact that mothers used contaminated water-DESPITE BEING TOLD TO boil the water first-and this led to a bunch of third world children dying from dysentery because the mothers were using water from the same river that people crapped in etc.

well I thought it was unfair to boycott the store so I and martial arts training partner and buddy (a Marine Reserve NCO and later a PKA professional fighter) went to the store a few minutes before the planned protest and I went up to the manager and handed him some bucks and said-give me all the nestle crunch bars this will buy (it was a lot). and we set up a couple chairs outside the store and handed out nestle crunch bars while the picketers got nastier and nastier. well that put a serious dent in the rent a riot and none of the fruitcakes picketing seemed all that interested in starting anything with us. in fact the two cops that were assigned to keep and eye on the protest grabbed up a few of the candy bars.

our counter protest was mentioned in the school paper. A law professor commented that it was an effective way to defang a protest.
Click to expand...

The incident you mention was quite some time after the boycott of their harmful marketing policy and they had long cleaned up their act there. I agree Nestle was not in the wrong on the water bru ha ha.

As for pushing for a boycott of all South African investments to facilitate an end to Apartheid, that was a biggie back then too. But as I didn't have any investments at the time and didn't know anybody who had South American investments, that didn't affect me at all. The world pressure did end Apartheid of course but as happens in many of these things, it is anybody's speculation whether the people were better off with the dubious government that replaced it. I do know ten years later, the South African economy was floundering, unemployment of the non-white population went through the roof, and many if not most educated people, both white and non-white, left the country which only made things worse for those left there.

Sometimes very good intentions can have very bad unintended consequences.
 
Do you ever boycott businesses?
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generally not, but i avoid walmart unless that's the only store around and i really need something. i've known people who worked there, and the way they got treated pissed me off. it's easy enough to find other places to shop.
 
Cephus said:
The point of a dictionary is to report common usage, not to define what words mean so people are required to use them that way. Unfortunately, in recent years, we've started to see them become politicized on some words, such that people lobby the dictionary manufacturers to change definitions instead of letting common usage make those changes.
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Isn't "what words mean" & "commun usage" the exact same thing ?
 
TurtleDude said:
years ago, my wife and I went to a "steak and shake" near our house. It was about 9 Pm on a thursday night-not exactly rush hour but not anywhere near closing or at a time when staffing was almost non-existent. One car ahead of us-took 45 minutes the drive thru. Never have been back. WE don't have Ben and Jerry's here but I wouldn't patronize them if they were here or if I am in an area where they exist.
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I think I would have given up and left (if not blocked in) long before 45 minutes was up.

I don't think I would have boycotted over that if it were a one-time incident, but I know damn well that corporate would have gotten a letter for that one. That's just inexcusable.
 
AlbqOwl said:
But even an enormous mega corporation like Nestle can be persuaded to cease a bad practice that actually injures people if they are hit sufficiently hard in the pocket book. And Nestle does do some pretty impressive philanthropic work now including dealing with poor nutrition problems in the third world. I think they might have learned their lesson and if they did, good on them.
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If it hits their pocketbook, yes.

It was a few years ago, but I once watched a show outlining how they are trying to secure rights to as much as the world's fresh water supply as possible so that they can sell it like a commodity. Including in impoverished countries.

I've since read a couple blurbs hinting at the same thing, but I don't have any links handy.
 
AlbqOwl said:
The incident you mention was quite some time after the boycott of their harmful marketing policy and they had long cleaned up their act there. I agree Nestle was not in the wrong on the water bru ha ha.

As for pushing for a boycott of all South African investments to facilitate an end to Apartheid, that was a biggie back then too. But as I didn't have any investments at the time and didn't know anybody who had South American investments, that didn't affect me at all. The world pressure did end Apartheid of course but as happens in many of these things, it is anybody's speculation whether the people were better off with the dubious government that replaced it. I do know ten years later, the South African economy was floundering, unemployment of the non-white population went through the roof, and many if not most educated people, both white and non-white, left the country which only made things worse for those left there.

Sometimes very good intentions can have very bad unintended consequences.
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The South African divestment thing is a good example of why I rarely boycott over politics. It was so ubiquitous, that I would have been shooting myself in the foot if I looked into it too deeply.
 
radcen said:
Do you ever boycott businesses?

If so, why?
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If I boycotted businesses I found morally objectionable I would be relegated to eating only from local farmer's markets and all my clothing would be hemp bags with armholes cut in them.
 
Cisero said:
Isn't "what words mean" & "commun usage" the exact same thing ?
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The point is where the definitions come from. Do they come from the people or from the dictionary? If they come from the dictionary, then they're doing it wrong.
 
Never. I did boycott Runescape II because their game was boring. Now I am playing Runescape III -- much better then version II.
 
I usually get several copies of Bloomberg Businessweek in the mail over the course of a year, with an envelope that looks like a fake invoice attached, requesting that I remit payment. I read the magazines, but the fake invoices go into the trash every time. The fake invoices don't surprise me, coming from a man who creates fake "grassroots" organizations to battle "gun violence" (i.e., trash the Second Amendment).
 
radcen said:
Do you ever boycott businesses?

If so, why?
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Yes, but my main answer isn't up there.

I've occasionally boycotted over bad CS, but the reality is that when it comes to most large businesses, CS sucks pretty much no matter what you do. So it's gotta be REALLY bad.

More often, I've boycotted over egregious business practices. The reality is, you can't fully escape bad businesses in this world. But I try to make the amount of my money that goes to them as small as is realistically possible, and it is something that takes effort and some conscious thought over how you live.

I've grown to like it more than I even thought I would not just because I find it more ethical, but because it makes you actually think about what you buy in the sense of, "Do I need that? Will I use that? Will it make me happier?" 99 times out of 100, the answer is no. And eventually, you just start to instantly recognize useless crap when you see it. Life's a lot more pleasant when you're not constantly looking for the shiny new fad piece of junk to make you happy.

Why did I do it to start with? Well, it's pretty simple really. I don't want to live in a world where people are abused, so I try to only support people who don't abuse other people, as much as possible. It's a pretty linear thought process.
 
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I occasionally boycott, but the issue has to be especially egregious. .

Yes I do sometimes. I decide who received my money as much as possible and if I think you do not deserve my money I will try to keep that in mind when I am shopping and look for alternatives.


Joey
 
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