Do you avoid or boycott a store because of their business practices or horrible products?

Why would I buy anything from a store that I thought had inferior products?

There is a bakery near me that one day, when my son was small, refused to let me bring his stroller in the store. I had the choice of leaving my child unattended on the sidewalk or taking him out of the stroller and bringing him in the store. I did the latter.

Of course, my son, walking around, is much more dangerous than attached to his stroller. He could easily destroy many things on lower shelves. I almost wish he had just to teach them a lesson. But he didn’t and I left without purchasing anything, and I haven’t been back to that store in the 8 or 9 years since then. Anyone who asks me about that store will get the same story.

Nope. Though it’s all well and good in theory, I shop where I can afford to shop. Period.

In the ‘70’s and 80’s I wouldn’t buy Shell gas because they were one of the few oil companies who still invested in South Africa during Apartheid.
I switched to a small local bank because I didn’t want to contribute to ANY bank getting to big to fail.

Not often, but occaisionally. I won’t go to Chik-Fil-A because of their tendency to support anti-equality groups.

KFC. It’s been 20 years since I’ve been in one. I read up on how they treat their chickens and it’s awful.

No offense to Asian people, but every drive in market I have ever been in, had outdated canned food products on the shelves. Even some of their bread was moldy.

Their biggest sellers are beer and cigarettes and the food is just a front for them.

I avoid like the plague.

I support Starbucks because they told the Brady Campaign to go fuck themselves, which was hilarious.

I avoid a multitude of clothing companies because of their weird sexism shit they do, like Abercrombie, which immediately comes to mind. Other than that, most of the stuff I buy is antique anyway, so I don’t really get a chance to boycott anyone as a result. Most of my groceries come from local places, or I grow it myself or get it from friends who grow it/kill it themselves.

Oh yeah, I changed banks, too, and I boycott my previous bank. Not out of some pirnciple because they enslave Indian children or burn crosses in gay people’s yards, but because they fucked me over hard and have apparently done the same thing to other customers.

I’m not sure what I think about Walmart policies, but I am just about to start shopping there on a more regular basis because the other grocer in my area, Kroger, has been incredibly dissappointing. I wish everyone would stop buying the produce items they have that are just horrible. Not everything is, but overall, really bad. I have been willing to spend more for better quality at Schnuck’s, which is a supermarket that just went out of business.

I don’t buy fish from China, well, I try not to avoid products made in China when possible, and try to opt for American products when I can, even if it costs more, if the quality appears to be better. The one thing I have never bought American for myself is an American car, although my husband has owned a few during our marriage. The issue is quality for me with the cars. I find that very unfortunate since I believe manufacturing is very important to our country and economy. Yet, I still am not swayed on that particular thing. I have been contemplating possibly trying American, but then I talked to a friend who is in the business of autoparts. He said around the two year mark from when a car is brought to market they start evaluating what parts to keep on hand, and they usually skip over all the Japanese cars and look right to the American ones, Chrysler being the worst, for what will start falling apart.

Same as @Judi, I switched to a smaller local bank. Check this out

I tend to avoid companies that I think produce inferior products. In terms of major chains, I like to skip Walmart for their business practices and most traditional fast-food places (mcdonalds, Taco Bell, KFC, etc) for their god-awful food.

There aren’t many other companies I actively boycott, though I did stop shopping at Target because of their political contributions. I’ve kind of given up on that boycott, though I haven’t done much shopping at Target anyway.

Walmart and Amazon are places I refuse to shop at due to how they treat their employees.

I only actively boycotted one company and told them I was going to. I had been in to buy a new winter coat. After trying on a few I settled on one that had been marked down and was within our budget. For some reason that day my husband grabbed the coat from me and paid for it. I walked to the till (as he was signing the slip) and saw that they had charged me full price for the coat. I pointed this out to the lady and she called her manager over. The manager listened to what happened then reached over and ripped the tag off the coat telling me, “It was marked down in error”.

I was flabbergasted and told the manager that she should honour the price on the tag. She declined.

I decided to take the coat and call their corporate office. I got all the way to the VP of marketing and she told me that she didn’t have the authority to refund the money.

I took the coat back a week later as I found one at another store for the sale price I thought I was getting. The ironic thing was that when I took the coat back they had marked all the coats down to the price I originally thought I was getting.

That was a very bad business practise.

I won’t buy meat from any supermarket. I buy only from a butcher who sells free range everything which is humanely killed close to home.

I hope the butcher is honest, he advertises free range.

I am leaning more and more towards vegetarian.

Yep. I’m a big advocate of voting with my wallet. Not only do I choose not to do business with companies that have policies that run counter to my beliefs, I will go out of my and even spend a bit more to support companies that I believe need supporting.

I buy local whenever I can. Specifically, I believe that supporting local farmers is a great way to support the local economy as well as environmental sustainability in general. But the concept goes far beyond produce. Given a choice between a local mom and pop shop and the “mega mart”, I’ll go to the mom and pop when I can.

I also try to buy American whenever possible. Yes, you do have a choice in clothing

Not boycott no. I don’t have the kind of time to care.

But I don’t continue to go there. It’s none of my business what anyone else does, this is between me them and my own disatisfaction, that doesn’t mean anyone else might feel that way.

Why lead the crowd just because I’m pissed off? Losing my business is enough. I’m a good little consumer and I tip well too.

For years and years I refused to shop at WalMart for lots of reasons. These days though as @ANef_is_Enuf says, I really can’t afford not to shop there. As others have mentioned I use a small local bank in order to avoid the huge conglomerates. Also, if my husband cannot get into an establishment that is a deal breaker for me.

Well… That didn’t sound right “Good little consumer.” I’m not really for consumerism actually… Probably somewhat against it but you know…I do buy things because I have to that’s what I meant

I boycott a local supermarket chain, Schnucks, for firing me out of hand.
I boycotted Pepsi for a couple years to protest one of the groups that they supported.

@raven860 Wal-Mart is actually pretty good to their employees. They don’t allow unions, sure, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Schnucks was a union store. Fat lot of good it did me.

I don’t want anything to do with Wal-Mart.

I also quit shopping at a major local supermarket out of pique. The store is in a shopping mall, and I was heading to a department store first and then to buy my groceries, so I parked halfway in between, in an area close to the supermarket. It was pouring rain that day, and the lots were pretty full. As I ran across the parking lot toward the department store, a very large, burly security guy stopped me and told me I couldn’t use the grocery store’s parking lot unless I was shopping there. I said, “I am shopping there. I’m just going over to —‘s first so I don’t have to leave food in the car.”

“Can’t do that,” he said. “You have to be shopping here to park here.”

“I’m just going for one thing over there and then I’ll be back to buy my groceries,” I argued. “Are you telling me that I have to park in two different places to go to two stores?”

“That’s right,” he said.

“Then what’s the point of being in a shopping mall?” I exclaimed, but he wasn’t interested in reason.

I moved my car, circling and waiting all over again for a spot. I went to the department store. Then I slogged through the puddles in the downpour, entered the supermarket, and asked for the manager. Full of wrathful indignation, I told him the story, and added, “I’ve been shopping here for x years, but I’m never coming in here again.”

The manager just shrugged. But twenty years later, I still wouldn’t go back in, no matter how convenient it was.

Protesting in the name of principle with futile gestures that penalize me and don’t affect anyone else is a minor specialty of mine.

@Jeruba But I totally think you did the right thing. They may not notice one shopper, but you have to trust that you are only the tip of the iceberg. Eventually they will lose enough money due to their lack of concern for customers that they will go out of business.

Also, you’ve made a big mistake in not telling us the name of the supermarket. You need to publicize your bad review so that lots of people know. Then they might start seeing enough of a change that they’ll wonder why. The power of the consumer is in telling their story. And naming names.

It was a Safeway in Santa Clara County. I think the policy belonged to that store and not to the chain; in any case, my boycott is specific to that store.

There you go! That wasn’t so hard, was it? I’m never going to that Safeway in Santa Clara County if I should ever be in that neighborhood.

Well, you’re right, @wundayatta. I guess I was thinking more about being discreet with respect to my location than I was about protecting the store, but it’s not as if I hadn’t alluded to it before.

Safeway! Safeway! Safeway!

The idea that people boycott a company based on poorly treating their employees is HILARIOUS to me. So employees are treated like crap, and you’re doing your damnedest to take away from that company’s profits. Which is going to help the employees – how, exactly? In the best case scenario – that your boycott actually has a tangible effect – you’re making things worse for them, not better. Either their conditions are going to get even WORSE when the company makes even more cutbacks or cuts more corners, or they’re going to get laid off and have no income, rather than just a bad income or shitty working conditions.

Walmart is here to stay. If you have enough money to go to the boutique stores then more power to you. I mean, where are employees treated well? Or well enough? In business if your employees are content, and the mgnt. gets wind of it, they will conclude they are doing something wrong.Many places where the workers are having it rough are a symptom of poorly trained middle mgmt who were on the floor the week before and have little experience with managing people and time, ie; no military experience. They become overwhelmed with all the new responsibilities and lash out in frustration by punishing decent help to look like they are doing something, anything. People trade where they can get the most for their money, period .I don’t know about Starbucks because I’ve never been in a position to throw 4 or 5 bucks at a cup of coffee. To me that is irresponsible. Dunkin Donuts brew is better if I just have to have coffee outside my home.

I boycott GNC because of the way they treated my wife, fuck them. All that shit they sell is modern day snake oil anyway, just so y’all know. Don’t waste your money.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard Do tell about the Starbucks and Brady. Didn’t catch that one.

@woodcutter Starbucks is friendly to people with CCWs and open-carriers. Brady Campaign found out and got really butthurt and called for a boycott of Starbucks and said that they’d raise all kinds of hell if Starbucks didn’t stop letting people carry in their shops. Starbucks told Brady to fuck off and GTFO and welcomed open carriers and people with CCWs, and contrary to what the Brady Bunch claimed, the blood hasn’t started flowing in Starbucks yet, and there haven’t been any massive random shoot outs.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard, are you talking about weapons? I had to search mentally through a number of possibilities (babies in carriers…carrying open containers…) before I arrived at that surmise. I think those are perhaps not universally understood expressions.

@Jeruba yes ma’am. Starbucks was/is friendly to people legally carrying legally possessed firearms for self-defense purposes, Brady campaign raised all kinds of hell, and Starbucks flipped them the bird. Blood hasn’t flowed in the streets as Brady insisted it would, and the world is still spinning. I used abbreviations that I knew woodcutter would understand.

The rant is always against employers, unfair practices, unfair dismissal, etc. In my previous career as an employee, if I felt I wasn’t being treated well, I looked for another job. But it was my experience that I was treated well if I performed well. There are a lot of employees who just don’t give a damn. I just had a situation with the butcher shop I use. I buy dog bones there weekly. When the boss was there the bones were always cut to my requested size. When the boss is not there, one employee says he can’t cut them 1” thick because he will cut his fingers. I said no one else seems to have the problem. And he basically told me to get lost. I left without buying any bones. I will go back and tell the boss what happened though. There are many crappy employees in this world, they put in their hours doing the least amount of work they can and don’t care a damn about the business that employs them. The employers are not always the bad guy.

Walmart employs people who perhaps couldn’t get a job anywhere else, is it a bad thing that they are not paid brain surgeon salaries? I agree with @nullo, unions are not always a boon to the employees, often they take your dues and do little in return. Walmart is not the only business who put the corner stores out of the picture. My father owned an auto parts store and he was put to the wall by the cheap auto parts chains. So he found another niche to expand into. That was about 25 or more years ago. Supermarkets did the same thing to the corner grocery, Walmart is not doing anything new, has been going on for years.

Every penny/paisa/pound is a vote that’s speaks of you and what you value.
Cast it wisely.

@rooeytoo How do you know whether unions are a boon to employees or not? Employees can decertify a union at any time in the US. If the union isn’t helping out, many of them get decertified. And of course, in most states here, if you don’t want to join the union, you don’t have to. Interestingly enough, they still have to represent you if you are in the bargaining unit, even if you are not a member. US labor law is a conundrum.

@wundayatta – okay, okay, I should have said “unions are allegedly not always a boon to employees.” Or perhaps I should have said I would never join one because I would resent being told I must belong to one. To me it is not much different than extortion, being told I must give money to someone just so I can get a job I am qualified to do.

Is that better???

:-) Thank you, dear!

Cheers matey!

Walmart isn’t much different than any other Co. that hire for positions that no real training is needed. If you work at a job that anybody can do with minimal training they will be low paying.unless it is a govt job, so don’t expect the workers to be all that conscientious, much past the first paycheck. That’s the way it has always been. That’s why I get a chuckle when I hear business types bitch about how crappy the work force is. “You can’t find good help these days”. No, you can’t find good help who want to deal with BS or for what you want to pay. Don’t expect people to be gung-ho about their job if it sucks. Every now and then there will be one who shines and that is the time for mgmt to groom them for better position in the firm but too many times they are abused to the point of being taken advantage of and they become discouraged and leave ,and the “bitching” cycle resumes…“See you can’t find good help any more”. Or…there are no bad employees just people who haven’t found a job they like.

That being said there are going to be employees that are shitheads and always will be, for whatever reason. Walmart is Hard for me to go to. If I take the big “cleansing breath” before going in I do alright. But the majority of the time I see it’s how the place is managed over the people working there that makes it drag. If you want good service go to a specialty store where they know the products. If you want to save a buck go to W.M. and have your homework already done before making a purchase.

@woodcutter I had an Econ prof once who said that Wal-Mart was a purveyor of so-called normal and inferior goods. They aren’t for the specialty stuff, they’re an overgrown general store.

Almost too many to list. Seacret cosmetics, due to their war profiteering, ANZ bank due to their environmentally unsustainable investment practices, McDonalds, KFC, and almost any other fast food place, because of their impact on farming practices, and their purchases of cruelly produced meat. Cafes and restaurants which use cage eggs in their food, a certain coffee chain owned by the Hillsong church here in Australia which donate to pro-life charities and also gets unfair tax breaks due to the religious affiliation of it’s owners, and I really refuse to give money to any organizations affiliated with the Hillsong church due to what essentially amounts to theft of taxpayer dollars.

There’s more where that came from, but I fear if I had to type them all I’d die of old age at this computer. I basically just refuse to give money to any unethical, cruel or unfair organization.