Do the political leanings of a merchandiser or manufacturer affect whether or not you will purchase from them?

Yes, very definitely. Obviously I don’t know the political/idealistic/religious leanings of most of the people I do business with, but if a business or service provider makes a point of publicizing their stance on things, that will absolutely affect how and where I spend my money. I shop at Lowes instead of Home Depot. I am happy to support Penzey’s Spices, but not the diner I used to frequent that made a point, on its Facebook page, of espousing an administration and policies that harm people.

If they choose to make public, definitive statements, it is a form of advertising, and I will respond accordingly.

Absolutely.
You are not simply saying “I do not want to give them money because they disagree with me.” (which itself is also fine).
They are donating money to these political causes, so inevitably your money would end up those political groups’ pockets.
You would be essentially indirectly donate money to opposing political causes.

And let it not be forgotten: These people want gay people dead. They want trans people dead. They want to oppress women and minorities. They want to re-enslave black people.
I have no wish to give material support to murderers.

To an extent, yes. I won’t refuse to do business with someone who merely voted for a politician I don’t support, but if they’re vocal enough that I know their political leanings, they probably donate to various causes and that’s when I might consider boycotting them if I oppose those causes strongly enough. For example, I would not have patronized Chick-fil-A when they were notoriously donating to anti-gay organizations. I’ve driven a Tesla before and definitely want an electric car of my own, but I can’t see buying one as long as Musk is in charge of the company and doing so would be lining his pockets. I’ll look elsewhere.

It didn’t used to, but now I do.

I won’t go to Hobby Lobby, although they have some things that I would otherwise buy.

I didn’t go to Citgo for years because they were owned by the Venezuelan dictatorship.

I won’t watch Fox News or any of its spawn. (Although I do watch Fox Sports).

I won’t buy Mike Lindell’s pillows. (And I need new pillows!)

I do try to curtail where I shop if I’m aware the company gives big money to causes and politicians that go against my world view regarding civil rights and the direction I want America to go in. I know I am far from perfect regarding this, and I just look at it like every little bit helps.

I know a lot of people very concerned about climate change and they either bought a Tesla or want one, because it’s electric and because they feel if not for Musk we would not have had the electric car revolution as it is today in the US. Many of these same people hate DeSantis, and have been extremely outspoken about it to friends, family, and in social media, and I recently heard Musk is backing DeSantis, so I wonder how they will settle that in their minds so they don’t have too much psychological stress from it.

Yes. There are certain factors that influence where I shop. A company’s stance on their gender and/or business ethics come to mind.

Political? Only when it comes to donations. I can’t think of a company that leans one way politically.

@JLeslie I would fall into that group you describe. The mental calculus is basically figuring out what is the greater good at play. I think Tesla has to succeed for EVs to take off and that legacy auto would love nothing more than for Tesla to implode and then declare that “the technology for EVs is just not ready yet. Please delay the requirements on us to transition away from fossil fuel an additional 20 years.”

Musk’s endorsement of DeSantis I suspect will have little impact on his actual success or failure as a candidate. Also, Musk is fickle and may no longer endorse DeSantis in a year, or may be too distracted dealing with x or y to invest much energy in advancing his candidacy. It could also be a calculation that he’d rather DeSantis win the primary over Trump (or worse).

For me, electrification of our vehicles is critical to the survival of the human species (this war in Ukraine is ultimately about fossil fuels for example) and Tesla is catalyzing that transition more than any other company by a wide margin. Musk’s endorsement of one shithead over a different shithead that may modestly shift the needle but likely won’t make any actual difference is disappointing, but much less significant in the long run.

Not in the least.

Sometimes, it depends on the issue. I refuse to shop at Walmart (and have for 20 years) due to decades of employee abuse, low wages and deals with China.

On the other hand though I agree with some of the values I don’t go to Hobby Lobby or Chic-Fil-A. I kept Disney when many were upset about same sex interactions.

Essentially it depends on how strong my feeling’s are on the issue.

If they are public knowledge and are advertising them, then yes they do influence me. Actions have consequences.

Exactly what @canidmajor said. If they make a big deal over their political leanings I will avoid them because it’s unprofessional and tacky.

@Dutchess_III I’m not quite sure that’s what @canidmajor said since she is happy to support Penzey’s Spices which do make public their liberal political leanings. I think it is those that advertise their right wing positions that she is avoiding as do I.

Yeah, pretty much what @janbb said. But, in some ways, also what @Dutchess_III said, because when I pointed out my discomfort to a friend about the blatantly right wing statements of some of the businesses, she pointed out that Penzey’s was just as blatant (which I had seen) but I figured that because I agreed with them and wasn’t offended by their stance, I hadn’t noticed.
I felt a little silly.

If I go into a business and they have a Make America Great Again sign up, I’m turning around and not buying at that store. I went to a flea market a few weeks ago and noticed at least 3 shops that had these signs up, so it is a real thing even now.

If those leanings are in the extreme, then yes, obviously.

Absolutely. I put my money behind not only product but behind companies I wholeheartedly support for their beliefs and treatment of employees and socio-economic well intentions.

Yes I try not to support businesses whose political and social actions I disagree with. I said try because oftentimes I do ignore my own principles. I have a cousin who manages a Chick-Fil-A and he gave me a free huge meal one day. I can not imagine buying another laptop other than an Apple.

I emailed a radio station and told them I was going to quit listening to their station because of their incessant MAGA commercials.

^^Awesome!

Capitalism is the greatest form of democracy! Every time I buy something, I vote.
I buy coke I vote coke. Enough people buy coke, pepsi will go out of business. The
way it should be.

That’s what I’m getting from this discussion.

@Dutchess_III Media is required to air all politicals, it’s a law.

I do now. I used to think the most important things were the products’ quality, delivery, and price.
Now that I’m older and able to buy what I want I realize I can help make a small change by not funding businesses I consider unhealthy for me and the country.

@KNOWITALL not a law !

We have a GOP backed smear campaign for a Democrat US Senator candidate paid for Trump money and GOP Senators. All lies . . . several stations have refused to air 100% Bull Shit. No t a requirement to air them!

@Tropical_Willie May vary state to state. What state are you in again? SC?

FCC is federal . . . not by state.

@Tropical_Willie I know we had to here for a racist, it was a huge deal.

I don’t support Walmart, Hobby Lobby or Chik-Fil-A. And no plans to buy a Tesla.

But I have to admit those are all too easy. Couldn’t even call it a boycott.

If Target started rolling out MAGA hats, that would be a real test of my principles. Ha.

Accumulating a list of companies that are covering abortion travel expenses.

- AirBNB
– Alaska Airlines
– Amalgamated Bank
– Amazon
– Apple
– Bank of America
– Box
– Bumble
– Buzzfeed
– Chobani
– Citigroup
– Comcast NBC Universal
– Condenast
– CVS
– Dick’s Sporting Goods
– Disney
– DoorDash
– Duolingo
– GoDaddy
– Goldman Sachs
– Google
– Hims and Hers
– Interpublic
Group
– Intuit
– Johnson & Johnson
– JP Morgan Chase
– Kroger
– Levi Strauss & Co.
– Lyft
– Mastercard
– Match
– MatchGroup
– Meta
– Microsoft
– Netflix
– Nike
– Paramount
– Patagonia
– PayPal
– Power Home Remodelling
– Publicis Groupe
– Reddit
– SAG-AFTRA
– Salesforce
– Starbucks
– Sony
– Tesla
– TikTok*
– Uber
– United Talent Agency
– Warner Brothers Discovery
– WPP
– Yelp
– Zillow

@raum It’ll be interesting to see if any of those companies start moving out of anti-choice states entirely.

@gorillapaws I’m torn. On one hand, I’d love to see red states feel the impact of this. On the other hand, the women in those states need companies that will do this.

I think Texas is trying to ban companies that are covering abortion travel.

I was thinking transport women out of those states altogether. Let the men see how they like living in a state with 70% men and 30% women.

Google has said that employees who want to relocate to another state may do so and keep their jobs.

Also, you can contribute to Abortionfunds.org which is helping women who need to travel for abortions.

Need to resurrect the Jane network. Whatever it was called that was an underground network to get women abortions. Right now it doesn’t need to be underground, but who knows with this craziness that might make traveling for an abortion illegal. It won’t help women dying in a hospital who need to terminate their pregnancies to live.