Rotating Boycotts
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Im dabbling with the idea of buying nothing from amazon this Christmas. Daunting prospect but I want to see what that feels like.
Wish me luck!
[EDIT: this title has changed because the thread pivots to rotating boycotts… keep reading… think we are getting juicy!]
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Along these lines, i wonder what it would look like to do cyclical boycotts. Create a list of the top items we boycott Target, Amazon and Walmart for and then every 3 months shift all of our business away from one of those guys. get enough people and this can be very disruptive.
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I boycotted Target 3 or 4 years ago. I notice that they're still in business. I understand the frustration. But the days of mom and pop businesses are all but over. Amazon and Walmart (and Sam's) are just too convenient. And most of the time they are the least expensive option. Money doesn't factor in for everyone, but I can stand to save wherever I can.
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@Soteria Mom and Pops are over… for now. The ecosystem has to change to support them, I agree.
I guess my point is as long as there are competing businesses even if they are just a few, we can screw with them heavily by collectively boycotting one of them for 3 months. Especially if its a scheduled thing and not reactive. Not unless they meet our demands, which initially we know they will not.
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@Soteria Mom and Pops are over… for now. The ecosystem has to change to support them, I agree.
I guess my point is as long as there are competing businesses even if they are just a few, we can screw with them heavily by collectively boycotting one of them for 3 months. Especially if its a scheduled thing and not reactive. Not unless they meet our demands, which initially we know they will not.
@unshittified said in Rotating Boycotts:
Mom and Pops are over… for now. The ecosystem has to change to support them, I agree.
And ought we ban cell phones and go back to rotaries? You are arguing against economies of scale. Of what use is being morally opposed to something when it is a natural process? The centralization of retail commerce in this case. There is no way of returning without choking the entire domestic retail industry. I'm interested in going forward, not backwards.
Boycotts... it's a tough sell. You are right that you can boycott just one at a time. But the reality is only a small segment of their sales come from people that think like you and would be willing to boycott. Only two boycotts in recent memory have been successful—Starbucks and Bud Light—in both cases because the companies had market segments with relatively homogenous opinions, and they directly betrayed their customers' sensibilities. There is little political about which grocery store people buy from, it's mostly what's close to them and has reasonable prices.
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@unshittified said in Rotating Boycotts:
Mom and Pops are over… for now. The ecosystem has to change to support them, I agree.
And ought we ban cell phones and go back to rotaries? You are arguing against economies of scale. Of what use is being morally opposed to something when it is a natural process? The centralization of retail commerce in this case. There is no way of returning without choking the entire domestic retail industry. I'm interested in going forward, not backwards.
Boycotts... it's a tough sell. You are right that you can boycott just one at a time. But the reality is only a small segment of their sales come from people that think like you and would be willing to boycott. Only two boycotts in recent memory have been successful—Starbucks and Bud Light—in both cases because the companies had market segments with relatively homogenous opinions, and they directly betrayed their customers' sensibilities. There is little political about which grocery store people buy from, it's mostly what's close to them and has reasonable prices.
@Jonathan so regarding mom and pops, lets not be binary about it; this isnt either forward or backward. What it comes down to is providing people with the autonomy and robust life experience that having successful mom and pops provides.
I am sure there are ways to allow mom and pops type autonomy and respectable income going forward, without going backward but we need to be creative about it.
Or if we do want to dip into the playbook of the past, maybe revisit collective bargaining law, which is disproportionately in favor of big business.
Maybe we should spin off a mom and pops thread because theres a lot to unpack there.
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@unshittified said in Rotating Boycotts:
Mom and Pops are over… for now. The ecosystem has to change to support them, I agree.
And ought we ban cell phones and go back to rotaries? You are arguing against economies of scale. Of what use is being morally opposed to something when it is a natural process? The centralization of retail commerce in this case. There is no way of returning without choking the entire domestic retail industry. I'm interested in going forward, not backwards.
Boycotts... it's a tough sell. You are right that you can boycott just one at a time. But the reality is only a small segment of their sales come from people that think like you and would be willing to boycott. Only two boycotts in recent memory have been successful—Starbucks and Bud Light—in both cases because the companies had market segments with relatively homogenous opinions, and they directly betrayed their customers' sensibilities. There is little political about which grocery store people buy from, it's mostly what's close to them and has reasonable prices.
@Jonathan said in Rotating Boycotts:
And ought we ban cell phones and go back to rotaries? You are arguing against economies of scale. Of what use is being morally opposed to something when it is a natural process? The centralization of retail commerce in this case. There is no way of returning without choking the entire domestic retail industry. I'm interested in going forward, not backwards.
The rotary/cell comment is a non-sequitor. That is, it is a technological change with no bearing on the structural change being discussed.
To call retail centralization a natural process may be true, but that doesn't make it healthy. We do many many things to combat the ill effects of natural processes.
Frankly, your comment sounds too close to the "monopolies are actually good" arguments that came out of the Chicago School and that were used to gut retail (among other sectors) and centralize wealth and income.
My off-the-cuff opinion is that any company too big to boycott is too big.