What are some US brands to avoid?

M&S do good ketchups and BBQ sauces. They have different ones starting at £1:40. Give them a go and see what you think.

Helpful reminder to anyone not aware but Sky tv is now owned by Comcast so get that dish down!
Hotel Chocolat & Morrisons are owned by American private equity firms!

Kit Kats are made in York but are part of Nestle so out they go. Nesquick goes too, along with Nescafé.
Costa coffee is owned by Coca Cola believe it or not, so 🚫 to Costa! Obviously Starbucks too, is 🇺🇸
Astonishingly, HP sauce is now owned by Heinz....
Hartley's jam is now 🇺🇸
The clothing brands 'Toast' 'Me + Em' & 'Zara' are also American owned. Along with Laura Ashley & Ben Sherman.
Aveda is 🇺🇸 as it's part of Estée Lauder
Obviously Netflix & Uber are both 🇺🇸
Harper Collins publishers 🇺🇸
Weetabix 🇺🇸
Wilkinson Sword 🇺🇸
Virgin Media is now 50% 🇺🇸
Ella's Kitchen, Gale's Honey, Rose's jam & marmalade, Frank Cooper's marmalade, Robertson's (Golden Shred Marmalade), Sun Pat, Linda McCartney, Yorkshire Provender & Covent Garden soup, are all owned by Hain Celestial which is 🇺🇸

So in conclusion it's going to be excruciatingly difficult to boycott all American brands!

Super isn't an americanism? It comes from Latin and is used in UK English - if anything its a bit "jolly hockeysticks".
Also - out of curiosity what do you mean by "Americanised layout". I thought at first maybe you meant the very corporate "Allegria" style but they don't have that - it just looks like a regular website.

We have been doing it a few weeks now - not everything because that's unrealistic, but every little helps! Hardest thing was finding alternatives to Heinz beans and ketchup! Household products etc very easy if you buy Unilever instead. And yes I have to use Microsoft at work but I have no choice, but at home we use Linux and duck duck go (American but better for privacy) and yes I'm using an iPhone but at least it's second hand and I don't plan on buying another one any time soon anyway. I'll carry on spending money and contributing to the economy, just hopefully boosting British and European companies instead.

The massive investment in US treasury bonds (did you know the UK is the third largest holder of US debt) feels very concerning to me. Because of the dollar being the reserve currency US debt has always been incredibly secure - unlike other countries very high debt to GDP ratio doesn't affect its security... yet. But, Trump, Musk etc seem almost to be deliberately trying to destroy that. In which case yep everyone's pensions are fucked. However - there is not much any of us can do about that whereas not buying from Amazon (predatory even before Trump) is something people can do. And buying local/buying from businesses and real shops is better for employment/local economies anyway even if it doesn't affect Jeff Bezos.

Nestlé are Swiss @AnxiouslyAwaitingSpring.

Thanks for the list.

Boots have always been part of Walgreens - an American company.
Also, ASDA is still a minority percentage owned by Wal-Mart after they sold their majority share a few years back.
Vauxhall are part of General Motors who are an American company so out with those Astras, Mokkas, Corsas & Grandlands etc! Don’t forget to ditch your iPads, iPhones, AirPods, AirTags & Macs too whilst you're all at it. Also Galaxy chocolate, Mars, Nestle including Carnation, Oreo, Kelloggs (including Pop Tarts). Oh and let's not forget Heinz! Baked beans may be quintessentially British but Heinz is as American a company as there ever was! Walkers crisps may be British too but they are owned by PepsiCo which is also American so out they go too! Along with Coca Cola products.

Do you see how ridiculous this is??

Targeted boycotts are easier and more effective than a scattergun approach. Trump doesn't listen to the little people. He does listen to big business. As time goes by the range of boycotted products may expand as the US government wreaks more havoc across the globe, people replace things, and alternatives grow.

How ridiculous! Do you really think Trump is going to stop just because a few Brits have stopped using multi billion dollar companies & subsidiaries?! No of course not.

Besides, I bet you'll find that some aspects of the Mumsnet platform/software is based on a framework developed in the US!
Oh! Those of you driving a Ford better sell your cars, quick! 🙄🙄

It's nice to have these threads to share ideas and support. However, I wonder why it attracts so many posts telling us why it's too hard to do it or to think about all those people who will lose jobs at Amazon/Starbucks yet then say our efforts will make no difference! Then why are we not also boycotting China? Is it bots or are Amazon et al afraid and sending in supporters to discourage and gaslight us 😂

Just seen a headline that Boots has been bought out by US private equity firm. They are making it harder! I don't shop at Boots loads tbf but it's the high street option for lots of things.

Well as they say perfection is the enemy of progress. Just because you can’t eliminate every US brand from
your life doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing. I used an AI to research different categories so I’d suggest those interested try that. Mistral is a French AI that works like ChatGPT. I will add some of the searches that I’ve done already if it helps.

Or sorry, I get the point now, though it would have been helpful if this had been made in the first place. I don’t think people are wanting to boycott the USA for their human rights and employment right record.

Did you miss all the stuff with the USA threatening to ban TikTok for being “Chinese “.?

I thought TikTok was Chinese and China have an awful human rights record.
I’m not boycotting American goods but I buying British then Europe as better for UK economy.
Miniml is eco friendly and British, they make cleaning products but also shampoo etc. Also like BioD and Faith in Nature.
Astonish is good British brand. Lots of cleaning options are UK made and owned
And good old Greggs is UK owned and made.

But can you not see that it will be ordinary people that lose their jobs. Amazon won't suddenly collapse overnight, they will just get rid of jobs from the bottom of the chain.

Had a quick look, chuckled at the irony of them using Americanism of "super" and also the Americanised layout of the website. Didn't have a very British feel to it at all!

The one you have was probably made by forced labour in China.

Who said it was?

But you can't be precious about American products while buying from a country with a far worse record on human rights and employment rights. All in order to support a company that's already be considered for purchase....by the US by encouragement of (you guessed it) Donald Trump.

Or are you swapping your New York holiday for one in Dubai this year?

Aldi also do a version called "Racer".

TikTok isn’t American

The jobs that Amazon stole away from all our independent stores and bookshops? Cry me a river.