Trying to not buy anything American!

[PinaColada24]

This is a personal choice. I’m trying to not buy anything imported from American. Is anyone else doing the same? Any ideas?

Most of the main brands are US owned these days, so best to buy the lesser known brands when it comes to snacks, crisps, drinks, etc - still plenty of UK/Europe owned brands.

While I support buying British and European products I think China is infinitely more problematic than the US where at least Donald Trump will stop being president in 4 years. Having boycotted various countries and companies in my life I'm pretty sure it has 0 effect on anything so it's purely a personal decision for as long as it's convenient for me.

Good thread. I have been avoiding amazon since it started because I believed it was putting small local businesses out of business and bringing a lot more traffic on our roads, then when I heard the owner is a billionaire and the warehouse staff are not treated well I outright boycotted it. Needless to say it has been futile but made me feel better. I stopped using Google as soon as they put AI on my phone without asking me and tried to tell me how to write. I now use ecosia which claims to plant trees to counteract its energy use. That's about all I have done but want to do more.

For me it's not about recent tarriffs it's about environmental issues and supporting local sources, not lining the pockets of already billionaires and passing global power to USA. I feel the writing has been on the wall for decades and no one gave a shit as long as they saved their £3 or whatever. I hope this is the beginning of a gradual shift and hopefully European based tech alternatives will emerge.

we aren’t in the habit of buying any us goods on a regular basis, the issue is actually services, software etc which we don’t really get any choice with, I need Microsoft office for work (on the positive side, Bill Gates is no trump fan) and I have an Apple iPhone but might switch to Samsung

Thankfully 90% of our shopping is Lidl own brand.

I am genuinely surprised at some of this. I thought Kelloggs and Cadbury were British, also Boots. Were they originally British but sold out along the way? I remember watching a TV show about the first Mr Cadbury and how it all began and it was definitely British

oh and remember Amazon operates as a marketplace for many U.K. companies, likewise places like McDonald’s are actually franchised so local businesses own them, U.K. based. Boycotts are difficult because there’s other factors. Avoiding American soft drinks, jeans, alcohol brands chocolate is symbolic at least, yet most are actually made/bottled/canned here or in other parts of the world, not the USA

Amazon has irreversibly changed our country and small businesses. If we can avoid en masse it does make a difference

Mumsnet is hosted by AWS, Amazon Web Services, so this is quite ironic, 😬😅

I didn't think I did buy anything imported from America. What do they sell to the UK? That's manufactured there? I think I bought a pack of Reeses sweets the other week. They were shite.

I guess avoiding American owned companies is easy enough. But most probably use Chinese or South Asian factories.

Yes but some things we can change and some things we can’t. The reality is that if we are in military conflict with the US then we are vulnerable if we haven’t tried to move away from US goods and services.

Boycotting America as a holiday destination would send a message.

It would be a very strange person wanting to visit the US voluntarily at the moment surely. I know some people will always be tempted by the cheap prices but it’s cheap because nobody wants to go there

We are visiting the US this year to do a road trip and visit family and friends amongst other things. There is a lot to see and do there and we’ve always found most people to be very friendly. I don’t think we’re particularly ‘strange’.

I will do me and go to the U.S. and visit my family as I usually do. You can go and spend your .50p on an AI in Turkey.

No, I’m having a holiday, visiting people including a relative who is ill, going to a concert, seeing some nice scenery, visiting some bars in Nashville.

Get off mumsnet because as I said in my pp, they’re hosted by Amazon.

The way things are currently going we may well be in a military conflict with the US within weeks