To politely suggest to the Nursery that they shouldn't be using Nestle products?

[zimm]

DD's otherwise excellent nursery serves some nestle branded cereals. This doesn't sit well with me as I don't think a place that cares for children should support Nestle. I imagine it just hasn't crossed their minds but it does bug me that her fess are used to buy products from Nestle. WIBU to take in some baby milk action stuff and make a suggestion they switch products? Yes I know they are are bigger things to worry about but I do believe if a nestle boycott is worth doing, then it is worth doing right.

All that I can suggest op do is tell the nursery manager that she will be bringing her own cereals in for her dc, and to tell her why and about the boycott, and leave it up to the nursery.

I wonder why I have never seen Nestle formula in UK shops, but I have in Asda in the world food section, they do have Cerelac

I'm surprised they don't buy supermarket own brand cereals which are usually much cheaper than branded ones like Nestlé.

Probably because Nestlé formula has an image problem in the Uk, piglet.

YABU OP.

Does your nursery serve jam sandwiches btw?

No they didn't switch to Danone. Apparently they're trying to remove all bottled water and install water fountains for next year. At least that is the case at the Business school.

I personally try to boycott by buying other brands or non-branded goods but that's much easier when there are other brands available. Hence asking my uni if they would consider swapping. I don't know if ds's nursery use Nestle but I suspect so because Shreddies are on the menu.

I think I've spent less than £2 on Nestle products in the last year which is a big reduction on the several hundred pounds a year I used to spend. It's not a hardship to buy a different brand of coffee or breakfast cereal. The cosmetics hurt a bit at first but that was only because I was used to picking up L'Oreal or Lancome without thinking but there are loads of alternatives. In all cases (except my £2 purchase) I've swapped to better or equal products which are often less expensive to buy.

I think when Nestle products are usually more expensive and no better quality then asking for an alternative is fair enough. Nobody needs to eat Cheerios or use L'Oreal. We live in a capitalist society so there's always an alternative. If it's not a hardship why not swap to someone else?

Incidentally the Dean of business and law who I wrote to used to be a Nestle executive. He still championed my request, possibly further than I would have pushed it.

Boycotters can say what they like as long as they are polite and respect others views.

Most of these boycotters have smartphones (made by exploited labour) and pay UK taxes (which fund wars), and I don't ram that down their throat at every opportunity. So the least they can do is be nice and polite.

That said, the world would be a better place if the execs making these marketing decisions weren't (for want of a better word) evil. Political pressure would be more effective than a boycott. Sanctions would probably work a treat.

I boycott a few things for different reasons. I'm trying to think what because it's not something I spend many hours thinking about once I've made a decision.

I boycott Next because I was once treated so appallingly in their Kensington High Street store I'll never buy anything from them again and I boycott The Daily Mail because it's awful bigoted dross in the main. There are probably other things but I can't think off the top of my head.

I doubt many of my friends in RL are aware unless they've asked or been with me when I've actively avoided somewhere. I'm not evangelical about my choices but neither am I ashamed.

I think it's absolutely the right thing to request an alternative when there is one. Or many. Doing it with good grace is important. Most people are indifferent to the Nestle boycott. A few care very much. Why not swap over in that situation? It seems a no-brainer.

OP, YANBU to ask the nursery. YWBVU to insist.

Hi, I haven't had time to read through the whole thread, but I think you may not be U to ask the Nursery, but I think you need to be prepared for them to say no and then leave it at that.
I boycott Nestlé and Coca Cola and several other companies, but I don't go around preaching about my views. I just tell people why if they happen to ask. However, I will allow DS to eat Nestlé products if someone else (e.g. a well-meaning auntie offering a Kit Kat) gives them to him, but he knows that we don't buy them ourselves.

There are many people who don't know about the Nestle boycott, and what Nestle do. It is perfectly reasonable to discuss it with people and make them aware so that they can make their own choice.

That's quite different to ramming it down someone's throat, or being evangelical.

I don't know why there's this fear of being communicated to. If you believe in a cause it's perfectly acceptable to talk about it to a receptive person. If they're not receptive, well, you'd expect to change the subject lest you be seen as a bore but that's normal conversational etiquette .

I see no reason at all to not give the nursery the info and make your request. I completely fail to see how this could be seen as a) unreasonable and b) inflicting your morals on someone else.

Oh right Halcyon

KatieMortician and organiccarrotcake, your posts make a lot of sense, and show actually how the boycott has made some difference. How can people be saying 'it makes no difference so what is the point' when it actually has forced nestle to change certain practises and so some babies lives have been saved? If that is no difference then what a sad world.

Just can't get my head round the 'don't care' and also the 'don't shove your personal beliefs on others'. This is not about personal beliefs. It's well documented by WHO that nestle have used practises for years that endanger and end lives. FFS how is that a personal belief??

OP yanbu for telling your nursery about why you boycott but as everyone else has said it would be unreasonable to expect them to change for you, although it would be good if they then researched the issue and did change.

As for those saying they'd be cross if nursery fed their dc cheap crap - words fail me.

Katie Are you really "boycotting" the DM? I "boycott" all the papers except the one I happen to enjoy reading. A true boycott means making a sacrifice, which need not be financial: it may be giving up something you enjoy. If in the days of apartheid you didn't eat citrus if only Outspan was available, that was a (small) act of boycott.

That's a good point andrew

When I was a kid we boycotted grapes, I think because of migrant labour treatment (this was in the US). I loved grapes so it was really quite hard, no real substitute either.

I've looked at that list of Nestle products and I don't buy any of them. So I've been accidentally boycotting Nestle this whole time!

YANBU

The nursery will be selling itself as an organisation with the welfare of children and babies at its heart (along with making as much money as possible...).

If it's part of a chain then write to head office.

Otherwise approach the owner with some leaflets, explain why you boycott Nestle and ask them to consider not using the products at the nursery.

BTW - those of you who're comparing Nestle to Primark etc, actually Nestle marketing practices were pretty much responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of babies in developing countries in the 1960's and 1970's, and only changed their practice when huge public pressure was applied.

They still regularly flout both the spirit and the letter of the code on the marketing of infant formula, as do the other big players in the baby milk markets.

It's a very ugly business.

"Just can't get my head round the 'don't care' and also the 'don't shove your personal beliefs on others'. This is not about personal beliefs"

We live in a society which values consumer choice above the welfare of the most vulnerable human beings in the world - babies in developing countries.

Honestly I'm not that surprised. Most people only care about the welfare of other people they can't see and aren't related to in so far as it doesn't interfere with their shopping.

Look, I also despair about the state of global capitalism, but I think the moral judginess should be reserved for the actual perpetrators of these deeds, not ordinary people who just want to get on with their lives and usually have their own pressing concerns to deal with.

Andrew I am ashamed to say I am rather partial to the Daily Mail Showbiz section and the Money Mail is good for what it is

In the UK we are lucky enough that no boycott is a huge hardship because there is usually an easily available alternative. I don't think you have to be making a huge sacrifice to be boycotting. I think Nescafe is vile so it's no hardship to me to go without but the cosmetics has been harder but it really is no great hardship. I'm not going to feel pain or hunger or reduce my life span because I don't buy a Maybelline mascara or a L'oreal shampoo or if I buy a bottle of Harrogate water instead of Vittel.

I think that's why I can't get all het up about people asking the nursery or workplace or university or wherever not to stock Nestle. It's not depriving anybody of anything. If I only have a choice of Nestle beverages when I am on campus I can't easily exercise my right to choose. If no one else is really bothered if it's Nestle drinks or Britvic why not swap?

If people really, truly think their DC's right to eat Shreddies for breakfast instead of own brand version is more important than making a stand they have the right to make that choice. I just can't pretend to understand it.

Exactly, shagmund and Katie. I just don't get it either :(

"If people really, truly think their DC's right to eat Shreddies for breakfast instead of own brand version is more important than making a stand they have the right to make that choice. I just can't pretend to understand it."

Perhaps they do other things which have a greater effect.

Personally I don't "boycott" Nestle because, personally, I think it is making fuck all difference to their marketing practices. As it happens, the only Nestle products I buy are Kit Kats and condensed milk. Occasionally we have the god awful chocolate breakfast cereals in the holidays.

I live in "the home of Nestle UK" and thus they are a big local employer. There are occasionally demos outside their head office which, personally, I think does a far better job of raising awareness than not eating Shreddies.

"but I think the moral judginess should be reserved for the actual perpetrators of these deeds, not ordinary people who just want to get on with their lives and usually have their own pressing concerns to deal with"

Yes - I think you're right to a certain extent, when we're talking about individuals.

But we are talking about an organisation making a small change which would result in many hundreds, even thousands of pounds (over several years) being redirected away from a company which engages in unethical behaviour towards mothers and babies. I don't think it's a big ask.

(waves at soup dragon from under the shadow of the Ikea towers....)

Perhaps they do. But they probably don't.

I don't live very far from Croydon or Hayes, Middlesex but I never hear about demos at Nestle. They don't make any difference to the bottom line. Big business care about the bottom line. Withdraw your pounds and pence and they care.

I'm not daft enough to think my personal choices make a huge difference but I do think if a university, hospital, cafe, school, nursery or other business switches supplier that is an effective way of infuencing.

If I go into a shop or cafe to buy something I choose from the products available. If I don't care about the brand but I want a chocolate bar and a bottle of water not having Nestle as an option is not a big deal.

I am genuinely curious and only being a tiny bit arsey but to those who have children and boycott Nestle, if your child goes to a friends house, do you send a note asking for them not to be given Nestle products etc?

The OP can tell the nursery not to give her child Nestle cereals and explain why but I honestly believe that should be it. I make lots of choices about foods/ products I buy/give my children but they are choices I make as a parent, not choices that are dictated to me by other parents asking for a boycott of a brand that permeates most of our consumer spending.

No I don't. Because it's about my choice of where to spend my money and the friends have a choice about where to spend theirs. If it's family buying treats I might say "would you mind not buying Nestle next time?" but it's a request. Not an order.

I think it would be more hassle to ask for one child not to be given something for moral reasons (completely different if it's allergies or similar) in a nursery setting than to just switch to Kelloggs or non-branded. "Would you consider swapping to a brand other than Nestle?" is not a huge deal. Also they are still spending the same on Nestle products so there's no impact and therefore no point.

Sorry, Katie, but what about the parents whose children come back from the nursery upset because their favourite cereal has disappeared? Why are your preferences more important than the other parents' preferences which might be to reinstate the choice?

In your own home - you make the choice. Outside it you don't and you just have to live with it. To go back to my earlier example: It went without saying that Outspan was banned in the Andrewsparents' household - and in the AndrewandDW household until apartheid crashed to the ground - but it did not occur to me and DW to ask the people who ran DS's nursery to deprive her charges of citrus fruit when no other but Outspan was to be had.