Boycotttjng US Products and Services

[CovenOfCheeses]

Several of my friends have started a local campaign to boycott all US made goods and services. I have also started to do so because of the attitudes of the President to the rule of law and international co-operation. I have stopped buying from Amazon and have deleted my social media accounts and stopped using US made products. I feel that a country that is so antagonistic toward us should not be supported by our cash.

My eldest daughter is gay and has been saving up with her friend to go to the Dinah Shore weekend in the US. I said I would contribute some cash but now feel reticent to do so. She argues that she is going to support the people who are being attacked by Donald Trump, but I think that we should not give money to a country (even though it was only 50%) who twice voted for a menace to international order and the rule of law. I feel that during apartheid, it was only due to the economic boycotts that the system ended. It hurt the people who were in the country who did not agree to the system, but the economic impact forced the system to change. I think that by making a stand and making the people aware of how their president in impacting the world. Am I being unreasonable in withholding cash for her trip?

I stopped shopping at Boots when the security guard followed me about and out of the shop accusing me of shoplifting so at least I'm one tick on the list. The rest aren't impossible are they.

Ha ha there's always one. 😁

No not at all hard really when food items maybe that's just me.

Wow, followed you out the shop that's outrageous.

It’s not affected McDs. Car park and queue at drive thru not changed in the two I usually drive past

Yes and I am a 50 plus gran I had a baby in a pram a 20 month old toddler, a five year old with Autism both wearing Crocs and I had Birkenstocks on. Hardly in a position to do a runner! 😀

Do you mean OP's campaign has not affected McDonald's yet?
I'm sure it will once word spreads a bit further.
I was planning a birthday treat there next Tuesday so that's at least £50 they're not getting and a local company will get instead.

I will say that avoiding all products and services that the US has an economic stake in would be impossibly hard. Fortunately, that isn't necessary to have an impact and it's only the Pro-Trumpers who seem to think it has to be all-or-nothing.

Apparently, they either think that only a complete abolition of spending on US goods and services can have an impact, and a (for example) a 90% reduction would do nothing or - more likely - they are making bad-faith, reductive arguments to try and promote a Pro-Trump agenda. They're entitled to do the latter, of course, but doesn't mean one should pay and heed to their simple-minded attempts at mockery.

Ebay. I get everything from them or individual companies. Generally cheaper than Amazon, and much more fun.

The thing is@OneLemonDog that list is far from exhaustive, you'd have to not shop in a supermarket to avoid everything. It would be simple minded to think that 3 or 4 mumsnetters can impact the US economy by moving their kid's BD party to a local business instead of Mcdo; I for one have been avoiding chinese goods since 2000 but I don't feel I've made real a difference 😱
Anyway it's a little late to the party; anyone with half a brain is already shopping local as much as possible and has been avoiding all this brands for years.

😂Ebay? Why?

It's simple. One person boycotting a couple of things has no effect. Many people boycotting many things has an effect. Two successful ones that spring to mind are the Nestle boycott and the South African boycott. Both had a significant effect. Many people boycotted CFCs before they were banned.

Food miles/shop local fits well with not buying American. It's pretty simple to buy more local and less American.

Tesla isn't doing well from the sounds of it, so even if that's the only part of the boycott that works, all power to the people making good choices.

Me too

Nestles still sold millions of £ of products each year despite the boycott and South Africa was boycotted by politicians not the public. But many of its big companies looked very similar (allegedly) to British companies 😎🤔

There is nothing we can do to affect the USA 's political decision and neither should we try.

Imagine if Britain didn't like the way France was being run or Germany or Italy.

Tesla isn't doing well because the EV sector isn't doing well, nothing to do with MN boycott.

There is nothing we can do to affect the USA 's political decision and neither should we try.

Imagine if Britain didn't like the way France was being run or Germany or Italy.

If you have a quick google of 1938 and think about what happens when a charismatic leader gets in to a position of power in a country, and brings in undemocratic measures, and threatens other countries with being taken over, and is racist, ableist, misogynistic and homophobic. When he tries to control the media, gets into bed with dictators in other countries and generally acts like he doesn't care about the rule of law.

I know I'm enacting Godwin's Law but when people act like literal Nazis, it's warranted. We literally didn't like how Germany was being run (or Italy) and we acted accordingly.

I have no issue with America making stupid, nonsensical, twattish decisions for itself. But start on Greenland, Canada, Ukraine and Gaza, and it becomes everyone's business. America has form for outrageous foreign policy. Talk to Nicaraguans, Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Mexicans, Colombians, Laotians, Cambodians, Vietnamese, Angolans, Pakistanis... my typing hands are getting tired from all the countries buggered up by America's interventionism. America has bombed, armed, controlled and buggered up half the world. If they just messed up their own people, whatever. But they insist on fucking up everyone else. When most of the people in their country couldn't find half of the countries I named on a map. And that's being generous. One study found that 2/3 couldn't find America... medium.com/@owenjamesnorton/study-finds-americans-cant-locate-america-on-a-map-dc7011153271 I think that study is very flawed but I stand by the fact that they can't find the other countries.

It's not a MN boycott FGS. It wasn't invented by the OP!

Not to cast doubt on the rigor of your analysis, but by McDonalds own account, they missed sales targets (and saw a 4% reduction in share prices, last year) as a result of boycotts relating to the Gaza conflict.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-68209085

Obviously, being based in Canada, the current boycott efforts are more widespread here than they are in the UK, but I'd be very surprised if their sales aren't affected in both countries, as a result of anti-Trump sentiment.

Are you American as I don't understand how you don't understand that you can go to a supermarket and not buy American products. I shop at Waitrose and local farm shops. Presently, I don't have anything in my cupboards or fridge that are from the U.S.

Again, though, that's just a really senseless argument.

You're repeating the "if you can't avoid every single American product, then anything less is pointless" line but, now, immediately contracting yourself by saying "anyone with half a brain is already shopping local as much as possible". Why is "as much as possible" sufficient in one context but not another?

You are also pretending, despite all evidence to the contrary, that the boycott efforts consist of a handful of Mumsnetters. That's plainly untrue.

For example, here in Canada, the Premiers of our Provinces (including the right-wing ones) have also been taking actions in support of the boycotts, as well as generally encouraging them and, as I've already posted, 85% of Canadians report that they either are/will be buying Canadian more often or (wherever possible) avoiding US products in particular.

Obviously, the follow-through and the extent of efforts will vary, but that's some 35 million people in Canada alone who are engaged.

As an aside, one nugget from that survey I posted is that 48% of Canadians have said that they will cancel or delay plans to travel to the US (and it's noted that Canadian travel agencies are seeing people follow through). As I'd previously posted, thr US Travel Association estimated that even a 10% drop in Canadian tourism would cost the US more than $2bn per year, and result in around 14,000 job losses. It looks very much like the actual drop will be far larger.

Just to add John Lewis owns Waitrose and it is an employee owned business, a partnership and it is British.

Did you do any history at school? No world war 2 history?

The latest thing is the Trump camp are now going to be choosing which journalists are allowed to question him at the White House. This is what Putin did in the early days.

No way am I spending money that will help a regime like that.

And starmer has demanded that apple gives access to your private messages, that elections are cancelled with 2 months notice, that praying in the streets is illegal, removing the right of local people to prevent building in unsuitable places etc etc etc bloody etc

Oh give over, not even comparable.

And yet the financial pressure on Nestlé was sufficiently great that they ultimately felt forced to change their practices as a result.

This is another version of the "unless a boycott is a total boycott it's pointless" argument, but now applied in the context of a famously succesful boycott (which was, demonstrably, not pointless).

One can tease, can't one?