AIBU to think that we should boycott American Products?

[borborygmus1]

I know this might seem a bit extreme but given Trump’s blatant exploitation of Ukraine, I’m considering how to go about boycotting American products.

I know not all Americans support him, and obviously, businesses aren’t responsible for government policy, but I am concerned that buying from US linked companies indirectly supports a country that’s increasingly leaning towards isolationism and abandoning its allies.

My brother mentioned that many shops in Canada are dropping American goods. Would it make any difference if we copied this in the UK, or is this just performative?

Yeah it's performative.

We can't even get people on Mumsnet to boycott Amazon, such is the reliance everyone has on having to have All The Things, Whenever I Want Them.

So how do you think this will work? It will be like an ant scratching an elephant's hide for attention - no one will notice.

YABU, sorry.

I don’t think I buy much that’s American tbh, except for tech like my phone, and it’s already been bought unfortunately. Never drink Coke or eat McDonalds, KFC etc.
I am partial to an M&M, but I am happy to do my bit and swap for a toblerone 😁
Would it mean also not going to see American films? That would be more of a sacrifice.

You're OK with countries and brands that use child labour or exploitative practices or are you boycotting those?

As for the Amazon boycott, why should I be out of pocket just because Amazon employs decent accountants and organises its tax affairs in an efficient manner?

As long as you also boycott goods and services from other countries with poor human rights or dodgy regimes, go ahead. But the US is pretty low on countries to boycott, you'd need to avoid anything from China, Japan, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Russia obviously, the EU, the Middle East, Africa.

Difficult to boycott American petrol or American software. I don't think I own anything else that is American. My laptop and phone are Samsung. My car is French. I don't use Amazon, eat American food or buy American clothes.

But yes, avoiding US holidays, airlines and other products makes perfect sense. I certainly won't be going there until Trump is ousted.

To be fair, by boycotting brands like Apple, Nike, Ralph Lauren, Levis, Dell, Converse and Tommy Hilfiger, all of whom manufacture goods in countries with exploitative labour laws, you would be killing two birds with one stone :)

There are lots of multinational goods which make it a bit difficult to say "American".

The ones that are from the US tend not to be things the UK is much keen on. Harley Davidson, Bourbon... a lot of things you might consider as American are produced in other countries. And we don't like their cars or food.

You can boycott services like Amazon. Or their banks?

There are many that aren't US though and if child labour and worker exploitation warrants boycotting then it should be boycotted. US is neither here nor there.

I’ve started to research anything I’d usually buy from Amazon and see if I can get a cheaper or comparable price and it’s been quite surprising - most things are available. A bit longer to wait but a token effort on my part. As Amazon comes up first on most searches it takes some effort admittedly.
I will think twice before buying anything whilst the orange one is in power - and yes, you can say it doesn’t matter, but I feel like it’s good to do something.

But most sellers on Amazon are based in the UK. All Amazon US get is a tiny percentage. So boycotting Amazon means boycotting lots of UK small businesses.

Same with McDonalds, KFC, Starbucks etc - mostly franchised in the UK, so again, owned by local people employing local people with only a small percentage of sales going to the US holding companies.

Yes, that’s what I meant by research, to see if the items are available on other platforms and not inflate Bezos.

I don't see it as progress. Once upon a time you could find whatever kind of shop ,walk in and buy whatever you needed. Now its we only do that online! Plus all the small businesses like hardware shops they've put out of business so we can buy inferior Chinese rubbish on Amazon. Half of all Amazon goods are cheap Chinese rubbish.

On the subject of cheap Chinese rubbish, I used to avoid sites like AliExpress and Temu out of some sort of vague idea they were "bad", but bought loads of stuff off Amazon without a second thought. I'm now realising Amazon just sells the same cheap shite as those other sites at higher prices (albeit with faster delivery).

You were making sense, just about, until you mentioned "the EU". Is it their poor human rights record or their dodgy regime you're concerned about? 🤣

I’m semi doing it already for Palestine, as a lot of American brands support the illegal settlements in Israel. If a lot of people boycott all US brand I suppose I would.

BTW, it hasn’t been that hard to boycott Amazon or McDonald’s for example. It ends up being normal and you feel better for it.

www.bigissue.com/opinion/britain-economy-america-business-vassal-state

Interesting that these US takeovers have had a major effect on the London Stock Exchange.

I remember a lot of big companies pulling out of Russia due to the Ukraine conflict as a sort of punishment - McDonald's and Unilever (stopped production of Dove products in their factories there)

Yanbu but it's hard!

I'm boycotting anything to do with Musk (easy, have a Japanese car) but I have no beef with Bill Gayes, he's a good chap whose given away vast amounts of wealth to develop things like a malaria vaccine.

If you look at actual trade in goods across the world, China leads, not the US. Twenty five years ago, the US controlled nearly every continent.

Most countries aren't trying to shaft everyone and create a future where full of xxxx business men have it easy with a completely different set of rules to the ordinary person. Trump and Elon are!!!!! Unless you subscribe to the supremacy crap?

I’m doing my bit, but then I have been trying to buy locally (Uk and Europe) for the last couple of years.
Dh and I both cancelled our Amazon prime subscriptions two weeks ago - no idea why we both had one. I have always loved the ease of ordering on Amazon, but I’m now actively looking at purchasing from other companies or directly from the Amazon suppliers. Surprisingly, the dog food that I have on Amazon subscription and have been ordering for years is actually cheaper at Sainsburys.
Facebook is no longer the platform I signed up to. I’ve made a request to download my data and then I’ll delete my account.
Im not against the USA, I’m just sick of these big corporations getting involved in politics. I would never buy a dyson product again for the same reason.

Regarding Dyson, I’m the same!
I don’t understand why so many EU countries use Dyson hand driers in public toilets! Don’t they know that he’s a Brexiter and a hypocrite!

Isn't most stuff owned by massive conglomerates like Mondelez and Unilever, when you get right down to it? Pretty sure they're all American these days

They will notice if we all do it!!

There are a couple of lengthy threads on the topic already.

I'm in Canada, where we're a month into the boycott. I've cancelled my Amazon, Audible, Disney+, Netflix and Paramount+ accounts.

First grocery store trip was a bit of a pain for label-checking (though I did, and avoided all US products) but the supermarkets have upped their game and have lots of new signage highlighting US products.

You can't realistically avoid everything the US has a financial stake in, but it's easy enough to cut back on supporting their economy.