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?

No US wine now!

Harder to know other brands outside tech and cars though, so if anyone adds major ones here I'll do my best. We don't eat fast food and amazon only if desperate.

I think this is a flawed premise but I'm going to bite re. Canada's inclusion: what about Canada, in 2025, is worse than the US in terms of its "regime" or with regards to human rights?

Absolutely batshit, you lot. What the actual? No, I won't be "boycotting American products". 🤣

I went to loblaws today and was impressed for all the produce I was looking for to be from Mexico or local.

It’s just performative virtue signalling.

It’s like people who refuse to buy nestle or don’t eat veal. By all means do it because of your own moral objections but it’s never going to make any kind of difference.

And where do you draw the line? Should we boycott Canadian goods on the basis of their attitudes to assisted dying? The same Canada who are boycotting America
Chinese goods based on their human rights record? TBH most of the products we buy out of China are cheap and substandard so not hard to not buy.

Even Ukraine actually has a fairly shocking human rights record, so although we are supporting them right now, there would be many reasons not to.

What about UK banks who outsource their call centres and webchat teams abroad where they exploit the fact that they can pay a pittance for workers abroad in order to save money and not be employing them in the UK.

As I said, you can refuse to buy anything you want for whatever reason you want - even if that reason is because you disagree with certain practices.

But you’re only doing it for yourself. You’re not actually making a difference globally.

I love a British bit of virtue signalling. After all, we are such a wonderful nation who has never caused any upset in the world.

And where do you draw the line? Should we boycott Canadian goods on the basis of their attitudes to assisted dying?

What is their attitude towards assisted dying? If you tell me they put everyone aged 60 plus through a mangle then yes ok I will stop buying maple syrup.

The fact that the mentally ill, the disabled, the homeless are being encouraged to opt for assisted dying rather than be able to request support.

Toblerone is owned by Mondelez, an American company

Oh bugger. I assumed it was Swiss!

Fry's Chocolate is still British, and Tony's Chocolonely (fairtrade) is Dutch. Most of the rest like cadbury, green & black, rowntree, terry's are American-owned now.

Afraid not. It's American owned and these days it's made in Slovakia not Switzerland. https://www.planetmountain.com/en/news/events/toblerone-remove-matterhorn-logo-chocolate-no-longer-meets-swissness-laws.html

Frys is owned by Cadbury - an American firm!

American food products you could boycott in British supermarkets include...

Hershey’s: Chocolate bars and sweets.
Kellogg’s: Breakfast cereals and snacks.
Heinz: Ketchup, baked beans, and canned goods.
Del Monte: Canned fruits and vegetables.
Duncan Hines: Cake mixes and desserts.
Kraft Heinz: Various products including cheese, pasta, and sauces.
Quaker: Oats, corn meal, and rice snacks.
Betty Crocker: Cake mixes, frostings, and baking essentials.
General Mills: Includes brands like Häagen-Dazs, Old El Paso, and Green Giant.

When you’ve got people proudly posting about their “hauls” and “bits” from slave made by slaves for t&mu and Shein you have no chance trying to convince them to buy British or avoid American. They simply don’t care. Cheap stuff - and lots of it - at any cost.

I have set up a website Yanksnothanks.co.uk with a bot (bottom right of the screen) which will tell you where brands/companies are based, their ownership and for products where they are manufactured.
https://yanksnothanks.co.uk/
I hope its useful. Enjoy!

I was a bit grossed out by someone I know bragging about how they had rushed to buy an Apple product and an item of American footwear neither of which they needed ‘before the prices went up’ .

Their consumer behaviour will be actually helping out those American companies by making an American purchase they wouldn’t otherwise have made. Hence the well publicised short windows before tariffs imposed- I reckon the orange one knows some people will do this and it’s part of his ‘buy American’ plan.

Same person I know is really keen to tell me at length how they can’t stand Donald Trump.
So their little shopping spree really stuck it to the Donald right where it hurts, then..

How would you stop people buying cheap stuff from China?

A lot of this boycott American brands does come across as virtue signalling and in some ways extremely naive and fickle.

I get focusing on American imports and actual products made there.
But I think people need to actually look at where each thing is coming from and not just 'It is an American name'.

I see mention of McDonald's, Starbucks, BK etc. All these are franchises here. Boycotting these will do more damage to the UK economy and UK jobs then it will do to the company ceo and shareholders. You really think they'll go 'Oh we are losing sales in York, Lincoln etc, let's close our branch in bumfck rural America'... no, they close the international stores which will be a local business owner and employees impacted.

The irony is on one thread I saw recommendations to switch to Tim Hortons.... part of RBI group that is no longer solely Canadian and is a joint Canadian-American conglomerate that owns BK, Wendy's, Popeyes, Firehouse Subs (blows Subway out the water) etc.

Even on this thread there's a suggestion on Heinz etc. Again, check where the product is made. Although American brand, most of our Heinz products are produced in the UK.... the Wigan factory is the largest Heinz facility in the world. Any impact to Heinz globally and for UK based sales will again have a negative impact on the UK economy and UK jobs.
Same goes for most American consumer foods/goods we get in our supermarket (Kellogs, Cadbury, Coors etc). Most are produced and manufactured in the UK and Europe under license.. hence it's competitive to UK prices.

Whiskey for example, Jack Daniels is owned by Brown-Forman who own a number of international brands. Again, any UK losses on JD could see the company reassess and cut costs by making a decision that impacts the UK economy and UK jobs.... Scottish distilleries and producers BenRiach, GlenDronagh and Glenglassaugh are all owned by, you guessed it, American company Brown-Forman.

Cars, another one which is a big multinational congolemerate. Ironically, in another thread I saw mention of switching to Vauxhall.... no longer British, and again you guessed it, owned by an American-Italian company called Stellantis NV. Also includes Fiat, Lancia, Maserati, Abarth, Citreon, Ds, Peugeot and Vauxhall/Opel.

Medicines/Pharma: Again, a lot of the US brands used here will actually be produced and manufactured here and not imported from the US. So boycotting them again will do more harm to the UK economy and industry.
Ironically, alot of people are quiet on the fact that one of the biggest suppliers of generic medication, Teva, are an Israeli company.

I'd also suggest that anyone serious about boycotting goods and services, sit and look at where any pensions, stocks and shares they have are actually invested. You can bet that most will be in US owned companies.

This also counts for the Tesla boycott and damage across the world. Many lacking research shouldn't be surprised when goods, services, energy etc rise even more. Elon Musk only has a 12.8% share in the company. The rest is made up of investment shareholders. Notably Vanguard and BlackRock hold a combined 12-13% share.
If you aren't aware, BlackRock have large investments and control/ownership of goods and services including energy in the UK and Starmer has already signalled working closer with BlackRock... so again don't be surprised if any losses BlackRock acrue from this Tesla boycott is passed on to the general public in the UK.

Tesla

More fool them for buying an Apple product - they're overpriced and don't last. My Xperia phone cost £260 back in 2018, does everything I could want it to do, and is still going strong years later. Japanese reliability, you see.

If people support independent businesses rather than chains then the money stays local. The people who might otherwise have got a job in McDonalds can get a job in the local business that people buy from instead.

If you buy beans from Suma instead of Heinz, you're still supporting the same number of British factory jobs as you did before, but with the bonus that as a co-operative the profits all go to the workforce.

Americans should do the same and buy from independent businesses local to them. Jason Slaughter recently published a video on how "big box stores" are bankrupting cities, at the expense of what Americans call "Mom & Pop stores": u

As for the Tesla boycott, I've got many other reasons why if I was in the market for a car it wouldn't be a Tesla. Luckily I'm not in the market for a car, my bicycle is perfectly adequate for my needs and doesn't put money into the pockets of any billionaires in the process.

Switch to Linux and use Open Office. I used to use a BQ phone running Ubuntu unfortunately it died on me and I now use a Samsung.

I use https://european-alternatives.eu to find European alternatives to US software products. I shop local and only buy European produce.

i drive a Polestar charged with panels from my roof (mostly).

it is quite easy to avoid US products and services. My work mostly uses Linux and open source, avoiding paying massive amounts to US companies. We use a European cloud provider and European products and services.

Yes, we never make a stand because we cannot fight against vested interests. We should not have any principles as they will never be good enough.

in fact in an imperfect world taking a stand irrespective of how imperfect it is is standing for your principles. The only people who argue against this are the people who really don’t have any principles or are right wing shills from GBNews.