Company boycotts

[mcduffy]

With ocado I told them why and cancelled everything in 2018. With Sainsbury's I did but still "need" to use them a couple of times a year for things that only they and ocado stock, so I swallow my principles and only order what I can't get anywhere else. I wasn't as cross with them, tbf
I've not bought Oatly or innocent smoothies for a couple of years but didn't t them why. There are more, I expect (I hold grudges). Oh, wagamama too.
So, my DH was chatting to me about a fairly major purchasing decision he was making at work today, and the customer service rep had they/them pronouns in their email signature, so he was put off. It's probably not appropriate for him to say why he's not buying to the supplier, given the nature of his role and employer, but it got me thinking about how much money boycotts have cost companies and their go-woke-go-broke strategies.
We have decent purchasing power as a cohort (reality-based feminists and allies) so do you think boycotting will make a dent/difference? And do you tell companies why you're not using them?

I would tbh. Its making life trickier because I live in a podunk village but meh. Starbucks is probably the one I care least about as their coffee is shit anyway. Super drug I'm furious with as the vast majority of their customers are women, actual women.

Lush and the body shop are off the list for me. Like they care.

I refused to go into Lush after I heard about the chest binders they were giving to girls which coincided with their Glasgow shop celebrating what is traditionally known as Mother’s Day with words about the ‘people who look after us.’ I thought, fuck you. Told my daughter why I wasn’t shopping there any more and she took it well. She’s 11. I haven’t told them. I should have.

I used to be a regular customer of Lush. I bought myself the chocolate mud face pack and moisturisers. I also frequently bought gift boxes for birthday and Christmas gifts.

However I now completely avoid them and have encouraged others to do the same. DH used to buy his mum gift sets from there but no more!

I also would love to know how much impact customers like us have had.

Honestly I don't think it makes a difference. I don't use Amazon, they don't miss my custom as there are a million people behind me who will.

It has to be a personal boycott, rather than there being hoardes doing the same, realistically it is unlikely to effect the bottom line.

I boycott, but I’m not into consumerism to begin with, so not sure I’m making a big impact.
Is there an updated list of companies somewhere?

I really want a National Trust membership but am holding out for now…

I have NT life membership so my boycott wouldn't work

Body Shop and Amnesty International for me.

What did Ocado do?

It was to do with an Adult Human Female billboard. A TRA pointed out to ocado that they used the same billboard company (pretty tenuous) and ocado said that didn't align with their values or something like that and they would look into it. Someone who's slept more than me the last five years might recall better Loads of us cancelled our annual passes (it's what brought me to FWR after swerving it for two years!)

I boycott all the usual high street stores but I also secretly boycott at work. If people use pronouns in their emails they would not get my business or any engagement beyond the perfunctory. Unless it’s necessary, I usually just delete.

Benefit

Flora, Lush, Bodyform (never used Always in the first place), Amnesty.

Customer satisfaction survey's are great to vent ones spleen. I always complete because there'll be a box for comments.

Oh, didn't know about Lush, thanks for telling.
Felt they became overscented and overpriced anyway, but I did admire their apparent ethical stance, back in the day.....
Used to buy Amnesty Xmas cards too...I did once tell them if they were so right on then they should credit the artists who designed their cards.....
I like the idea of the secret boycott even though Im not a big consumer. Hi

I gave up my National Trust membership in 2020 and told them why. I suppose I could have stayed and joined the campaign to reclaim the Trust, but I think they are a lost cause. They warbled on about making people feel included - but not me apparently. 🙁

What you've failed to mention, Op, is that Ocado did indeed look into it quickly and realised their error. They telephoned many of their customers to acknowledge they'd got it wrong.

M&S, Lush, Flora (and by extension Proactiv/Violife), Innocent. I told M&S, tweeted Innocent, didn’t say anything to Lush or Flora.

Lush. I used to regularly buy stuff for myself and as a gifts. I'll never step foot in there again.

I am avoided buying products before and I have also actively brought from companies. I must confess I don't look into values, but base it on their advertising strategies.

Avoiding based on adverts that show women doing all the housework; eg Lenor Dried Outside - four people shown using it in the advert, bloke just doing his own, at least two of the women doing family washing. Buying based on adverts that eg show a bloke doing cooking/hoovering/childcare in their adverts without making a big deal of it.

I am not a big consumer, but feel happier for doing so.

Must look into companies more/follow this thread, so I can check deeper.

They did indeed call, well remembered! They didn't tweet a public apology though when they realised they'd fucked up, they only called individual customers, so I told them until they tweeted/did a public statement, then I would not be shopping with them. I was gutted, I bloody loved ocado. Was even on their tester panel for monthly freebies.

The NatWest advert on FB recently had three genderless models advertising mortgages. Lots said they were not boycotting.

But they weren't brave enough to go public, or I missed it.

For me m and s, a fair few quid i spent there, not since 2018. I found alternatives.

Ocado, my company no longer uses them. Starbucks, no longer. Ummm
Wracking brain I know theres more.
Oh innocent, I love the smoothies, again alternatives found.
Cancelled some direct debits for amnasty and another who's name i forget.
I have found two local charities that dont get much in donations generally and give the same amount to both. In searching for those charities i found a super local food bank* that go on locals asking/recommended, rather than the voucher system that the big ones use. I give to it and recommend people to it.

Think very local church run, no questions asked, no judgement on how people got into that situation, no proselytising etc and the standard three days of food would easily last 4 or 5 days, no limit on how often you can use it.

I suspect I read about it in here but I fear we have to add Waterstones to the list, for including this embarrassingly captured and disgracefully harmful dross in their Children’s Book prize shortlist:

www.waterstones.com/book/welcome-to-st-hell-my-trans-teen-misadventure/lewis-hancox/9780702313905

“Lewis has a few things to say to his younger teen self. He knows she hates her body. He knows she's confused about who to snog. He knows she's really a he and will ultimately realize this... But she's going to go through a whole lot of mess (some of it funny, some of it not funny at all) to get to that point.”

I mean it’s bad enough just selling this crap (not that I’m a fan of banning books and I’m sure the demand is there, sadly). But promoting it in this way is unforgivable.

Perhaps next year they can include “The anorexic’s guide to crash diets” or “Self-harming for dummies” in their shortlist for teens…?!

I remembered because it was so unusual to have any acknowledgement that a company was in error. It's still unusual, of course, but they remain the only company I have ever known to contact their customers in the way that they did.

They weren't even the company that was originally at fault: it was the billboard company that they had the misfortune to use.

Odd that people still seem to think they must be boycotted. It doesn't exactly encourage any other company to rethink, does it?

Am I missing any off the boycott list?

Innocent smoothies
Bud Lite
Nike
Starbucks
Anything NZ
Target

Go woke go broke!