What do you boycott?

Man, if I boycotted every company that supports things I vehemently oppose I would be stuck raising my own food and cotton, and never communicating with the outside world. Chick-fil-A might be the only place I could eat. Oh, wait, I could hang out at Hobby Lobby.

 

Because their name is offensive to White people?

 

Remebered two more: the US Postal Service. If it requires more than a single stamp to mail, I'm going to UPS or FedEx. Those USPS idiots lost three separate packages over 3 days and cost me more than $300, and when I complained, basically said "tough shit." Everytime I read a story about them failing, I smile.

Blockbuster: I couldn't be happier that they're dying a slow death. I returned a movie once, only to have them claim that I did not and charge me $25 to replace it. When I protested, the manager screamed at me, quite literally screamed at me, and basically said "Pay the fine, kid!" Again, I smile every time I drive past a shuttered former Blockbuster. Karma, baby, karma.

 

Can't speak to Dooley's stance, but Cracker Barrel got in hot water -- and not just public outcry, either, there were lawsuits and DOJ involvement -- because they discriminated basically against anybody who wasn't a white male heterosexual.

 

Samsung - HD plasma crapped out 1 month outside of warranty.

Wal-Mart, more because I lose my will to live whenever I go in there.

 

The hell with that. IJAG has kin working there.

Food from Wal Mart is about the only product I try not to buy, but I am very interested in what Ronnie is saying.

 

Like Rusty, I get warm fuzzies every time I see the shell that used to be Blockbuster. When Netflix started taking some of their customers, they came out with this fee-based membership thing where you could have DVDs shipped to you, and you returned them to the nearest store. When you did, you got a free DVD rental. We took full advantage of it and one day the store told us were using it too much and we couldn't have our free rental. So we called corporate to cancel the membership. They continued charging us the monthly fee for two more months despite repeated phone calls. The whole thing was extremely shoddy, and I vowed never to spend another dime with them. Stil makes my blood boil every time I see one of their kiosks.

 

Wal-Mart, killer of independent retailers, bullier of suppliers.

I try to go as logo-free as possible in what I wear. Not always possible on running shoes. I love Brooks Brothers but refuse to wear a goddamn sheep on my chest. Or a horsey from Ralphie.

 

IF and when I do boycott a business, it has nothing to do with politics but with service. I could give two shits what political stance they take or how they treat their workers, as long as they provide products and service I need/want.

With that said, I've been boycotting Wal-Mart for about two years now because of the fact that they have 32 registers and only two open. Unfortunately, there have been times where I HAD to go to Wal-Mart because it was the only thing open that had what I needed, and I hated every minute spent in that store.

That's the extent of my boycott list right now.

 

Also,

1) Strongarming/bullshitting local governments into giving (yes giving) them tax abatements, zoning exemptions and santa-claus utility deals.

2) Threatening/intimidating/ lying to local media (i.e. local dailies) to get kiss-ass press coverage to help 1) get rammed through local governmental bodies. I was a small-town ME 25 years ago when WM was first making its big moves across America. The amount of bullshit they shoveled on me to try to get my paper to bend over and sing the Wal-Mart Happy Song was fucking incredible. Every goddamn day one of their flacks marched through the door wanting to drag me to lunch to explain how opening the MegaMongoWalMart just outside town was going to be just super-peachy-awesome for all the downtown mom-and-pop stores, and to drop hints about all the googoozillions of ads they were going to buy in our paper. Unfortunately for them, I had read Sam Walton's book, in which he railed endlessly about how useless local newspaper advertising was, so I knew it was complete bullshit. Unfortunately for me, they usually managed to get ahold of the publisher and ad manager, who bought all their bullshit, and told me the furthest against Wal-Mart I would be allowed to go in print would be "mildly tepid enthusiasm."

3) Sucking off the public teat (they love to campaign against behind the scenes) to the tune of billions, advising/forcing employees to go on public assistance to support their families since the shit pay and zero bennies offered by Wally won't keep anyone alive for long.

4) Slave labor in China, and strongarming/threatening vendors into using their "best practices" for production in order to keep products on WM shelves, thus adding plenty of extra fuel to the job-offshoring express and helping to shift the nationwide Race To The Bottom into an even higher gear.


So, Fuck Wal-Mart. Right in the ass with a red-hot poker. And that's what I tell everybody I know.

 

Showers. I boycott showers.

 

Baby or wedding?