Has the economy ruined your ability to participate in economic boycotts?

[cboy4]

Do you, for instance, shop at Wal-Mart now?

Do you eat at certain restaurants, buy certain food from manufacturers you would otherwise boycott because of their practices?

And do economic boycotts even work?

I started thinking about this subject after reading this:

As McDonald's yields to Christian Right boycott, other side deploys its own boycotts. Do you boycott?

McDonald's Yields to Anti-Gay Boycott


Friday, October 17, 2008 | 5:56 a.m. ET


In the growing culture war battles over same-sex marriage, economic boycotts seem to be the weapon of choice.

Earlier this week, the conservative Christian American Family Association announced that it was calling off its five-month boycott of McDonald's after the fast-food giant ended it relationship with the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. AFA has led boycotts against Ford, Disney and Hallmark for similar reasons.

Meanwhile, "Californians Against Hate" has called for a boycott of two San Diego hotels owned by Doug Manchester, a devout Catholic who said his faith inspired him to donate $125,000 to support a ballot issue that would ban gay marriage. CAH says it is considering boycotts against other donors such as Intel and Bolthouse Farms.

(This morning, CAH called off its Bolthouse Farms boycott after the food company announced plans to start a diversity program and extended benefits to same-sex partners of gay employees.)

Do boycotts work? Do you join faith-based boycotts?

Christian Right-led boycotts often get a lot of attention (who can forget the Southern Baptist boycott of Disney?), but economic boycotts are a time-honored tactic of religious groups everywhere. Gandhi led boycotts of British products. King led the Montgomery Bus Boycott. "A boycott is not an end within itself," King wrote. "It is merely a means to awaken a sense of shame within the oppressor and challenge his false sense of superiority."

I'm not sure corporations can experience shame (we're not seeing much evidence of it on Wall Street these days), but I do think they work. Over the years I have joined faith-based calls to boycott Exxon, Taco Bell, Blockbuster and Wal-Mart (not to mention lettuce and grapes when I was a kid, thanks Mom.) I've also engaged in counter-boycotts when I thought they were wrong or just silly. For example, when the SBC announced its Disney boycott, I told my kids we were going to Disney World.

Even if the boycotts I join don't work, I think there are times when my faith -- meaning my understanding of what is right and just -- compels me to try. I'm not looking to awaken shame. I am trying to avoid it.

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/undergod/2008/10/faith-based_boycotts.html

[ColbertWatcher]

1. k+r, n/t

[Solly Mack]

2. I do my own personal boycotting

Which isn't to say I'm for people keeping their actions quiet - I just boycott what I boycott, for the reasons I boycott, and always have...and will continue to do so.

I don't care if other people think it's an empty gesture. It's like the article says...I'm avoiding shame. My own.

[Jamastiene]

3. Wal-Mart...I'm sure everyone will start prattling off other store names,

that are about 100 miles from where I live. We ONLY have a Super Wal Mart in my hometown. There is no Costco. There is no Target. There is no other choice in my hometown. So, people, if you are Wal-Mart snobs who do not know what it is like to live in a rural area where there is no other choice, go ahead and update your ignore list now, hate me, and spare me the condescending bullshit. I'm fine with it because I know the truth. Those of us who live in small towns have no other choices. That's the part you don't get and never will because you've obviously never even lived in a small town if you don't already know that shit. And hell fuck no, I am not driving 100 Goddamn miles to buy a Goddamn bottle of shampoo or a box of fucking Goddamn tampons. No fucking way. Deal with it.

Sure, I could go pay $90 at Rite Aid for my prescription or pay $28 for the same exact amount of the same exact medicine at Wal-Mart. I despise Wal-Mart more than half of you who have never even set foot in a Wal-Mart, but I'll go there to get the cheaper prescriptions.

Sure, I could pay almost $10 for shampoo at the grocery store, or I can pay about $6 for the same exact shampoo at Wal Mart.

The bottom line is this: I don't see buying enough gas to fill the Goddamn car just so I can drive around to 10 other stores to pay more when I cannot afford it. Not only that, I do not have that much spare time in life, that I can afford to drive all over the Goddamn place just to get one thing here and one thing there. Fuck it. I'll get it at Wal Mart and have enough left over to pay the Goddamn bills.

And for the record:
Wal-Mart is also our leading major employer in this town, btw, for those of you who live where there actually ARE opportunities and hope in life and have no clue whatsofuckingever what it is like to live in a town where Goddamn Wal-Mart is THE MAJOR employer in your town.

So, anyone who wants to enter into a long extended snobby assed stuck up condescending Goddamn flame war with me over Wal-Mart, a store I despise but absolutely have no other fucking choice but to shop at, kiss my ass and go to Hell and take all your snobby assed stuck up friends with you. You live your posh Goddamn life in total ignorance of what it is like to live in THE MOST IMPOVERISHED county in your state with no chance of ever escaping and making enough money to be so Goddamn condescending, stuck up, and snobby toward poor people.

I like you cboy4, but this poll is just a slap in the face to poor people who grew up in and still have to live in small towns down south where Wal-Mart is all we fucking got. Yeah, I shop at Wal-Mart and I hate it, but I don't have spare cash to drive 100 Goddamn miles just to make a point that hasn't done any good yet. Have any of you who have the luxury of NOT shopping at Wal-Mart put a single dent in poverty or slave wages? No, you have not. Have you even managed to be able to win a presidential election in the last, oh, 8 years? No, you have not. Why? Because those of us who agree with you on so many other issues, have to live our lives the best we can afford to live it and no matter how many times we try to explain it to you, you still won't leave your comfortable environment and actually go see what middle America is like. You have no clue whatsoever what it is really like no matter how many times we tell you. So, take a tour of this shithole country and see what it is really like out here. Try living out here where there are no social programs, no advocacy groups, no hope, no serenity, no peace, no rights, no freedoms, and no fucking chance of ever escaping. Even my friends who all moved out of this town back in the 90s had to come back. It's just too Goddamn expensive to live in even Raleigh for those of us who came from nothing and will always be nothing but just that;

NOTHING.

[cboy4]

5. Believe me, I don't judge people who shop at Wal Mart

Kasey.

I understand that people have to stretch their income, and who am I to judge?

The reason I mentioned the store is because of the large number of DUers who claim they boycott Wal-Mart. I'm curious is anyone has changed their views.

The last thing I was attempting to do with this poll is ridicule poor people in small towns in the South.

I don't have to tell you that I'm protective of the South, having lived, gone to school and worked for part of my life in East Tennessee.

I was simply asking the question that was asked in the Washington Post column, and by no means attempting to call out those who do spend their money at Wal-Mart.

Out of all of the businesses and products boycotted by DUers, Wal-Mart is by far and away the most commonly mentioned. That's all. :)

[Jamastiene]

6. I know, but it's just a sore spot for me.

Like you said, so many here boycott Wal-Mart. I say it is mainly because they can. Many of us cannot. I was a little too snarky in my reply and for that I apologize. I didn't really mean to come off quite so snarky, at least not toward you. :hug:

Hell, I despise Wal-Mart as much as anybody, but I'll probably end up working there as my main source of income, even with my piddly little engineering degree. It's a horrible sore spot for me. All anyone would have to do is read some of my posts or my blog to know that I avoid it like the plague until I HAVE to go for my prescriptions and other things that cost just too too much at the grocery store.

The ones who refuse to listen though, can still kiss my snarky ass. :P They must be out of their minds, because they truly don't have a clue what they are doing when they try to bring up Costco. :wtf: Gee, I'd LIKE to be able to shop at Costco, but I can't afford to go 64.44 miles Time: 1 hr 30 minutes, according to Yahoo Maps. I couldn't even afford to do that once a month. That is actually the absolute closest Costco to me since they opened one in Matthews. God, I hate this town. Holy shit. :wow:

[Morrisons Ghost]

7. I would be willing to bet that there are

Du'ers who actually work at Walmart!

[cboy4]

8. Oh yes, of course there are .. as well as many who

shop there.

No question about it.

[pecwae]

12. I do get it.

Lived in a very rural east TN county for many years. The choice was Walmart, period, and that was over 30 miles away. The clueless remain that way and the Walmart snobbery continues without a thought for those who truly have no choice.

[Rancid Crabtree]

4. The chain store evil...

...words found in one volume of Congressional Records I found in the attic of this old shack the wife and I bought, looking to remodel it, sell it, avoid the economic sanctions the 80-something white woman neighbor imposed on me for piling winter snow too close to her house...economic sanctions do work...all you have to do is write one letter to the local paper criticizing the Catholic Church, never realizing that about a hundred others would write letters as well, all criticizing the local paper for running a Michael Jackson political carton, one where he seeks shelter at the church...so if it works on the amoeba level, where I operate, I imagine it works at the higher levels too...but back to the Record...in 1934...the year the Record was left in the attic (a form of insulation, no doubt) a rep spoke about the chain store evil...Sears Roebuck, Montgomery Ward...proposed some sort of legislation to make it easier (?) for the small operator to buy in bulk to be able to compete with the chain store evil...looking backward...it's amazing that some of the stuff they talked about in 1934 are some of the same issues we face today...eradicating the Med fruit fly in Florida...the government destroying farmers crops, getting involved, unintended consequences...faith-based boycotts?...I've experienced one so yes, I do the best I can...

[AlCzervik]

9. i stopped eating fast food on dec 15th 2004, haven't been in a walmert in about 7 years

and i try an avoid chain restaurants if possible, plenty of good locally owned small places here. My daughter and husband do not eat fast food anymore either, Supersize me changed all that, not so mucch the doc itself but the interview with Eric Schlosser on the extras--corporate farming, it was awful.

[melm00se]

10. I buy

where the prices are lowest....I don't owe allegiance to any specific retailer or retail chain. I live within 3 miles of:
a super target
a super walmart
4 different retail grocery chains
and within 10 miles all 3 major warehouse clubs (which our neighbors and we share: each one has 1 and we schedule the trips there and load up when need be)

so with a little planning I try to pay the lowest price for the items that we consume. If they are at Wal-mart, Target, Foodlion, Krogers, Lowes or harris Teeter, it makes no nevermind to me.

[roody]

11. Fast food is no bargain. In fact, it really isn't even food.