hunnychile

I never ever go to McDonalds --or Micky D's as they call it in Ohio. I have many, many reasons - too many to list! Also I won't shop for food at Giant Eagle Stores, huge chain here with old, inferior meats, that often get dates changed on products in a sneaky way that need pulled. I've been burned because of that. They also give those stupid-ass "gift & gas cards" to every one's Chain store in town, which impacts their prices & Giant Eagles and average items are costing many cents to a buck more in there.

Plus their baggers are rude and smell bad. They never held load my car! I hate that!

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"I need compassion, understanding and chocolate." - NJB

Bacchanal

There are only a couple things I can think of that I've purposely avoided in a "boycott" type of manner.

Wendy's - constantly fucking up my order
Geico - they fucked me over one time, and I refuse to deal with them again
Titanic - I never wanted to see it, and so far I never have. I don't care how good you think it is, I'm not interested
A certain liquor store close to my house - they were rude to me once

I hold grudges!

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Universal Truth Is Not Measured In Mass Appeal

Lindy

I'm with you on this, but it is not what I would call a boycott. It's just "voting with your feet" because you don't like the experience.
To me a boycott means that we avoid a place because of some ulterior social or political reason.
I don't do that. I'll certainly avoid a specific place because of bad service, but I won't avoid a Wendy's in Indiana because one in Boston screwed up my order.
I avoid new cars because they drop in value like a rock, and I don't think that it is wise to spend so much money on a depreciating asset, but it's not because of politics.
I dislike the IDEA of McDonalds but I'll eat their food. I have family back in Kansas that sells beef to Mickie D and I'm told that they are VERY particular. Much more so than the USDA inspectors, anyway.
I avoid commercial TV not for political or moral reasons, but because I think most of the programming is crap. I resent that an hour of TV watching means sometimes up to 23 minutes of commercials. So I vote with my remote and go to NPTV or use the off button.
But I wouldn't call it a boycott.

Lindy

nikkiana

I don't know if I'd call what I do specifically boycotting so much as how Lindy stated it.... "voting with your feet" because you don't like the experience. In general, that's how I do things... Often times my political feelings toward a company will coincide with not liking the experience.

I don't like the experience of going to Walmart, so I don't shop there.
Eating at McDonald's has made me physically ill the last few times I've tried, so I don't eat there.

I wouldn't call it boycotting so much as just not liking the service.

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nikkiana

SSJTWIZTA

i usually dont, but i havnt eaten kellogs since the whole phelps thing. im not sure why i care.

__________________
First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the communists and I did not speak out because I was not a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for me And there was no one left to speak out for me.
-Pastor Martin Niemoller

ngdawg

What about Kellogg's and Phelps?

I don't buy gas at Exxon or Citgo, especially Citgo. I'll avoid Exxon, but if it's the only thing around, I begrudgingly go. Both are political in nature.

Otherwise, I won't shop at Kohl's because I worked there two years and their treatment of employees is abysmal at best.

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Don't blame me. I didn't vote for either of'em.

SSJTWIZTA

kelloggs dropped phelps because of the whole marijuana thing.


what about exxon and citgo?

__________________
First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the communists and I did not speak out because I was not a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for me And there was no one left to speak out for me.
-Pastor Martin Niemoller

ngdawg

Exxon because it is the poster child for corporate greed and Citgo is owned by Chavez.

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Don't blame me. I didn't vote for either of'em.

SSJTWIZTA

ah, and now i know.

__________________
First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the communists and I did not speak out because I was not a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for me And there was no one left to speak out for me.
-Pastor Martin Niemoller

thespian86

The Sheinhardt Wig Company

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EX: Whats new?
ME: I officially love coffee more then you now.
EX: uh...
ME: So, not much.

gizmo99

exxon, BP and I try to not buy green freak products that try to say were better than you we are green, All they want is a profit.

roachboy

what's with boycotting venezuelan oil? kingdoms are more politically palatable?

i can imagine some bizarre-o rationale for the venezuelan boycott--far right politics for one---but i ran across another point earlier in the thread that made no sense to me at all, so i'll ask about it:

where did the idea come from that sweatshops are good for workers and for the places they're located? what planet did it come from? what language was it in?


anyway: i don't have specific boycott actions that i carry out. i avoid industrial food whenever possible because i not only object to monsanto, cargill and dow, but also because i object to the entire production model they're part of. also for health reasons--flavor reasons as well. local sustainably produced food is a bit more expensive, is often a pain in the ass to get (depending on where you are) but it in general tastes better, if only because the distance separating the source from you is smaller. the food is raised to be consumed, not for shipment on trucks. industrial food is raised to be shipped over long distances without getting fucked up in the process. if, say, industrial tomatoes taste like something beyond wet paper, that's a side benefit. what's important is that most of these flavorless red things arrive without being bruised.

there's a problem of scale within "organic" or "sustainably produced" food that's more complicated than i initially thought, so while i prefer not to go to starbucks because i dislike the atmosphere, i don't oppose them for the procurement practices in quite the way i once did. they're not great, but at least they make a gesture (research the cafe system via their corporate website)---at the same time, they only get a small amount of their coffee via fair trade collectives, but they plaster the stickers all over everywhere. that's lame. that's starbucks. as flaccid as the music they hawk.


similar logic informs my refusal to shop at walmart--that plus i think they do in fact engage in a range of predatory practices, and their labor policies suck.

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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear

it make you sick.

-kamau brathwaite

snowy

Scanning back through here, this caught my eye, as it operates on the assumption that Kraft Foods is still related to Philip Morris in some way, but they're not any more--Kraft has been its own company for a couple years now. Altria spun it off to shareholders in 2007; it's now a publicly-held corporation. Warren Buffet apparently owns an 8% stake.

And interestingly, roachboy, Starbucks is the largest single purchaser of Fair Trade coffee in the world. They literally can't buy enough Fair Trade coffee.

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If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

MSD

A lot of these leave me wondering when people list a name and no reason.
DeBeers, I agree on, but Blu-Ray? They had a catchier name and a superior product.
You expect baggers to load your car? What kind of magical fantasy world do you live in?

Arc101

Have refused to buy anything from Nike and McDonalds for over 10 years now - did want to boycott Nestlé but too weak to give up chunky Kitkats which is the only thing I buy from that company

uncle phil

choices...

__________________
"We were wrong, terribly wrong. (We) should not have tried to fight a guerrilla war with conventional military tactics against a foe willing to absorb enormous casualties...in a country lacking the fundamental political stability necessary to conduct effective military and pacification operations. It could not be done and it was not done."
- Robert S. McNamara
-----------------------------------------
"We will take our napalm and flame throwers out of the land that scarcely knows the use of matches...
We will leave you your small joys and smaller troubles."
- Eugene McCarthy in "Vietnam Message"
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never wrestle with a pig.
you both get dirty;
the pig likes it.

spindles

This would kill me - no more Vegemite!!! (made by Kraft)

---------- Post added at 11:21 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:19 AM ----------

With the huge prevalence of fast food places in the US, does your and MSD's Macca's boycott include everyone else as well, as is it just McDonalds?

---------- Post added at 11:29 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:21 AM ----------

phew

---------- Post added at 11:31 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:29 AM ----------

Now for my list. Nothing really. I don't buy coffee in Starbucks (because I live in Sydney and we are all coffee snobs), but I'm not really boycotting, I just get coffee elsewhere.

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who hid my keyboard's PANIC button?

ASU2003

Blu-Ray is a stupid name. The only good thing about it was that it used Sun (Java) instead of Microsoft's product. The movies on HD-DVD were a lot better, they just didn't have the kids movies, and didn't have the PS3. But the business practices used to force consumers into one standard for no good reason (for the consumer), when studios should have been neutral and released movies in both formats. Then again, downloading movies works out much better and doesn't clutter up my living room.

yournamehere

Hmmm . . . . . This wouldn't surprise you if you were old enough to remember Betamax video cassettes.

Higher quality, but less title selection, so they went the way of the . . . . . . HD-DVD.

__________________
If you want to avoid 95% of internet spelling errors:
"If your ridiculous pants are too loose, you're definitely going to lose them. Tell your two loser friends over there that they're going to lose theirs, too."
It won't hurt your fashion sense, either.

archetypal fool

Amsouth (aka Regions) and Wachovia. Together they tried to scam me out of $1,200 - money that they'll have to pry from my cold, dead fingers, collection agencies be damned. I try to sway people away from these banks - there's legalized racketeering in their TOS, people. You won't know until they try to fuck you over.

McDonalds because their food makes me physically ill, and they can't compare to any other fast food place.

I'll also never buy Microsoft if I can help it - when I give a company money for software, that software is mine regardless of what some slimy piece-of-shit TOS agreement says. Way to push your customers to piracy, geniuses.

Apple because of their customer-rape program ("You want to update your iPod so that it functions correctly, has bugs fixed and is up-to-date? $10, fucker! That'll teach you to buy from us and give us your trust!").

H&R Block, because of their H&R Block Card's customer service. It costs $2 to call customer service after the first two calls. First call: service agent thinks I'm an idiot who doesn't know how to read, sends me an email with instructions for a problem that I clearly explained I didn't have. Second call: service agent puts me on hold and hangs up. I won't be calling them again so that they can charge me unfairly.

And finally, the RIAA and MPAA. I buy a CD or DVD = I own the disk, and the media on that disk, regardless of any invisible, intrinsic TOS agreements. I should be allowed to do whatever the fuck I want with it, including making backups. Is there a better way to criminalize your customers?

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I have my own particular sorrows, loves, delights; and you have yours. But sorrow, gladness, yearning, hope, love, belong to all of us, in all times and in all places. Music is the only means whereby we feel these emotions in their universality. ~H.A. Overstreet

cookmo

I typically dont boycot anything because im not really in an income bracket that can choose to do that. For awhile I shunned Walmart when I could because as Americans we need to buy American made products, but lately I have shopped there because of the cheap prices. I was in there a few days ago after I got off work. I work thirds and it was like 6 in the morning, not to many people were in there. I was walking passed the electronics section and they had all of there t.v.'s blaring some Obama speach-it was totally creepy and surreal-what a wonderful way to program the masses while in zombie shopping mode. I dont think I'll go there anymore.

InfiniteWisdom

I also am not in a financial position to choose as much as I would like but I do my best when I can. I know of some mom and pop stores that sell food at the same and sometimes lower prices then wal-mart believe it or not near where I live and I spend the extra gas to make trips to each one.

As for the speech thing I assume you are joking about the brainwashing thing or you are a conservative. I assume they had the TV set to a news channel or c-span that was re-running a previous days speech at an off hour no conspiracy or brainwashing there.

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Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it, you'd have good people doing good things and evil people doing bad things, but for good people to do bad things, it takes religion. ~ Steven Weinberg, Nobel Laureate in physics

The_Dunedan

Ruger firearms: Most of their newer products suck (safety recalls, anyone?). Prior to that, I boycotted them so as not to send money to that most ridiculous of spectacles, an anti-2nd Amendment gun manufacturer.

HS Precision rifles and stocks: Endorsed, in print, by a psychopathic murdering thug. 'Nuff said.

Jennings, Lorcin, Raven Arms, Jimenez Arms and Bryco: I have no wish for my customers to blow their fingers off and come back pissed at me for selling them a hand-grenade disguised as a gun.

Kellogg: Driving corporate force of Socialism and Communism in this country for the past 100yrs. I'll stick to store brands.

Keanu Reeves movies: No use throwing good money at bad acting. Likewise any Costner film in which he is the Lead, and any film whos primcipal actors have an anti-gun public record. This goes double for action-movie stars. Pistol-packin' Mama Jolie, on the other hand, will actually see a few dollars of mine at some point.

Exxon: They still haven't paid the State of Alaska for the cleanup after the Exxon Valdez spill, and some of their conduct in S. America has been just beyond horrid.

Citgo: I see no reason to further fatten Hugo Chavez or his murderous, anti-freedom regime.

In the past I boycotted (along with my photographer mother) FuujiFilm, because of their continued involvment with the South African Apartheid gov't. I wish I could find a way to boycott taxes and keep them from being sent to the Israeli Apartheid gov't, but the IRS takes a dim view of such efforts.

I occaisionally make an effort to boycott fast-food locations which continually fuck up my order.

Reese

I boycott Debeers diamonds as well. It's not a hard decision to make, and it's really easy to boycott since diamonds aren't something I use on a regular basis. However, I will avoid them if the time ever comes that I need a clear shiny piece of nothing.

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“It is better to be rich and healthy than poor and sick” - Dave Barry

raptor9k

deleted

vanblah

I boycott the meat industry. I have no problem with eating animals for food; I just don't like the way the giant industries treat these animals nor do I like the way the meat is processed (before and after slaughter). If I could afford free-range chicken then I'd probably eat it (as long as I am 100% sure it's free-range) ... but since I can't always afford it I just do without.

If I wasn't so lazy I would have no problem hunting for meat.

Jinn

As much as I'd like to say I do, I seem to be relatively incapable of boycotting companies. There's about a dozen companies I likely should boycott by nature of their 'worldview' disagreeing with mine, but I have yet to do so.

Among them:

Dominos, for the homophobic and fundamentalist religious leadership and policies

Pizza Hut, for their anti-CCW policies, particularly the firing of a delivery man who saved his own life with a CCW

DeBeers, Shane Company, etc., if not simply for the uselessness of non-industrial diamonds but for their supposed links to 'blood diamonds'

Axe bodyspray, because of their misogynistic, objectifying and offensive (even as a man) commercials

I'm not really sure what it is, but I find myself largely incapable of boycotting anyone on basis of my morals. I think its largely because (a) my morals aren't that solid and (b) I don't think boycots are even marginally affective.

I feel like it'd be a waste even if I had the motivation to do it, which I don't. It's kind of like "picketting" in labor strikes, to me.

__________________
"I'm typing on a computer of science, which is being sent by science wires to a little science server where you can access it. I'm not typing on a computer of philosophy or religion or whatever other thing you think can be used to understand the universe because they're a poor substitute in the role of understanding the universe which exists independent from ourselves." - Willravel

raeanna74

I avoid Walmart as much as possible. Why? Because their advertisements say they're cheaper and they're not, because they say that they have quality stuff and they don't, because they say they're trying to help the working man and every small town they get into ends up loosing all their local, small businesses because they can't compete - only because people have been convinced that Walmart is cheaper.

Our two local grocery stores (within 30 miles of home) are cheaper by far, overall than walmart. Unfortunately there is only one other department store/clothing store. There is one outdoor clothing store but as far as any other products we are forced to go to Walmart or to drive over 60 miles to the next nearest store. I hate feeling like I 'have to' go to a particular store only because I have very little 'choice' in the matter.

Otherwise - no particular moral reason to boycott them, that I know of .

__________________
"Always learn the rules so that you can break them properly." Dalai Lama
My Karma just ran over your Dogma.

Marvelous Marv

I remember the rootkits Sony put on their CDs, so I try very hard not to buy anything from them.


Hadn't hear d that. Details?

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"The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money."
Margaret Thatcher

Jinn

Another one I forgot to add, and that's Apple.

I'd love to boycott Apple because of their god-damned "PC vs. Macintosh" commercials because I feel that they are deliberately trying to take advantage of user ignorance when it comes to computers. I have no respect for people do this, and their commercials almost seem to be trying to make it OBVIOUS that they know their users don't know the difference between a mouse and a brick.

I think I can call it an official boycott because I actually enjoy the UI of MacOS', and I think their security design (TCP/IP stack, Linux roots) is superior to the ones designed by Microsoft. But that said, I'll never buy one until they stop having such predatory commercials.

__________________
"I'm typing on a computer of science, which is being sent by science wires to a little science server where you can access it. I'm not typing on a computer of philosophy or religion or whatever other thing you think can be used to understand the universe because they're a poor substitute in the role of understanding the universe which exists independent from ourselves." - Willravel

Strange Famous

and you know even 20 years on... The Sun doesnt sell in Liverpool

__________________
"Do not tell lies, and do not do what you hate,
for all things are plain in the sight of Heaven. For nothing
hidden will not become manifest, and nothing covered will remain
without being uncovered."

The Gospel of Thomas

JumpinJesus

I boycott any company that uses the color red.

Fuckin' commies.

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"I can normally tell how intelligent a man is by how stupid he thinks I am" - Cormac McCarthy, All The Pretty Horses

Skitto

Which ones are those? I'm goin' there to-day!


Uh, Walmart is evil, just for so many reasons, good quality nonwithstanding.

Pretty much the same goes for all big business, but I try to keep away from the ones that train their staff to the bone, brainwise I mean. Having gone through that myself, I'd rather stick to the Local places, at least I get some HUMAN interaction. Unless I'm in a time crunch, then I'll go to wal-shmurt or mcDonads, burger Tart or eXXXon ("exTTrapon" I call it).

But I treat the employees there with the respect they deserve, you know. Same for the guy with cerebral paulsy working at the Red Cross as the similar respectful dismay I have at Everyone's lack of options.

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Yeah, well, you're just that awesome, I guess. It's not like I guessed so anyways.

woody18228

I try to avoid buying anything at Walmart, don't spend much at Jewel or other big Illinois grocers.
I try all I can to support the independent grocers.

I would imagine most people boycott due to personal experiences, can't say I have any of those that stick out.

Shell

BestBuy sold me a router for my computer and their Tech-Support guy (in the philippines btw) told me that the router was the thing that was giving me problems with my computer and advised me to return it. When I took it back they would only give me store credit...even though BestBuy admitted that it was the most returned item in the entire store and their support-tech that told me to return it. No amount of discussion would change their minds no matter how far up the chain i went.

No more BestBuy purchases for me.

__________________
..."Say what you think. Those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind" ~ Dr. Seuss

LoganSnake

Why? Best Buy always issues store credit. Maybe if you read your receipt...

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Maturity is knowing you were an idiot in the past. Wisdom is knowing that you'll be an idiot in the future. Common sense is knowing that you should try not to be an idiot now. - J. Jacques

Shell

Why would I want store credit instead of cash?
Um...because I don't have anything I want to buy in the store.
The item returned was their fault, not mine.

__________________
..."Say what you think. Those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind" ~ Dr. Seuss

m0rpheus

Whereas I boycott Starbucks because their coffee is overpriced and fucking sucks.

__________________
"it never got weird enough for me." - Hunter S. Thompson

Shell

oops...i messed up and inverted 2 words in my post #77 giving it an opposite meaning...sorry...i fixed it now

,,,m0rpheus, i have to agree with you regarding starbucks but how else were they going to saturate the market with 2 Starbucks per every block

__________________
..."Say what you think. Those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind" ~ Dr. Seuss

ametc

Certain pet shops I've been to before because they seem to mistreat the animals. Also, there were open barrels of food and when I checked a few out.. there were mice and mouse turds in the food. The birds also looked tired and their cages were PILED with their own shit.