Do you boycott any companies?
 

It is something that doesn't get brought up by the media, and while a one person boycott might not do much, even a 50% boycott wouldn't stop some companies if they had to spend more in order to change than the additional revenue from some new customers.

The places where I won't spend money at are:

Exxon
Texaco
Wal-Mart
Phillip Morris/Altria or any tabbaco company
Coke/Pepsi
AOL - (They tried to tame the wild internet, boycotting has been successful in this instance)
Comcast/Time Warner/AT&T - (They have helped improve the internet, but the government should have contracted the work out and created a free-for-all internet)
Microsoft
RIAA

A lot of people can't afford to boycott. You may not like Walmart, but for people stretching a buck, that buck goes a lot farther there. Principles will take a back seat when it comes to basic needs.

I haven't shopped at Walmart for about two years now, and Starbucks for longer than that. I have issues with both companies.

Those are the main ones... although, if given the choice, I'll always take the smaller hometown company over a large corporate conglomerate.

I am not as well informed as I want to be but when I find out a company is doing some reprehensible I try my best to avoid there product(s) and or those store(s). That said the only thing i can mention I am boycotting currently regardless of cost to me is IAMS pet food. This is due to my knowledge of there practices with harm to animals. I know of several trials were limbs were removed to keep the animal imobile and easy to maintain while testing there food and products.

Unfortunately IAMS is part of a larger company that makes many products. Its hard to boycott all companies or stores that do things unethically.

As for wal-mart its simply a money thing for me. I get most of my supplies elsewhere but sometimes no one can beat there prices and I am on a fixed budget because of disability so I can't afford to buy only at hte mom and pop stores though I do purchase there as well.

I used to stay away from Wal-Mart simply because they put too many of my friends small businesses out of business. In the small county I lived in they were sneaky and under handed in the way they did it too. I have friends down here too that owned a small chain of what I'd call 5 and dime stores. Wal-Mart sank them too. Fine for them they retired to Mexico and don't seem to be hurting. But the business they inherited from their parents and planed to pass on to their children is history.

Now I live where often Wally World or Sam's is the only place I can get certain items. Basically if Costco doesn't have it I'm forced to look at Sam's.

i won't eat at applebee's or sam seltzers steak house because of the cavalier attitude (my perception) i've experienced of their staffs...

there's a sears store in hunt valley, md, that will never see me again...

I won't eat at McDonalds under any circumstances. I try to persuade others as well.

I try to stay away from Wal-mart. And I tend to lean towards Canadian products, followed by American.

It's hard, though, considering the proportion of products from Asia and South America.

You have to drag me into walmart but not because of some principled moral stance. I just find the shopping experience there unpleasant. Too big, too crowded and too chaotic. I also resent the hightened velvet security.

is this a political or health issue you have with the golden arches?

ill stay away from mcdonalds for health reasons. but ill have it maybe 3 or 4 times a year when i get weak.

I get the same soulless feeling from seeing the people mill about in Wal-mart that I used to get whenever I would watch people at nightclubs.

At least I was usually drunk at the nightclubs.

In the words of Sam Roberts: "One life to live, but we're doing it wrong...."

Walmart: At the forefront of anti-labor and low pay, Walmart will never ever get a dollar of mine.

Fandango: I hate their brown paper bag commercials. They're fucking annoying.

Exxon: Iraq war.

Anything associated with Philip Morris, including Kraft, Nabisco, Kool-aid, Cool Whip, Jello, and Di Giorno: Philip Morris is about the most evil corporation in existence.

I'll think of more later.

Health

Does it count as boycotting if I can't afford their products and therefore choose a cheaper brand?

I boycott expensive potato chips.
I boycott expensive soda pop.
I boycott name brand nearly everything.

I boycott Monsanto products. No Roundup will EVER be welcome in my yard. This boycott extends to not eating products made from Monsanto's various GMOs.

I don't shop at Wal-Mart if I can help it; unfortunately there are many places in the Western United States where Wal-Mart has become the only choice.

I try to avoid products made by Dow Chemical, but because they're a major chemical supplier, this can be difficult. They have earned my wrath because of their refusal to take responsibility for the Union Carbide accident in Bhopal, India. They bought Union Carbide in 1999, and Union Carbide had still not done enough to clean up what they caused. Someone has to take responsibility for it.

There are more...I'm just so used to not buying their products now that I can't think of what they are. This is what happens when you live in the bubble created by living in a hippie town.

I avoid Procter & Gamble products whenever possible. I mainly avoid them because of the misery I experienced from shaving with a Gillette Fusion razor, and their marketing of said razor. $1 a week my ass, more like $1.10 a day for their lousy cartridges.

I believe they are known as the conglomerate Altria now.

Oh, I forgot about McDonald's. It's a health thing for me, as well.

Turns out sweatshops are good for developing countries so I'm no longer against Wal-Mart or any multinational corporations for that reason. I still try not to shop at Wal-Mart because of how they treat their employees. Plus the ridiculous notion of having a greeter at the door. They always weird me out every time I go in there.
Others on the list: Lacoste, Abercrombie & Fitch, Hilton Hotels. I'm sure there are more but those are all I can think of at the moment.

I vote no. My wallet comes first. If a company makes good items at the most competitive price, then I'll buy them. If the items are cheap and 'raggedy' nope. On the other hand if they're expensive ... c'ya!!!

I currently do not purchase anything from Verizon due to old NYNEX issues I had. MCI/Worldcom was another, and AT&T is another company I'm not pleased with.

I will do my best to avoid companies I don't like, but will purchase loss leaders from said companies because it is a net loss for them.

Walmart, IAMS pet food

Anything made in China . . .just joking on this one.

I prefer not to buy Venezuelan oil (Citgo).
I also generally avoid WalMart because they are toxic for American workers, although I completely understand the personal economics that make many people shop there.

My mother works for a clothing manufacturer that supplies to Wal-Mart. I can tell you that none of their good are produced by sweat shops and Wal-Mart has the highest quality standards of any of the company's resellers.

I don't boycott anything, but I certainly do avoid things if I can help it. I'll never turn down a Mercedes-Benz. I'll never refuse to eat fast food if its given to me. I'll never resist going into Wal-Mart. But I don't generally partake of these things either.

I avoid Monsanto products as well.

I refuse to use Sprint. I've had (as well as friends and family) way too many problems with their "service" to ever use them again.

Citgo waters down their gas with ethanol and my car got 3-4mpg less using it. The fact that I'm not supporting Chavez is a bonus. Aside from that, I avoid gun stores with political signs or stickers, which tends to work out because they're usually run by fudds or fat guys with Blackwater hats who love to gouge you on prices.

Oh hell ya I do. Recently, and most especially walgreens pharmacy. They're borderline criminal.

Wal-Mart

In the past no, but now I think "yes". I just saw a quiznos commercial that made me want to boycott them:

The little oven that they run their subs through was talking to the sub maker via it's oven lights heating up, saying "please put it in me", as he was holding their new meat filled 12 inch sub. There was no humour. Just stupid meaningless sexual references with subs and pre-heated ovens. Not clever, not funny, and it came on at 6:30 on a Saturday. I won't call it boycotting though., because that for me just conjures up pukish images of picket signs and chanting. Quiznos pissed me off so I won't go there, until I'm REALLY running short on time and super hungry, then I'll make an exception.

If I was going to officially boycott something, it might be wall-mart, but only because of the customers that rampage that place. The mentality of that shopper becomes painfully obvious in the parking lot, and gets worse from there.

I think boycotting is stupid. I like Wal*Mart $5 DVD bin. I like Starbucks Java Chip for $4. I love gas in my car and I don't care where it comes from. I'm not a fan of greasy fast food, but I won't shy away if offered for free or I am very hungry. I don't think I've ever bough a Microsoft product, but their software powers my computer and my phone (I guess I bought one MS product after all).

I stopped buying from buy.com a long time ago over their return policy on a monitor I ordered. It was physically impossible to return the merchandise in the time frame they required, and they charged me not only for return shipping; but also a restocking fee. Basically, it cost me over $40 for a monitor I never used, so I promised them they'd never get my business again.

So far, it's cost them a few thousands of dollars in sales that now go mostly to amazon.com & newegg.com.

I also boycott Blu-Ray DVDs and DeBeers diamonds. Both have used heavy handed and misinformation to become monopolistic and anti-consumer.

ALL Procter & Gamble products
All products that aren't animal friendly
All products that aren't guaranteed to be sweatshop free
All products that have a Fairtrade alternative

I spent a few months in the USA last year and found that sticking to the above rules is a LOT easier in the UK... we're a lot more geared up for it here.

I forgot about Netflix. I had only one or two movies left in my queue so I had put my account on hold so I could add to my queue until I had enough movies in there to justify the service for a month. The account automatically restarts after 90 days if you don't put it on hold again before that time. Well I forgot all about it until I received an email from Netflix advising that "Welcome back! We hope you enjoyed your time away from Netflix. As you requested on 11/21/2007, we have reactivated your account, and billing will resume today." Well actually I did not make any sort of request that my account be reactivated. It would have been nice if they had the decency to send a reminder email 3-4 days before the hold was removed instead of sending a "haha, got your 21 bucks" email after they had removed the hold and charged my credit card. Even if the email had said something along the lines of "your 90 day account hold has ended and your account has been reactivated" it wouldn't have made me as mad.

Two main ones... Coors and Wal-Mart.


The Coors family has repeatedly tried to hold office in Colorado and always gets shut down. They are lying thieving assholes. Ask anyone in Colorado. We don't like them here. And the beer is fucking gross.


A few years ago, Wal-Mart tried to open a giant mega-store in what they thought was a failing section of Denver. Turned out to be the second fastest growing section in Colorado. The residents that had worked so hard to clean up the area with local businesses, good restaurants, and doing whatever else was needed to bring the 'hood back up from near destruction successfully voted Wal-Mart out of the area. Now, where the Wal-Mart would have been in a really kick ass indoor farmer's market, a nice selection of up-scale but rent-controlled housing, and a few other local businesses (Mostly owned by the people that live right down the street.)

Other then that, I don't much care. I try to stay away from fast food but that's for health reasons and I'd rather catch a bite at a local mom/pop place. I don't drive so the gas thing doesn't bother me. I have AT&T/Comcast and have never had a problem. I own Nikes and pretty much every other name brand you can think of so...

Oh wait... I forgot. This kind of goes with the fast food. I refuse to eat at any place like Chilis, Applebees, Olvie Garden... But that's just cause I'm super picky about my food.

I will never, ever, read or purchase a copy of The Sun.

For reasons Highthief will appreciate.

And btw, I mean literally never... if they had Rachel Bilson on Page 3 I wouldnt buy copy of this disgusting rag.

The NY Post, I won't read, and each time I see someone reading it I can't help but stare at the tabloid-like sensationalist headlines that take up a half a page. I think it's a newspaper for idiots, sorry if I offended anyone.
Other than that, I've stopped buying Lays chips, since they've become prohibitevly expensive, and have started getting the cheapest beer, which I happen to like, Schlitz. At $3.50 a 6 pack, and tasting better than the other cheap stuff, they'll get my business until I can afford much better stuff.
Starbuck's, I'll only take when I don't have cash and need coffee, and nobody else takes card nearby. Otherwise I'll go to Dunkin Donut's, which I think tastes better.
I don't find anything wrong with McDonald's, or engineered food in general; I wouldn't eat there everyday, though, but once in a while it feels good (until it doesn't).
And I heard Procter and Gamble tests on animals, so I try not to buy from them.

Whats wrong with Blu-rays? They have fantastic sound, cost the same for a new release on blu ray as it does on DVD, and my ps3 came equipped with one.

I try to avoid Best Buy and Futureshop at all costs. Horrible horrible companies that take advantage of people who do not know what they want. Everytime anyone needs any kind of technological device that is sold at FF or BB I point them to a better store, better more honest and cheaper.

Companies are so entwined these days it would take a lot of energy to find the connections for a boycott. Personally, I've never felt strongly enough about something to do a boycott. My mom boycotted Domino Pizza when I was younger because they made comments about our last name. My step-daughter stopped drinking Pepsi when Britney Spears was advertising for them.
I really dislike WalMart, but luckily, they are not allowed to build inside Chicago city limits. So I don't even have to worry about them for the time being. But I would probably boycott that company if anything. Although, they are like a virus that kills off every business around them making them the only choice to shop. I saw this occur in my hometown. It is very sad because once the competition is gone, the smiley face lowering prices turns evil and jacks them back up.

On balance, I refuse to get my insurance from Progressive. Crappy politics, crappy service.

/USAA all the way.

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!

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!

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, :mad: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:rolleyes: and go to NPTV or use the off button.
But I wouldn't call it a boycott.

Lindy

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.

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

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.

kelloggs dropped phelps because of the whole marijuana thing.


what about exxon and citgo?

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

ah, and now i know.

The Sheinhardt Wig Company

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.

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.

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.

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?

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

choices...

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

---------- 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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

deleted

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.

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 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 :p .

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?

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.

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

I boycott any company that uses the color red.

Fuckin' commies.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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 :shakehead:

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.

...oh, ametc, that makes me so sad and angry at the same time. They need to be reported to the Humane Society, the BBB, and any other proper authorities. Animals don't have a voice and need us to speak out for them.

Too much jargon, oust her!

This certainly doesn't apply to the Sheltie:mad: that lives across the street from me.

Lindy

Skitto, no more than your post #73 in which, btw, you say you're respectful of others :orly:

Like my signature says, "those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind"

Shell

Like others have said, Exxon, and the RIAA.

Apple, not because they're evil, but because I don't like paying for a brand rather than quality, and that many people who prefer Apple (religiously) just don't know any better.

I used to not buy anything from Sony, but I have been buying from their games/Computer Entertainment division. Proprietary formats, "We know better than our customers" attitude, rootkits, etc.

State Farm insurance, because they tried to screw me and my wife after a claim. Not just giving an unfair settlement, but also stalling, delay tactics, ignoring messages and calls left, lies about what had been said before, etc.

Boycotting companies doesn't have the same effect it used to. We live in an age of business where companies choose their customers, not just the other way around.

Hey I am from China.Here is better than you may think,to my opinion of course:)

I boycott a local business owner because he is a jerk. He owns 3 companies here in town.

There are only a couple that have screwed me directly, but many others that I tend to avoid for other reasons.
I bought a "refurbished" iPod directly from Apple, but it didn't charge. After several weeks of jumping through tech support/cust. service hoops, despite my clear explanations why those hoops didn't make sense (they made me jump anyway, because I owned a PC, it was the problem), they finally admitted the iPod should be replaced. I had to point out more obvious facts to make that happen, I placed the order 2 weeks earlier yet the warranty expired 2 months earlier, then we cross shipped. However, the only method they had of informing me where to drop off my package led me to a DHL drop box that it didn't fit into! Holy crap I hate those scumbags.
AT&T, the very week they took over Cingular, mysteriously credited $300 on my account. But they corrected it twice. So my bill said I owed ~$340 instead of $40 and every cust. service call resulted in transfer to the next level up 3 or 4 times. Each ended with the person admitting it made no sense, but they'd have to investigate more.

Plenty of other just stink so I avoid them. Comcast's definition of service disconnection doesn't include completely disabling Internet service, and they billed me for a month when my service was still "active".
I rarely buy music because the only advantage CD's have are audio quality, but sadly it's been intentionally lowered as a marketing move.. and trying to fix it got customer complaints.
Starbucks is pretty bad. When I'm in a hurry or not paying attention and mis-pack my grounds while making espresso, it still comes out better than the burned crap Starbucks consistently achieves. I went to Starbucks with family then to a little stand we happened to drive by, and my family noticed it made the car smell better :)

I have the feeling that every large company has screwed somebody over; it's only a matter of chance or time before any big corp goes onto your blacklist. I could come up with a much longer list of good experiences with local and/or small companies.

edit: Oh I totally forgot Old Chicago! The vast majority of their serving staff is great and very friendly, so I still go all the time. The premise of their business is nonsense. They're not from Chicago, they're from Denver. Guess why I know this. After complaining about different beers each visit, even trying different glasses thinking wash soap was getting left on somehow, I stopped ordering beer. A couple weeks later, a server who knew me said a high up manager had visited from Denver and noticed something was wrong with the beer. It turned out something in the delivery had grown mold! My complaints never got the dipshits to check, so they'd been serving moldy beer to all customers for weeks! Also, their one bad employee almost punched me, served alcohol without checking ID, and was promoted to become a regional trainer! Sadly, I'm on my way to Old Chicago now.

I don't do Tim Horton's anymore since reading THIS article.

Granted, they stopped after the protest calls and such.

I shop as local as I can. Produce is actually cheaper at the farmer's market in my town than at Wally World.

I don't buy CDs or tobacco anything. It's not that severe though, I do buy cigars for my Dad and CDs for my wife. Not for me, though.

Intuit, neither buy, sell, or even pirate their product.....which is saying something.

their treatment of their employees is the main reason.

I don't shop at Walmart, because it's a disgusting place filled with crazy people. I don't care how low the prices are, I'm not doing it. I won't eat at Applebee's for the same reason.

I always try to purchase Canadian grown food. I prefer to pay for Canadian grown music and fiction too.

I never go to McDonald's or KFC, but that's also for health reasons. Other than that, Microsoft is on the list.

I just can't stand what they did with the X-box. They sold broken devices of which they knew they were broken.

It's gonna be Mac for the rest of my life

I do not buy Nike products, or eggs that are not humanely raised (often spending quite a bit more per egg).

In addition, I do not deal with Chase, or any of their holdings that I know of.

Amway. It's a total cult.

[I have firsthand experience. My first wife's blind devotion to it and network marketing hype ended our marriage in 1992.]

Me too. Free range only.

---------- Post added at 05:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:05 PM ----------

Oh man - that was the actions of an individual branch/district manager (who I imagine has been sacked by now). Tim's actually has a policy of not getting involved in stuff like that period.

I used to boycott entire chains based on principle, but I find myself now more angered by their local representations.

I have boycotted Exxon for as long as I have been driving (close to 10 years now) because of their active resistance to any and all environmental initiatives. Improved automobile mileage, investments in clean energy, and basic environmental protections have all found Exxon's dagger in their backs. Luckily they make this easy as their gas stations are generally more expensive anyway.

I used to try to avoid Walmart, however that changed when my wife worked there for a year. I have a good friend who worked at Target at the same time, and was able to compare their treatments. Walmart (at least the local one here) does right by their employees, while Target plays all the games that people attribute to Walmart. However, I still cringe at the constant loop of Tracphone commercials blaring everywhere when I go into Walmart.

The local Econolodge for botching my wedding booking and charging me 700 dollars for rooms I never wanted booked in my name and refusing to deal with me.

Best Buy is a practical boycott - I will go to them for emergency computer parts, only after exhausting all other local sources. Mainly, I just don't bother checking them for prices anymore because they're always close to or the most expensive.

Verizon I had on the list for a while for selling my number to a host of telemarketers the day I got my phone. They are about to be on the list again because I've just moved and they've taken over 3 weeks and still don't have my DSL running, and all they can tell me is it was an order glitch (which they somehow couldn't figure out the first 5 times I called) and that there is a rush on the order. I told them they're going to have to race Time Warner to get my service now - whoever connects me first is who I'm sticking with.

Time Warner was on my list, both for trying to make me pay $500 for the previous tenants when I moved into my previous apartment and for the recent silliness they tried with their internet services. However, at this point I'm willing to settle for the lesser of two evils. There's not a whole lot of practical choice where I live.

Edit: Oh, and I forgot the Kirby Pyramid scheme of vacuum selling, but that probably goes without saying.

ditto.

My affirmative shopping action usually stems from the desire to shop locally. Which I am finding very difficult to do.

for example, I noticed that this year and last year, the grocery was not stocking local strawberries in season (No Frills). All the strawberries were shipped from California. So they must have been picked while not ripe, and then trucked for 3 days to get here. And it still must be cheaper than getting supplied from a farm 10 Km from the city.

Same goes for Peaches, tomatoes etc. Unless it doesn't grow in Ontario, or at least Canada, or if it is out of season, I will not purchase it. I would rather go to the local (& pricey) farmer's market.

Same here. I used to love Best Buy, either I've gotten smarter or they have changed in a bad way. I needed a new keyboard after my old one completely went out. I had found a basic no frills Logitech one online I liked for $20 shipped. I figured if I could find one locally for maybe $25 I would get it locally and save the hassle of waiting. I went to Best Buy and the cheapest keyboard they had was $60 for a no name brand!!! This came after another Best Buy location stopped me like I was a shoplifter because I didn't buy their $40 USB cable when I could get the cable I needed for $5 shipped online. I ended up settling for a Logitech keyboard for $13 from Wally world.

Needless to say I will never set foot in a Best Buy again.