Boycotts

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

I recently got into a blazing row about how I wasn't going to participate in a boycott.

The one in question is the one where Macy's told a veteran who was applying for a job to sod off since being in the military makes her unable to relate to the public.

Anyone who reads Customers Suck knows that being able to face a ravening horde of people who want you brutally killed is a required skill in retail...but I digress.

Now while the incident pissed me off, my joining in a boycott isn't going to do dick. Not even going into the reasons that boycotts don't really help unless you can get EVERYONE (or at least most everyone) to join and hit them in their bottom line, there's one very important reason that my boycott isn't going to do a goddamned thing.

I have never shopped at a Macy's and frankly there isn't one near me to shop in. They're a bit overpriced for me and their tastes and mine have never agreed. So my shopping there REALLY isn't going to do anything because they can not physically get any less money from me.

To quote Jayne Cobb from Firefly "10 percent of nothing is... let me do the math here... nothing, and a nothing...carry the nothin'..."

This is almost the same sort of fight I got in over the Chik-Fil-A thing with thier attitudes towards the LGBT community.

I don't eat there. They screwed me once and I never came back. They sold me a raw sandwich, wouldn't get me a new one (I had only taken one bite), nor would they give me my money back. A call to Corporate only got me a barely polite "Fuck off" and they left it at that. Because of that...I stopped eating there YEARS before it came out that they're a bit narky when it comes to alternate sexualities.

Again I can't join the boycott because "10 percent of nothing is... let me do the math here... nothing, and a nothing...carry the nothin'..."

Well technically I could. But again what would be the flipping point? I don't give them any money now, do you think that they're going to start panicking when they stop getting the money that I'm not giving them?

[Rageaholic]

What the hell do they expect you to do if you never shopped at the stores they want you to boycott?

Even if you still shopped there, it's none of their damn business. These people need to learn that buying stuff from a store does not mean you support what ever stupid shit they do. If we boycotted every store that did something rotten, we would have nowhere else to shop.

[kaycivine]

Fun fact. That veteran that was refused a job by Macy's?

My hometown. ;] Actually I somewhat know her too.

I am boycotting, but only cause I am an extremely occasional shopper. so still slightly something to boycott. I have too many military connections to be okay with supporting a store like this

[Sleepwalker]

I am unfamiliar with this story. Isn't not employing a soldier illegal in the US? It makes me wonder what the details are.

[Bloodsoul]

Does it count as a boycott if I don't shop there, anyway? I can't even remember the last time I've seen a Macy's, and I even go into NYC on occasion.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

http://www.bizpacreview.com/2014/03/...terview-109262

<snip>
Reyes said the interviewer told her “you wouldn’t really know how to approach people” because she’d “been over there” in the Middle East war zone.

“Once a customer’s in your face, you wouldn’t know how to do it,” the manager said, according to Reyes. “You wouldn’t know how to react.”

Reyes said her retail sales experience at Target was discounted, and the interviewer told her she “wouldn’t be able to do good here,” suggesting a position in “loss prevention” would be more appropriate.

[Ginger Tea]

Count me in on boycotting every petrol station in the UK, numerous retail chains, yada yada yada, because I just don't shop there camp to.

I've boycotted most newspapers for over a decade, translation, I just don't buy them and the ones I did were the local rag once in a blue moon.

I did sign a petition outside a Tesco due to their selling of FHM Maxim and other 'lads mags', my reasoning wasn't in line with theirs which was removing softer than soft core porn from a supermarket, mine was more, "it's not a big branch, one of the metro's, that shelf space could be filled with more food."

I do agree that they are soft core mags more than anything, but at the cover price, if you are reading the mag for something to pin up on the wall, well the news agents a few minutes walk away sells top shelf mags that are more apt for that kind of thing.

So yes part of my argument was "if you are going to pay money to have a wank, buy a proper porno mag."

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

That's a different situation. In your case, you are voting with your money. You have an issue with them and have made the decision to stop giving them your money.

That's all well and good, but in your case you *are* taking something away from those retailers.

In my case, I'm getting a ration of shit for not contributing to the boycott. Which if I'm already not giving them any money, how can I take that money away?

As an analogy, I'm going to try to screw over the British Government by not paying my taxes to the Crown. Now since I'm a Yank and do not now, nor have ever paid taxes to the British Crown this decision means that there will be no consequences of this decision. The Crown isn't going to be upset that they've stopped getting the taxes of a man who owes them none and they're not going to come after me for the zero Pounds in back taxes that I owe.

Net result? @#$% all. Net result for me not giving any money to Macy's? @#$% all. Net result for me not joining the Chik-Fil-A boycott? @#$% all.

[bex1218]

I am unfamiliar with this story. Isn't not employing a soldier illegal in the US? It makes me wonder what the details are.

Its not illegal. Even some active military gets jobs in between duties. But once they are out, their pay from the military is shit. Not enough to live off of unless they are high ranking. Even then.




I don't shop much at Macy's anymore after the bs they put my poor mama through. I really don't boycott places other than that. Now I feel selfish cause I know other places treat their employees like shit.

[protege]

This is almost the same sort of fight I got in over the Chik-Fil-A thing with thier attitudes towards the LGBT community.

I remember the outrage, and the calls for boycotting Chik-Fil-A. Of course, that one pretty much backfired. I don't know about other areas, but after the calls for the boycott, the one near me was *packed* every night. Full parking lot, with cars lined up around the restaurant. Plus, if you showed up in a classic car on Thursday night, you got a free sandwich. The boycott was a failure, in other words.

Some boycotts have been successful--the Montgomery Bus Boycott, for one But, that's only if you can get everyone not to use a particular good, service, or company.

[TimmyHate]

So yes part of my argument was "if you are going to pay money to have a wank, buy a proper porno mag."

My new motto in life

[Hyena Dandy]

So here's the other thing about boycotts - What exactly is this boycott trying to do? I mean, boycott Macy's until... They... What?

The thing is, at least when you're saying "Boycott Chik-Fil-A because the owner will give money to people who want to hurt gay people" then you have a reason for a vague, indefinite boycott. I'm not giving money to someone who wants to hurt me. But if it's "Boycott Macy's because this manager was an asshole" are we boycotting until... They give the veteran a job? What? A boycott only works if there's an end goal.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

A boycott only works if there's an end goal.

Sometimes just hurting them is the end goal. We've boycotted businesses into closing.

There was a hardware store where I lived that caught flak because they wouldn't sell to a person with Cerebral Palsy even though he was high-functioning and was living on his own and held a decent paying job. He went in to buy a paintball marker and was told that "There's no way in hell I'm selling a gun to a retard"

A boycott was started and people stopped going to that shop. There was another shop that was convinced that adding a similar line of paintball equipment would be a good thing since we would go there instead.

While the boycott didn't last long and as much as I could wish that we could say that we put the asshole out of business...it did create competition and the guy had to lower his prices in order to stay in the game and that year he didn't get his annual new car lease and had to keep it for <gasp> more than a year.

So we didn't change his opinion, didn't get him to donate to a CP charity...but we did hurt him and he kelp his opinions to himself from then on. So I'd call that a win.

With Macy's however, they're too big for that to work. You'd have to get every on the country to back a boycott and it's hard to do since once you get out of the area it's less and less likely that people will even know what happened.

[smileyeagle1021]

I don't believe boycotts are effective... but I do believe selective shopping is. I didn't boycott Chik-Fil-A as much as I found a better alternative. When there was the whole deal about how we should boycott Enders Game because Orson Scott Card is a homophobic twat (an assertion I won't contest) I went and watched it anyway because Lionsgate and a lot of the actors are known for being open and accepting and I had actually done my research and knew that Card was getting his money whether or not I bought a ticket. Macy's pulls a stunt like this and I don't even notice because I was already shopping at JC Penny because of their support for LGBT families.
And as an aside, people tend to respond to positive feedback better than negative, saying "you should shop at JC Penny because they support LGBT equality" is more likely to get someone to consider shopping at JC Penny (even if they don't stop shopping elsewhere, and they may just switch) than telling them "you shouldn't eat at Chik-Fil-A because the CEO is anti-gay"... all you will get is people who mutter about how all they care about is the good chicken.

[wolfie]

And as an aside, people tend to respond to positive feedback better than negative, saying "you should shop at JC Penny because they support LGBT equality" is more likely to get someone to consider shopping at JC Penny (even if they don't stop shopping elsewhere, and they may just switch) than telling them "you shouldn't eat at Chik-Fil-A because the CEO is anti-gay"... all you will get is people who mutter about how all they care about is the good chicken.

Gotta stop you there - people who care about good chicken shouldn't eat at Chik-Fil-A. Both KFC and Popeye's are MUCH better.