[Closed] Who do you boycott?

I'd say if you are going to boycott products that are supplied via morally dodgy companies/ countries you'll have to go off line fellas!, Having visited the big players in the far east who almost certainly had a hand in you phone/tablet/pc etc then i'm afraid you wont have much choice. they are by european standards terrible places to work and the employees are treated pretty badly (although i've not been for a couple of years so they may have improved!!).

Tesco for their general underhandedness in planning and consequent dominance;
Tobacco companies as I detest their attempted cynical manipulation of people's minds;
McDonalds for their business ethics;
Coke & Pepsi;
The Times partly as it's Murdoch, partly as it's poor in my opinion but mostly due to that Matthew Parris anti-cycling rant;
Eric Pickles if I possibly could.

ASDA - it's full of poor people

Idealogical:
-Nike
-Newscorp/N.I./Sky

Aesthetic:
-most expensive-but-high-street brands where it is very omportant to have the brand name very big so everyone can see you are wearing it, particularly the ones that were cool and then sold out massively eg Bench, Ecko, Superdry.

Not sure whether "meat and fish" really counts: I do buy and cook these for other people and my children.

I am also a nurse, and so on a daily basis I am required to give people and extoll the benifits and virtues of medicines that are made by eeeeeeevil big pharma companies with highly dubious skellingtons* in their closets. (*yes that is how real health professionals speel it 😀 )

All Israeli produce. All non-free range eggs.

So if I stop spending my money there they will change or go out of business?

What about everyone else who uses/buys their products? Is their money not as powerful as my money?

I boycott The Sun. Er, but then again I don't actually buy any newspapers, so does that count?

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[s]terrorists[/s]Corporations are easy to spot, they usually have a sign [s]round their necks ![/s] Outside

Probably do more damage to the world in the long run.

I boycott organised religion and talk-talk.

I refuse to flush the toilet, its sinful and cruel

All non-free range eggs.

You sir, truly are a martyr.

Oh yes. I forgot Ryanair for revelling in rude and atrocious "service".

And Addison Lee for that appalling anti-cycling rant.

Vodaphone, for ineptitude and tax dodging.
U2, for bad music and tax dodging.

Most of this I get. But struggling to see how the Guardian gets lumped in with the Hail and the Murdoch press.

Yes they have a flagrant bias towards basket weaving lentil munchers but what bad can come of it. The Hail on the other hand would have us all watching our backs in fear of the immigrant granny bashing peados, it does tend to stir up a bit more trouble.

Been boycotting planes for the last few years.

no plans to get back on them any time in the near future. would like to visit canada at some point, but other than that, I'm quite happy 'limiting' myself to stuff that is in car/train range 🙂

Dave

no one. I have been trying to think of something.

I suppose, even though I don't buy newspapers at all, I wouldn't ever buy the sun, mainly because pretty everyone I've ever met who reads the sun is a moron. So include the Daily Mail in that too.

Been boycotting planes for the last few years.

That as well, partly because it's nice not to rush everywhere but it isn't always possible

The company I boycotted last year was Amazon.

They plissed me about with a quite expensive order and couldn't be bothered to offer any decent customer service.

And that's after being a customer of theirs since 1998.

The current company at the top of our 5h'itlist is Monarch Airlines after bouncing us off a flight yesterday. Spent 9 hours waiting for the next available flight which was in to Birmingham, which is 150 miles away from us.

I only really Boycot Nestle - well I try to, as above there's always some random sauce/ingredient you buy and then later once you've got it home, you find that bloody bird on the back - and Asda.

But there are many shops I don't shop in because I just don't like being in them or what they sell, or they make me want to kill people - Starbucks, GAP, Dixons PC World etc...

I’d like to say I boycott Ebay on the basis they are based in Lichtenstein in fact anyone based in Lichtenstein should be boycotted but I cant. Ebay is ace for buying tat and my desire to buy tat overrides my ethical consumerism.

All non-free range eggs.

You sir, truly are a martyr.

genuine lol at that... So do I for what it's worth, but since we have chickenses that an easy one...

Easyjet and Orange for their absolutely dreadful customer [i]service[/i].

I don't boycott the 'bay, but I just refuse to use it.
Liechtenstein is not a bad place. Quirky, and some seriously bling houses in places, but I'd go there again.

scruff - Member
Apple. Im not giving Bono any money.

I am boycotting work

No More Page 3 are asking people to boycott Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Morrison’s and DFS from October 29 through November 4 as these as big 'family values' advertisers in the Sun.

If you boycott a firm that uses cheap labour in the production of it's clothes then they have falling profits and as a result will try to squeeze more out of their workers. Same with fairtrade foods.

So who wins from any of this?

It's something I am often confused by.

I tend to buy fairtrade and use ethical clothing as much as I can, but I'm no saint and by far my closet 5 supermarkets are all Tesco's - I can only buy local veg from the stand on the way home when it sells it - and they stop for 4 months of the year, so what the hell should I do then?

Oh, I am boycotting children though, bad for the environment, bad for additional strain on already limited resources and it means I never have to tell people about how little sleep I'm getting because of the little trolls.

Random chat over, time to go home - by bike (I boycott my own car as a commuter - it drinks way too much fuel!)

Tesco due to appalling customer service.
ASDA as they are owned by Walmart who have some horrible "Christian" practices.
J Wadsworth off licence, because the owner is a ****.

any human who breeds

RAC, as their membership cock-up left me to drive 200 miles with a broken front disk once.
Dave Hinde.

Edit - and square plates. I know it's a 'thing' and not a 'who' but I won't entertain any notion of a square dinner service.

Anything made in China. Within reason, obviously.

iDave

KFC - Crap water filled battery meat, and bad ethics.
Burger King and MacD's - As above
Frankie and Bennys, La Tasca etc etc - Crap food.

French Cars - Crap.

Big shopping centres - Full of chavs
Sports Direct etc - as above

Cr@p water filled battery meat

Tesco and sky. For the monopolization and scant regard for the consequences. Not one penny of my money will go through a tescos till. They have to have a finger in every pie, in areas that they know nothing about ie tyres.

I don't boycott much. Ryanair jump to mind, purely because of O'Leary. And there's a local taxi firm here which I've boycotted because their drivers all drive with total disregard for anyone else on the road.

There's plenty of brands I don't use, or don't use often, but it's not really a boycott per sé. I rarely venture into McD's et al for instance, largely because it's not the most appealing of food vendors for a veggie. I don't buy newspapers, because I have an Internet connection. And so on.

Isn't the company supposed to be told that they're being boycotted? Seems like a pointless act otherwise, no?
For me, Starbucks because of the alleged brand bombing strategy to close out competition.

McDonalds and most popular fast food outlets like KFC, Burger King, etc.
I read Fast Food Nation 8 years ago. I've reluctantly wavered on 3 occasions since but I felt dirt straight afterwards!
I try to avoid Tesco's for the reasons stated above.
I also boycott people who don't smile much - the sort who would comlain that their arse was on fire rather than put it out... I can't be doing with people who whinge.
Whinge over...

Tesco's derelict my balls.

There's lots of places I never shop at and brands I never buy but I wouldn't say I'm actively boycotting them as such purely because of who they are.
There are places I'll never spend money again after very poor service though. But I dunno if that counts as a properly ethical boycott if it's for specific but isolated events where I personally have felt hard done by- rather than their corporate policy.

hora - Member
Tesco's derelict my balls

Should it say Tesco's Deborah... ??

Edit - closer to Derek, I suppose

McDonalds - my own faeces is probably a healthier meal.

The Guardian - just because.

Wolverhampton - I went there once.

Vauxhall - every car of theirs I've driven since the Firenza has been a hateful pile of shite.

Cricket - no game should last 5 days.

Ikea - no comment necessary.

All non-free range eggs.
You sir, truly are a martyr.

genuine lol at that... So do I for what it's worth, but since we have chickenses that an easy one...

To be honest I only eat free range eggs but free range is very different to free to roam. ALso I get free range eggs off a somebody at work £4.50 for 30 eggs; I mostly live on free to roam eggs.

The Daily Mail...awful,awful,awful.
Sky and all the other ancillaries that made Murdoch who he is today
HSBC -- just as bad as all the rest probably.
Halfords -- add your own comments
Tesco -- For crimes against your local small shop
CRC -- unless absolutely desperate.

what makes me chuckle is when you have a 'free range scotch egg' made with a free range egg, but the pork is battery meat and the breadcrumbs have non free range egg content to make them stick.

Ryan air, because I think Michael O'Leary is a total c___!
Renault, for being crap!

Cant think of anyone else that gets me too worked up.

Subway. Dont know why. Just the look / smell of the place.
Looks like a chav heaven. Eeeuuurgh.

And I wouldnt fly Rynair either. Not that I ever need to take cheap short haul flights, but that chap who owns it is a complete instigator of self pleasurement.

Oh yeah, Ryan Air. It's just too complicated to work out what you flight will end up costing.

Budweiser. That wassup advert was disgraceful. Not because of the advert itself, that was just marketing people who can't be held accountable for their fetid actions.

No, it was the copycats doing in in normal life that forced my hand.

And the fact that the stuff tastes like rancid piss.

Not much love lost on the poor old Chav on here tonight !

Don't really understand why tesco and Asda feature so strongly and no mention of sainsburys. They're just as bad.

I'll add Ryanair, for this reason alone

Normal airline;
Pilot "This plane isn't airworthy, I'm not taking off in it "
Airline "OK, your call, we'll arrange a replacement as soon as possible. Can you apologise to the passengers?"
Pilot "Sure, thanks"
Passengers, on hearing the apology, "Oh, OK. Fair enough. Glad the pilot has control of the situation and we're not in an unsafe plane. '

Ryanair
Pilot "This plane isn't airworthy, I'm not taking off in it "
Ryanair "Fine. Either take off, or we'll find a pilot who will, and you get your marching orders. Your call"
Passengers "Wonder why we're delayed?"

MacDonalds never let the kids eat there.
RyanAir, it's an air born cattle truck.
Lidll
Daily Express, Torygraph and Grauniad because they are just so obvious.
Meridian news because Fred Dineage is a cock.
Decathlon it's french and they rip small brands off.
Volvo because their drivers kill more m/cyclists
Salamon because they banned snowboarding from a mountain they owned then came back to cash in later.
Crundens the greengrocers because old woman Crunden tried to get my favourite trail dog put down.

Don't really understand why tesco and Asda feature so strongly and no mention of sainsburys. They're just as bad.

Because Sainsbury's isn't as popular with shoppers as Tesco and Asda. If it was, then Sainsbury's would be higher up the hate list.

STW has a tendency to dislike things which are popular/succesful. I think you'll find that it's a middle-class thing.

The Labour Party.

I know this won't win me many friends, but 100,000 dead Iraqis are reason enough, even before we get into their flirtation with Thatcherism and endless lies to the electorate.

Israeli produce
Food that must have been flown to the UK
Anything owned by the Dirty Digger
Tesco
Bovril - it's gross.

I boycotted the swimming pool at a campsite we stayed at this summer in France. They enforced the "Speedo rule".

Don't boycott much, but here's a few I feel strongly about:

Starbucks - as they don't support our armed forces
French goods - Due to the way they banned British beef / lamb for years
Dave Hinde - too many bad reports
MacDonalds - they represent obesity

[i]Don't really understand why tesco and Asda feature so strongly and no mention of sainsburys. They're just as bad[/i]

Tesco have the highest market share of just under 30%, asda next with around 17%, so I presume that's why people say 'I hate tesco' above others. Pretty stupid really to just pick one supermarket as they all use the same practices - for pricing, planning, etc.

Would say Israel, but being a scientist, who also drives I would be wary of every motorcyclist for ever if I criticised them (they have nasty magnetic things that go bang if you upset them...apparently).
Tesco ARE the worst of the retailers, absolute bullies of the retail world, and deserve all they get.

Sony....will never buy any of their products ever again (ok maybe a ps4) .... proprietery locked in crap designed to be expensive and redundant before you can breath. At least Apple support for years.

Innocent - for selling out to McD's.
Sky - and I certainly wouldn't ride around in their bike kit.
Fat people - they are just lazy.

What about medicine? - It was and has to be tested on animals.

I think if you go far enough up the chain ALL Food unless you grew it yourself is controlled by someone out to make a profit. And even then you bought the seeds from agribusiness.

And your pension? Where do you think that gains it's interest? or not.

It's complicated but what alternative life can you provide for folk making cheap clothes? Could we Pay more at this end and hope education at the other end is included?

I wouldn't actually say I "boycott" anything, to be honest. I "avoid using" certain stores/brands, sure but "boycott"? Sounds a bit right on and trendy, left wing, middle class NIMBY/student to me.......
What would Cliff do?
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If you make positive choices in favour people and organisations with sound(er) ethics then you won't need to boycott anything or anybody.

[i]Tesco -- For crimes against your local small shop[/i]

Love it. You've clearly never been to our local small shops. Tesco moving to the area is the best thing to happen to us since the glaciers created some ace hills.

Bristol bikefest.

The Labour Party.
I know this won't win me many friends, but 100,000 dead Iraqis are reason enough, even before we get into their flirtation with Thatcherism and endless lies to the electorate.

I broadly agree but do you think the Tories would have done anything differently re Iraq? If anything they'd have been even more gung-ho.

McDonalds bikes in Edinburgh after they ripped off my son on his 5th birthday (that was 10 years ago).

Subaru after getting really bad customer service from their Falkirk showroom

Tesco Fuel after having engine problems due to contaminated fuel and they denied it was their issue - I havent used any supermarket fuels since then.

Talk Sport for employing Stan Collymore, Richard Keys and Andy Gray

Half hearted boycott of Murdock media empire which crumbles as soon as Heiniken cup starts each year.

Starbucks - as they don't support our armed forces

What does this mean why do we need a coffee house to support our armed forces?

Boycotts ? Prefer to think of it a informed purchasing. I have just dumped the mobile network 3 for not having a network - wont support sky because what they have done to sport and the culture around it. Others for obvious reasons already mentioned:- Coke, Mc D's, Tesco, RBS, Nestle, all bottled water and what was cadbury - now Kraft foods.

I think if a company has dubious ehtics and screws people over we should just not buy their stuff. Its th only way we can hurt them. Complaining never works!

Down with this type of thing

This far and no mention of Halfords or Evans?

And Morrisons, or any other establishment that inflicts patronising Jeremy Kyle piped music on it's customers.

I broadly agree but do you think the Tories would have done anything differently re Iraq? If anything they'd have been even more gung-ho.

Not wishing to bring a political debate into this thread, but I'm a child of the 1980s, so not voting Tory absolutely goes without saying.

We've put up with below par politics in this country for far too long. A cleanup is long overdue.

nobody so far tho I do stay away from fast food chains as much as possible, for taste reasons as much as anything else.

I used to know a guy who boycotted our price records, it worked too 🙂

Edit Just realised whilst I don't actually "Boycott" anyone there's shedloads of companies I wouldn't go near due to (over)price*, taste and general shonkiness of their product/service, would be a long list.

*just been given an ipad so I guess my apple over priced tat boycott has been suspended.

Edit 2, just remembered....the trafford centre, have never been and am committed to never ever step foot inside, there you go a bona fide boycott.

I try to avoid all of the totem pole of retail mediocraty that is the typical out-of-town retail park.

they're fair game for shoplifters though

Starbucks - as they don't support our armed forces

Eh? Is this an ironic Daily Mail-style joke or am I missing something here?

MrSalmon - Member

"Starbucks - as they don't support our armed forces"

Eh? Is this an ironic Daily Mail-style joke or am I missing something here?

Our Armed Forces need piss-poor coffee?

Which definition of 'support' are we using here?

Are starbucks not contributing to wages and supply lines/logistics? Or they not partaking in sufficient flag waving? #puts on fire retardant underpants and waits#

Since when do you have to support imperialism