r/Anticonsumption • u/cacxte • Feb 16 '25
Discussion What’s the point in Boycotting?
It seems like everyone forgot about standing against major corporations that eliminate DEl and supporting small businesses-only to turn around and go back a few days later for something like cheaper cake. What's the point of starting a movement if everyone abandons it so quickly?
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u/ChoiceReflection965 Feb 16 '25
I think a lot of people really WANT to boycott big corporations and try their best to support the movement, but ultimately, the average American simply cannot afford to do all their shopping at small businesses. Target and Walmart and the like offer low prices and are the only accessible options for many people. Folks are just doing their best to get by and have to shop where they can buy their groceries within their budgets. I think something good we can do for one another is share tips and tricks for minimizing waste and consumption even if you do have to utilize big-box stores.
One recipe I love to share is, if you want a cake but don’t have a lot of money to spend, or want to minimize your purchases, here’s an option to try! Cherry coke cake. Mix together one box of chocolate cake mix and 1 1/2 cups of cherry coke, bake at 350 F for 30 mins, top with your favorite vanilla icing.
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u/jimmib234 Feb 16 '25
That's my deal. Where I live, the only grocers are Walmart at 45 minutes away, Kroger at 45 minutes, or an IGA 15 minutes, but the IGA will triple the cost of my groceries and I can't afford to feed my family if we go that route.
I buy things off of manufacturers websites that I find on Amazon instead of through Amazon, keep my ancient cars running instead of buying a new one, plant my own garden(when it's warmer) and harvest duck eggs, hell I haven't bought any clothes besides a pair of boots in 3 years except for my young children. But I unfortunately can't afford to boycott the big stores on groceries.
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u/RudyJuliani Feb 17 '25
I’d say if all you’re buying from big stores is groceries, you’re doing just fine friend, please don’t be guilted into thinking otherwise. The oligarchy is not winning because of your grocery purchases. Make a conscious effort to do what you can within reason.
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u/Ok-Geologist8296 Feb 17 '25 edited Feb 17 '25
I always remind folks of this. Do what you can, but if it's needed, just get it. I'm not going to fault someone who "survives" on minimum wage for shopping where they do. I know the struggle too well to belittle them for trying to make something out of nothing.
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u/etamatcha Feb 17 '25
yea i heard that theres no ethical consumption under capitalism. honestly, i feel like you are buying within your means and not overbuying unnecessary stuff, no need to feel guilty. its asnine to blame individual consumers, who may not be in a very good financial position for the massive overconsumption problems that are caused by corporations (and which corporations have the ability to solve)
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u/HeartKevinRose Feb 16 '25
This Christmas I tried REALLY hard to not buy Amazon. I found the perfect stuffy that my toddler had asked Santa for. It was $22 on Amazon. On the manufacturers website it was $29, but came unstuffed and it was like $10 more to stuff it. Then shipping was $15 or so. I think wasn’t going to spend literally twice as much for the same stuffed unicorn.
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u/puppyinspired Feb 16 '25
It’s not the same product though. This tactic is explored in the United States of Walmart. Basically what these low cost retailers do is say you have your make your product cheaper. So they create two products. One they sell at regular stores/directly and the other they sell through the cheap store. They may have the same packaging but they aren’t the same product.
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u/itsdickers Feb 17 '25
Yep it’s the ole Le Creuset made in France versus the Le Creuset made in China. One of those is going to last a really long time. One is going to make you sad.
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u/armutosman Feb 17 '25
This happened to me, I bought a hydroflask brand water container from walmart, which was slightly cheaper but the quality feels way off.
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u/new2bay Feb 17 '25
I agree. I’m willing to pay the “small business tax” to support local businesses if the price is reasonable. A good example of a case where it turned out not to be reasonable was when I needed to have some documents scanned. That would have cost probably $12 if I had taken it to Office Depot and done it myself. Instead, I took it to a local place, because it was close by. They don’t even allow people to scan stuff themselves. So, I had to stand in line and wait for an employee to do it for me. That cost $38, and the machine was asking for a tip on top of that! Needless to say, I won’t be going back to that place for my scanning needs.
But, then there’s a local photo place that does digital photo printing. Their prices are reasonable. I think it averaged $0.50 per print for 4x6’s. They also loved my dog and wanted to take pictures of her. 😂 That’s a place I’ll be going back to.
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u/HoldMyPoodle6280 Feb 17 '25
Next time, go to your library. My local library even offers us $5/mo in free printing at $0.25 cents a page in color.
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u/aabm11 Feb 17 '25
But the point is, do you really think your toddler couldn’t be equally happy with a different stuffy?
This is exactly how consumerism gets us. The idea that we need the “perfect” thing. And not valuing how we get a product equally or more than the final product. I really doubt your toddler wouldn’t have been just as happy with something else you found that wasn’t from Amazon.
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u/HeartKevinRose Feb 17 '25
Yeah, she was pretty specific in her letter to Santa. I looked for a couple weeks before finding one that fit.
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u/kteachergirl Feb 17 '25
Same. My kid asked Santa for Larva stuffies (this weird Korean cartoon on Netflix.) it was either something hand made on Etsy that was 3x the price and wouldn’t come in time or Amazon. We only have so many years of Santa Magic so we went with Amazon.
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u/mackahrohn Feb 16 '25
You’re right but also this is literally the goal for Target and Walmart. Reagan ended the Robinson-Patman Act which forced suppliers to give fair pricing to all grocers. It became easier to have a monopoly and in some states regulations made it harder to have unions (which lets these employers spend less on their employees, drives down wages in a town, and leaves everyone with less money for food).
A Walmart in a town MAKES the town poorer. I completely understand why people gave no choice but to work or shop there. Source for Walmart making a town poorer.
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u/lawn-mumps Feb 17 '25
Cool, another thing Reagan did to pull the rug out from young and future Americans
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u/SourceWebMD Feb 17 '25
Yeah seriously, I bought 4 medium sized cinnamon rolls from a local bakery this morning and they were almost $30. They were really good but were they +$7 good? I'd have had as much enjoyment out of a 6 pack tin from the grocery bakery for $5.
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u/snailminister Feb 17 '25
If it gives you any reassurance for future treats, cinnamon buns are extremely easy to bake, to point where typical finnish 10 year olds know how to make them. I've worked at bakery and still bake as a hobby, "secret" is just using real ingredients and letting dough rise well.
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u/Murky-Peanut1390 Feb 16 '25
99% of small businesses have the same mentality has big business. Small businesses are trying to grow as big as they can (basic business 101). Believe me, if a small business can become "big" they would and act the same way as other greedy CEOs
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u/Interesting_Ad_9924 Feb 17 '25
People miss that the petit bourgeoisie are still bourgeois. Small business owners don't have as much capital, but they're still competing on the market, still hoarding wealth and fucking over workers. They actually have incentives to be even more ruthless to the working class because they have more to lose (and are the historical base for fascism). They're not inherently better at all, they're just smaller. Their model is the same, it's likely their products and practices are the same or similar.
I think boycotts can be great when they're part of a campaign, like BDS or to support a strike, but it's so logistically difficult to boycott a supermarket long term, and it's never going to have the same impact as industrial action. We should stop blaming poor people, especially because consumption doesn't really represent power, power is in action in numbers.
I hope I never have to work for a small business again, so many of them are micromanaging psychos on a power trip.
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u/Murky-Peanut1390 Feb 17 '25
Yea small business also pay the same wage rate as big. So who exactly am i helping? I could understand if they paid living wages with benefits for their employees then it would be more like community helping community but if the employees are just getting paid the same, i rather save money and shop at big. As much as i hate the big corps
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u/jacob6875 Feb 17 '25
In my area at least small businesses actually pay less and have zero benefits compared to places like Walmart.
Since they are under 50 employees they don't even have to provide health insurance.
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u/Interesting_Ad_9924 Feb 17 '25 edited Feb 17 '25
Australia has free healthcare, but you still do have less rights at work if you're employed by a small business, they're allowed to fuck you over more.
It's fucked they don't have to provide health insurance. Fuck that, I'm so sick of small businesses complaining about having to pay staff, the entitlement is crazy
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u/cenimsaj Feb 17 '25
Yeah, I don't know that I've ever worked for a great company, but small businesses are often worse. No or garbage benefits. Crappier pay. I basically never took a vacation because they either didn't offer PTO or ran such a skeleton crew that they acted like they'd implode if anyone took time off. Calling out sick would have been a personal offense, as if I was out there licking doorknobs just to catch something and wrong my employer, lol. And they ALWAYS pulled that "family" BS and expected you to be as passionate about their stupid business as they were.
I do try to support small businesses as much as I can. I'm lucky that I can actually mostly get away with buying my groceries from locally owned shops. But I'm not going to pretend small businesses are great places to work.
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u/Ried_Reads Feb 17 '25
Exactly. The business model that makes things “affordable” is a fallacy because of all the underpaid workers, causing these workers to have a minimal pay, minimal shopping choices.
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u/garaile64 Feb 17 '25
Unsolvable vicious cycle. Unsolvable because the United States and many other countries are unwilling to properly tax the rich in order to be "competitive" or some bullshit. Also because the Soviet Union is dead.
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u/kkoromon Feb 17 '25
Why are american small companies so expensive in the first place? I live abroad and the locally sourced veg stalls, or local non chain restaurants are often well priced
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u/garaile64 Feb 17 '25
Probably because megacorps are wealthy enough to underprice their products without going bankrupt.
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u/RudyJuliani Feb 17 '25 edited Feb 17 '25
Saying this kind of thing on this sub is like preaching to the choir. But the problem starts with thinking you need a cake. (The cake can be anything unnecessary, yes cake is food, but you don’t need cake, just like you don’t need a majority of the things you own).
If you say, “well it’s hard to boycott Walmart and support a small business because this (insert whatever it is you think you need) is 5x more expensive at said small business, so I’m stuck shopping at Walmart”. - No, you do not need a cake. Boycotting isn’t “well I have to buy this because I can’t afford to buy it elsewhere”. Boycotting is going without. Make your own cake, or simply don’t have a cake.
The real problem with those of us who are not happy with the status quo and are motivated to make a change, are largely unwilling to actually do anything to bring about change. We/they are unwilling to sacrifice the conveniences and pleasantries that this new version of capitalism has convinced us is needed. Again, I know I’m preaching to the choir on this sub, but if everyone who is actually upset about what’s going on wants to make a change, voting with your wallet is a very very easy way to do so.
I don’t know about most people, but I could live just fine with buying groceries and the basic life necessities but nothing else for quite a long time.
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u/TaiChuanDoAddct Feb 17 '25
Man, I don't even HAVE small businesses.
My wife complains about how much we get from Amazon. But our alternatives for "buying in person" are Target or Walmart or whatever.
We live in a suburb. There's no "small businesses" to buy shit even if we wanted to. Hell, our only brick and mortar bookstore is Barnes and Noble.
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u/Ok-Geologist8296 Feb 17 '25
Have much of the same in my hometown. Many still don't have cars or cannot afford to drive 40 miles to a store. The regional grocers are just as bad as the big box stores. Short growing season, so gardening isn't viable unless you have a lot of time on your hands for that time. Very small blue collar town. I have to remind folks, there's more people in places like where I grew up than other realize and these folks often have little recourse without more financial burden. Maybe I'm wrong, but I always get this air around these topics, a big lack of nuance.
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u/sgtducky9191 Feb 17 '25
Yes! I live in a small mid-west city and even with my financial privilege sometimes the options just aren't there! I do my best, focusing on "better" brands if I have to use those places, and reminding myself that there is no such thing as ethical consumption. Do your best to reduce harm and promote your values, but don't beat yourself up since the system is built against you.
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u/annazabeth Feb 16 '25
putting my tin foil hat on for this to say this is a fabricated trend by walmart
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u/honorablenarwhal Feb 16 '25
I agree. They're apparently getting a lot of exposure over this. Although I have to say I agree with the statements about fondant sucking
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u/Vivillon-Researcher Feb 16 '25
The only good fondant I've ever had was marshmallow fondant. THAT is an acceptable cake covering.
(Made it myself years ago from some recipe I googled.)
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u/GreenGrapes42 Feb 17 '25
On this note, why don't more bakeries use it?? Why's it always that chemical ass bullshit fondant?
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u/IAmASeeker Feb 17 '25
The chemical ass bullshit comes in a huge bucket for $0.12 a gallon.
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u/Ready_Associate3790 Feb 16 '25
Wal-Mart the same company who talks and talks about how bad unions are in their training videos, it's not even far fetched
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u/SpacemanJB88 Feb 16 '25
For sure.
In 2025, this is how the guerrilla marketing strategy looks like within influencer marketing context.
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u/ilanallama85 Feb 16 '25
If not out and out fabricated, you know they’ve got their social media teams working overtime boosting this shit however they can.
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u/AdhesiveMadMan Feb 16 '25
And if it isn't, now they have anoyher marketing tactic. This is some 4D chess levels of marionetting: Let the good press hype itself up, then maybe pay some bigger influencers to promote that with the tiniest indicator of it being sponsored. Tiny enough to be both legal and invisible to 99% of the population.
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Feb 16 '25
You're telling me that small-town baker with the link to Walmart©️ in their comment that promotes Walmart©️ IS a psyop? Huh.
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u/Elden_Rube Feb 17 '25
The moment I flipped through the images posted, I knew it exactly to be influencer marketing by Walmart. Propaganda all day long and we have a top comment on this post, along with a bunch of other people coming to bat to defend Walmart.
Am I in the right sub?
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u/Absolute-Nobody0079 Feb 16 '25
This is America. It had too many real life tin foil hat moments.
And people still believe a major disruption is bad?!
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u/ManonIsTheField Feb 16 '25
they've made American life so miserable that people are like I'm not giving up my little treats because that's all we have anymore it's beyond fucked up
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u/lexihra Feb 16 '25
Meanwhile everyone in Canada is boycotting everything American and it’s working
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u/ManonIsTheField Feb 16 '25
you know, god bless Canada. I feel like our fucking dysfunction has united them together in a way they haven't been for a while. I also enjoyed watching their hockey players beat our hockey players' asses last night
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u/Moose-Mermaid Feb 17 '25
Yup, checking all the labels. Not giving any money to the USA I don’t absolutely have to
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u/ForGrateJustice Feb 17 '25
I started boycotting everything American.... by moving to Australia! So far it's working great. But can they keep their shitty products and fast food culture over there??
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u/Killing4MotherAgain Feb 16 '25
Ok but that last one is real. I'm so fucking poor. I don't shop at target or Walmart anyway but I am going to go to Kroger and get my shampoo because I can't afford anymore than I'm already paying. I have no money.
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u/madderk Feb 16 '25
Krogers in my area are union. I’ll always support union grocery stores over non-union ones like target and Walmart.
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u/Content-Scallion-591 Feb 17 '25
I feel like the last one shouldn't even be included tbh.
Protesting actually is a privilege. That's why in America historically middle class and upper middle class white women have led the charge in consumer boycotts. If you literally cannot afford to not boycott, then the other people boycotting are boycotting for you.
Survival is always #1. They win by getting rid of us. So don't feel guilty if your budget literally doesn't allow, because that's the system they intentionally developed.
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u/Ok-Geologist8296 Feb 17 '25
Agreed. I only shop at big box stores if I'm forced to. I don't expect someone in my hometown making $7.25 an hour at a Wendy's to do so.
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Feb 16 '25 edited Feb 24 '25
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u/Killing4MotherAgain Feb 16 '25
My curls are too specific unfortunately haha I change one thing and they look like crap
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u/nobodynocrime Feb 17 '25
L'Oréal is the reason my hair fell out constantly for years and my scalp was always itching and breaking out. It's the only shampoo that has ever done that.
Monday is a great shampoo that is sulfate and sulfide free and $6 a bottle.
However, a lot of shampoos these days that are expensive can be worth the investment. Not Biolage or Big Sexy Hair, those are overpriced trash, but some companies are charging a premium for good ingredients and that is worth the extra imo to prevent allergic reactions or to get results for specific hair textures.
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u/Letsbe_real Feb 16 '25
Why are we paying this much money for a cake when we can make it at home!
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u/Jayn_Newell Feb 16 '25
Because they can decorate it nicer than I can.
(But my son doesn’t like the grocery store cakes so box mixes it is here)
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u/Letsbe_real Feb 16 '25
But to spend $100 on a cake. Isn’t that the point of underconsumption?
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u/Katie1230 Feb 16 '25
Underconsumption isn't inherently about spending less money. It's about buying less in general and not buying things just to buy them. If you buy the more expensive work boots, or better quality clothing, they will last longer and you won't have to buy them as often. Where cheap stuff isn't made to last. The cake conversation is different because cake is a non essential item. The 100$ cake is supporting a small business, and they are usually crazy beautiful with intricate piping. The walmart cake aren't as beautiful but they get the job done. I see both sides of the debate, I understand why home bakers are upset, but i also see it as the people buying the Walmart cakes were never gonna shell out for a custom cake, and wouldn't fall into their target market.
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u/mkwlk Feb 16 '25
In the USA at least, we’ve been conditioned to expect/demand instant gratification. Many can’t withstand the discomfort that comes with challenging the need for instant gratification, so they cave, and this is the result.
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u/Alternative_Poem445 Feb 16 '25
my problem is the shopping addicts
i get that my perspective doesn’t allow me to comprehend it but it’s like
you aren’t doing it because you NEED it
you don’t even have an object in mind that you WANT
you just desire the act of browsing for a purchase you pretty much know is not a necessity
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u/SmolSwitchyKitty Feb 17 '25
I'm so so glad that "add to wishlist" scratches that itch in my brain when browsing. I can have a list of shinies that I like to look at, but don't need to actually /own/ it and stress about something arriving or where to store it.
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u/Logical_Cupcake_6665 Feb 17 '25
I’ve continued my doom browsing, and I add a lot of things to my cart, but then I ignore my cart for a very long time. My ADHD enjoys the dopamine from hitting “add to cart” but I stop myself from actually buying things. I was in survival mode with money for a long time, so this was done out of necessity mostly, because I couldn’t actually afford to buy anything.
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u/nobodynocrime Feb 17 '25
I do the same thing. I will add things to the cart and then put them.in "save for later" knowing they will likely sell out before I ever decide to buy it.
I also have extensive wish lists that I never intend on buying from or even want. When I do have a little extra money I will consider an item on the wishlist and realize I didn't actually want it and the dopamine isn't there and won't buy it.
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u/beam_me_uppp Feb 17 '25
It’s hard though because many people have been victimized into this addiction. We are all targeted every minute of our lives—it’s everywhere we look. Online retailers take advantage of dopamine just like social media does. I’m not saying it isn’t our responsibility as individuals to find our way out of these addictions, but i have dealt with it myself and I have also watched my mother do it for years. She doesn’t have a very critical mind and her self awareness when it comes to this isn’t strong enough to snap her out of it. It’s rough in this modern timeline.
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u/mkwlk Feb 16 '25
I spent years stuck in this cycle and I mostly agree with you.
Rather than a desire to browse, for many it's an actual addiction. It took years to break free of the addiction. Instead of having a cigarette at noon, I was on the Gilt website trolling for bargains.
That was about 13 years ago and I still find unworn/unboxed things I haaaaaaaad to have in the moment.
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u/jacob6875 Feb 17 '25
Someone on my mail route gets 5-10 packages a day. Mostly from TEMU with a couple Amazon thrown in.
Even if I wanted to I'm not sure if I could find 10 things to buy a day.
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u/Trixie_Firecracker Feb 16 '25
This is the answer. We don’t know how to be even mildly inconvenienced. Nothing will change in this country until Americans stop having nearly instant access to basically whatever they want.
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u/Unlucky-Clock5230 Feb 16 '25
Perfection is the enemy of progress, and expecting society as a whole to join up and boycott walmart is aiming for perfection.
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u/Alaizabel Feb 17 '25
Don't let perfection be the enemy of the good!
I am Canadian. I am permanently boycotting as many American brands/companies as possible. I am aware of this as I type on Reddit.
In conclusion: Fuck Trump and his bullying, and the people gleefully cheering on his 51st state bullshit. He only had to make a joke about it and so many people latched on and it's now normalised. Fuck them all.
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u/KhalilSmack85 Feb 16 '25
I'm still boycotting. Im making it a part of my life so that I never have to go back and give business to companies that are making the world I live in a worse place.
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u/MsPMC90 Feb 16 '25
There are many who will not be able to boycott. They created monopolies in much of America. Those specific companies are going to need to be boycotted by coastal cities, primarily. For a lot of the country, there is only one grocery store. It’s Walmart. And even THAT is 20 minutes by highway away from their home
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u/Ready_Associate3790 Feb 16 '25
Modern society doesn't know that even one hundred years ago basic conveniences were not even possible to get unless you had a huge amount of ambition or privilege
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Feb 17 '25
I'm a scholar of late-19th c and early-20th c commercial culture. While I don't disagree with the larger point that hyperconsumption has hit astronomical levels, but these claims are absolutely not true.
One hundred years ago was probably the time of the largest lifestyle cleft between urban and rural living of any time in history really, but for city-dwellers, who just around one hundred years ago became the plurality in the US, people all over the world has access to goods from all over. Magazines, which had become huge in the late 19th c due to mass literacy, the post office, and cheap paper, hawked all sorts of goods. Japanese silk was huge in South America before the turn or the ventury. In the early 20th, young students in Japan were eyeballing the newest western ballpoint pens.
We laid underwater cables linking north America and Europe in 1858. The subway here in NYC opened in 1904. When Ginza burned down early in the Meiji period (1870s), the Japanese government hired some of the world's most famous architects and planners to turn it into a modernized entertainment district and by the 19-teens, window shopping in Ginza had become a stories pastime among Tokyo denizens.
The industrial revolution and the rise of classical liberalism remade the world. The manufacturing industry had to sell their wares to exist after all, as Henry Ford noted.
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u/Soil_Fairy Feb 16 '25
A huge amount of people weren't obsessed with history as kids and it shows.
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u/New_Performance_9356 Feb 16 '25
A lot of American history that is taught in schools is just a whole bunch of propaganda anyways so I wouldn't doubt that people got brainwashed along the way, me on the other hand I have always been someone who is enjoyed history outside of America and enjoys historical tragedies and all the negatives of the world, so I kind of know most of the stuff that America does not want to teach.
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u/Alternative_Poem445 Feb 16 '25 edited Feb 16 '25
100 years ago and then some people were excellent at only spending money on what they absolutely HAVE to
just a few short years of bernays and madison avenue and people were pitched against their own spending needs to satisfy their narcissism and the development of their identity through the purchasing of products
it still works so well even i was a victim of it, only spending money i had saved up on things that would help me become a musician, producer, sound technician or whatever
and much of it was after already becoming a reasonably successful stage tech
i still do not need any of it but the purchase was put towards my self identity and that made it worth the while to me
and i fucking hate owning things
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u/Unlikely_Couple1590 Feb 16 '25
I know I'm probably going to get downvoted to hell and back for this, but I CAN'T boycott Walmart 🤷♀️ I literally cannot afford to where I live. There are small grocery stores, but their prices are astronomical compared to Walmart. I know that's by design and that's how Walmart drives other businesses out, but there's nothing I can do. No amount of budgeting is going to make $8 for a dozen eggs at the local grocery store reasonable. I can't pay $5 for a gallon of milk at the local "discount" grocery store when I know it's carried at Walmart for $2.90 (this is the most recent example). I try to shop ethically within Walmart and I'm conscious of the brands I'm buying but when it's down the wire every paycheck, hell yeah I'm going to Walmart. Boycotting is so much harder when you're poor or working class and we can't do it perfectly
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u/Charlotte_Russe Feb 16 '25
You are doing your best under very limiting circumstances. I think the anger on this thread is about the social media influencers cashing in on the boycott trend.
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u/throwawayforeverx2 Feb 16 '25
I think and hope most reasonable people can understand that the big stores like Walmart have run out the competition and there are some places that don’t have very many other options. I’ve seen a few people when talking about the boycotts say just do what you can.
Idk if it’s exist where you are and I’m also on a city but I was also looking into community gardening. Where you go in with a few friends to buy a box plot and you guys plants a few herbs or veggies and you share the cost as well as the responsibility of keeping it up. I was thinking it’s a great way to cut back save money since herbs are so expensive and as inflation increases this could really help save a little.
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u/jacob6875 Feb 17 '25
I live in a town of 15k people and the only food stores are Walmart and Aldi.
Otherwise I have to drive an hour to the next town over. And no way I am making a 2 hour round trip and spending more to "shop local".
Actually is it even local anymore if it is an hour away ?
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u/Murky-Peanut1390 Feb 16 '25
Exactly, if I shopped at small businesses, i would use up most of my money, the small businesses will grow but i will never get ahead. Big chain stores allow me to save more money and thus get ahead in life. Also 99% of the time. Small businesses are paying the SAME wage rate as big businesses. So you're really just helping some pay off their business loan and expenses overhead cost. I get it may have been their dream to own a business. But i have dreams myself and can't blow off more money.
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u/TheSqueakyNinja Feb 16 '25
Let’s be clear, first and foremost, there is no ethical consumption under capitalism. In MANY communities across the US, Walmart is the sole place anyone can afford to buy groceries and essentials. There may be mom and pop shops still operating, but not everyone can choose to pay twice the cost for essentials to avoid Walmart or Target, etc.
Should we champion boycotts of companies we know are shitty and terrible? Absolutely. Should we sit on a high horse about it when people are just trying to live? Hell no.
The literal point of boycotting is to improve the lives of other people and ourselves. Not everyone has the privilege of paying more to do so, and how anyone thinks they can sit on their moral high ground and look down on others needs to take a step or five back and zoom out on the realities for hundreds of thousands of families.
If it was that simple, it would’ve worked already.
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u/Any_Thanks_900 Feb 16 '25
Anti consumption means spending more on cake for Valentine’s Day? I’d buy cake at big store because I’m poor. I would bake my own cake. I wouldn’t have cake for a Hallmark holiday. Lots of options here. I’m sorry but boutique bakeries have gotten out of control.
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u/DamThors Feb 17 '25
Thannnnkk you. I once saw a small cake for $110. The excuse was it was hand made for the holiday and I was like "aren't all of your cakes handmade though?"
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u/justabigasswhale Feb 16 '25
honestly, I have almost zero faith in the average American in terms of consumption activism. people have gotten so used to extravagant consumption that whenever they are presented with the prospect of many meaningful decrease in material possessions, they instantaneously fold. Like, if your activism stops at the prospect of like, having to spend anything other then a pittance on themed desserts, you were never doing activism. Gandhi didnt eat for days on end, and we cant even give up Valentines Day sweets.
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u/redyeticup Feb 17 '25
I have little faith too…in a small poli sci class last week my professor said his wife started boycotting stuff and I said I had started also, and I shop at a local grocery chain. This guy next to me pipes up saying “do you think that’s actually doing anything?” and I gave examples of product switches I made. In a class of progressive people who pay attention to the news and..they won’t even boycott stuff. Ugh.
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u/Wondercat87 Feb 16 '25
So people buying a wal-mart cake means that boycotts are pointless?
Boycotts are very personal, you essentially have to tailor what you do to the options available to you. Some people may not have the option of shopping anywhere but wal-mart because they live in a small town that has nothing but a wal-mart. Are we forgetting that wal-mart has essentially killed off a lot of small businesses?
Others may not have the budget. People are seriously strapped right now. Some people are trying to work with the budget they have, and that might mean shopping at Wal-mart. Doesn't mean they may not still support small businesses when they can. But I don't think it's realistic to expect everyone to buy a $100 bakeshop cake just to support a small business.
Sure, if people have the discretionary income to do so, then they should. But not everyone does. So I kind of see what they are saying. Some people can also cook a cake at home. But not everyone has the time or the ability. Some people live in hotels or in shared accommodations where cooking is limited or not available. I see so many rental ads where cooking is discouraged.
I'm sure I'll get downvoted for saying all of this. But I think we need to stop with this all or nothing thinking. If people find a movement too confining or too hard to follow, less people will try and then we won't make any progress. But if people can find actionable things they can do that fit into their life, they are more likely to be consistent with it. Which will help make lasting change.
I'm not saying people shouldn't take a look at how they are spending their money or the choices they are making. But a small action doesn't cancel out a movement. If you let what a few people choose to do discourage you from doing anything, then you are letting apathy win.
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u/MiaLba Feb 17 '25
Great comment. I love the idea of supporting small/local businesses but honestly they’re a lot pricier than the chains. I understand why that is but not everyone can afford those prices. Someone should be allowed to get their kid a nice birthday cake without breaking the bank.
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u/Panserbjornsrevenge Feb 16 '25
Such a lack of imagination - there aren't a dichotomy of solutions to these problems (ie. small business or WalMart). Make you own stuff, trade or borrow with friends, use buy nothing groups. There are more ways to solve a problem.
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u/bekarene1 Feb 16 '25
The false binary seems to be social media's favorite way make people mad these days
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u/og_toe Feb 16 '25
i mean, it’s not realistic for people to pay 100$ for a birthday cake so i don’t know what to tell you about this one
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u/geminiisiren Feb 17 '25
i live in rural country so we got one grocery store about 25 minutes away and a walmart 25 minutes away as well. that's about it in terms of grocery store shopping in a reasonable distance.
recently i tried to go to my regular grocery store in an attempt to no longer shop at walmart.
the prices... were criminal. my creamer that is 3.25 at walmart was NO JOKE over 6 dollars at this grocery store. i immediately walked out after checking the prices of my staple food items. it was actually disgusting to see those prices and it made me genuinely realize how walmart/amazon has managed to GUT the competition and have a chokehold on lower income families.
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u/GrumpsMcYankee Feb 16 '25
All issues aside, small bakeries can gouge on items. Also, try making your cake, it's not too hard, and even an ugly cake tastes pretty good.
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u/tashimiyoni Feb 17 '25
Exactly, me and my sister make cakes for our family, even without any special occasion. Do they look great? Absolutely not, are they delicious and cheap? Yep
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u/ThrowingAwayDots Feb 17 '25
Depending on where you live, it's hard to boycott. Plus, not everyone knows of it. I knew we were boycotting Target, but this post is the first I saw saying to boycott Walmart, too.
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u/bekarene1 Feb 16 '25
Somehow I survive without Walmart cakes 😂 I don't judge folks who buy WalMart cakes, but making it sound like you HAVE to or have zero choices is wild. I don't love the current trend of folks presenting these false binary scenarios and acting like those who disagree are elitist.
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Feb 17 '25
Youre too attached to the goal and dont recognize the journey of it. Just because it doesnt happen immediately doesnt mean it doesnt push the envelope
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u/Jumpy_Ad1631 Feb 16 '25
Financial privilege is for-sure a thing, but this honestly gives marketing ploy vibes
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u/New_Performance_9356 Feb 16 '25
I have recently decided to put my foot down and stop going to Walmart to get cat litter and instead I go and get play sand that works just as well as Crystal cat litter and is in fact a cat litter substitute that is more affordable ( I can get so much out of it also), I no longer wish to get things from Walmart after realizing that I could be getting stuff better at different stores.
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u/SnooAdvice8561 Feb 17 '25
Join the Deprive25 movement! Boycott 25 billionaire-owned companies, Avoid spending money 25 days/month, and save $25/week as emergency cash.
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u/Competitive_Long_190 Feb 16 '25
What happened to boxed cakes? They are cheap and excellent. Stop trying to keep up with the jonses.
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u/fletters Feb 16 '25
And, IMO, infinitely better than the average supermarket sheet cake.
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u/247cnt Feb 16 '25
Homemade cakes are charming! Even just aesthetically, I think they're so much cuter.
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u/Meryule Feb 16 '25
We've allowed our consumption habits to become our defining characteristic and we're predictably miserable as a result
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u/Mythical_Truth Feb 16 '25
I'm like 98% certain this is Walmart's attempt to say their cake is better than small bakeries so they can offset the losses from people boycotting them.
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u/Todojaw21 Feb 16 '25
im getting to this thread late but
i wish we didnt have the internet to restrict socializing to only people outside of your physical space. if people were actually rallying inside of small towns, they could make a difference. Imagine if a few hundred people started spreading the word that they were boycotting the walmart. Not walmart. Not all walmarts. Just a single one.
Internet boycotts are doomed to fail because there is no check to determine if everyone is actually following the rules. In a physical space you could give people direct alternatives and identify if they are following the boycott. We hear "shop local!" and not "shop at Jimmy's market! its a small store right off of main street. I know the owner and he actually agrees with us."
Internet boycotts can never outcompete cheap prices and quality goods. When we feel lost that's all we can connect to.
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u/Flack_Bag Feb 16 '25
"Influencers" were a marketing invention going back well before anyone else had ever heard the term. Their entire reason for existing is to promote a lifestyle largely dominated by consumer products.
Some people on social media carve out other little niches for themselves, but for the most part, of course the vast majority of them are all about promoting consumerism. But they are not and never have been representative of the way normal people live.
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u/dabMasterYoda Feb 17 '25
Consumers need to be prepared to pay higher prices but small businesses need to be prepared to take smaller profits as well. There’s a disconnect between what we all say we want to have as customers or provide as owners, and what actually exists in the marketplace.
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u/Xennylikescoffee Feb 17 '25
The point is if someone used to go to Walmart for $400 USD of goods a month and switch to $50 once in a while or only holidays, then it's hurting Walmart's pocket.
If we had everyone dropping just 10% of their average shopping, then the stores would notice. Add in 10% and the full/near full boycotts and the stores might just behave.
I'm personally able to avoid Walmart, Target, Amazon, etc. I'm lucky because my area is full of options. I don't live in a food desert.
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u/overcomethestorm Feb 17 '25
The real problem here isn’t a $100 cake versus a $10 cake. The real problem is a society that values instant gratification.
Why not have fun baking a cake with your partner (or by yourself)? People used to enjoy the end result more because of the process. Our consumer “advancements” as a society have made us addicts of short dopamine spikes.
People used to be more than satisfied with a hand baked and decorated cake and it was the process and tradition of making it that made it special.
As for strawberries, it appears that the ingredients (where I live) cost a whole whopping $12 for a pint of chocolate covered strawberries (and that’s being liberal with the sprinkles). Four of the finished ones in my local store cost $9.99 and they didn’t even have sprinkles. For the cost of four pre-made strawberries you could be having a fun creative time making a whole pint of them.
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u/Signal-Upstairs-9319 Feb 17 '25
Yeah I was actually disappointed when I would get a store bought cake for my birthday. Homemade tastes so much better even from a box.
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u/re-goddamn-loading Feb 16 '25
"Walmart cake always slaps"
I know I shouldn't shop at walmart but had an emergency with my kids birthday cake the night before her party. Ran to their bakery for a cake. I wasn't expecting anything good but for 20 dollars I was expecting something edible. NOPE. Actually inedible and I'm NOT a picky eater lol.
Whoever is posting all this shit is a literal bot
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u/WhiteFarila Feb 16 '25
I'm not a professional baker, but I bake cakes for fun. I've been on the cake decorating side of tiktok for a while now. This discussion is crazy because no one seems to be looking at it from a nuanced perspective.
I don't think it is fair for bakers to get angry at people choosing to purchase lower price options they can afford. Walmart is a horrible company and it's unethical business model should be discussed. If you are able afford a cake from elsewhere then you have no reason to be buying from walmart. Home bakers charge more because they do not have the money or resources that corporations like Walmart have.
"Walmart cake is just as good as bakery cake and most bakers use cake mix anyway" - I genuinely feel bad for you if think this, because you've clearly never had a good piece of cake. Sure, there are some dishonest bakers who use cake mix. But a good bakery cake knocks the socks off walmart any day. Even a homemade cake made from scratch slapped together with homemade frosting is miles better in taste than walmart cake.
Walmart bakery uses the cheapest & most unhealthy ingredients there are. I see people mocking the bakers for bring this up, but it is true. The frosting on grocery store cakes has a unique texture that can not be reproduced at home, because it is made in an industrial environment with a ton of processed ingredients that wouldn't be found in a homemade frosting. Grocery store cakes usually use margarine instead of real butter, for example.
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u/ReadWriteTheorize Feb 17 '25
Boycotting is good if you can but Walmart and a lot of major chains are often the only suppliers of basic goods to a lot of areas (because they’ve priced out their small competitors but still).
And also, that doesn’t make the indie bakers less classist in saying that you don’t deserve a heart shaped cake for valentines unless you can pay $100 for one (literally 13 hours of minimum wage work).
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u/Queenfanforever Feb 16 '25
I tell my husband all the time that people don’t have conviction anymore and are so complacent. Like I get things are expensive but then buy the groceries from someplace good to make it yourself. I stopped going to so many places because 1. Trying to do better and 2. They do not align with beliefs I support. I deleted Amazon facebook instagram twitter etc. like everyone is so complacent for the sake of convenience as opposed to seeing our money has power. Our people have power. I would love to start a community garden or something so everyone can benefit and start growing our own foods and such. We need to be better at community. And bringing back small businesses and farms instead of labor exploitation and just bllllleeeeugh. I am just ranting. I am sorry. The screenshots made me mad which I guess is the intention. But I really think something needs to change with the mindset and attitude or we are gonna end up like the people in Wall E lol
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u/InitialCold7669 Feb 16 '25
You do things that you want to do to see change in the world you can't control what other people do or how smart they may be
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u/glitterbeardwizard Feb 16 '25
I’m boycotting because the US is trying to annex my country. Down with the US! Canadians will never be American, even if they invade us and put the boot on our neck.
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u/Dont_be_offended_but Feb 16 '25
Chocolate covered strawberries are so cheap and easy to make that paying $7 for 6 is basically a scam.
Need: Strawberries, chocolate (recommend 60% dark), sauce pan, mixing spatula/spoon, and a metal/glass mixing bowl that can sit on sauce pan
Steps:
- Ensure bowl, berries, hands, mixing instrument are dry. Water drops mixing with melted chocolate will cause it to seize and become useless.
- Put a little water in sauce pan, set heat to high
- Place mixing bowl on top, add chocolate
- Wait for steam to start to start rising up around mixing bowl, set heat to low/simmer
- Stir chocolate occasionally until melted
- Dip strawberries, place on baking sheet
- Optional: put dipped berries in freezer 10 minutes to harden, then remove them and re-dip to create a thick, crisp chocolate shell and to use up excess chocolate
- Optional: add sprinkle of finishing salt over dipped berries before they harden
- Refrigerate or quick freeze ~20 minutes for faster eating
If you have extra chocolate throw some nuts in the bowl and scrape onto sheet to make some chocolate nut clusters.
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u/arrownyc Feb 17 '25
The abandoners may be loud, but I'm still here with you. You're not alone, don't give up. We can do this, we can make a difference. I believe in you!
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u/GlassAndStorm Feb 17 '25
I'm still boycotting them. It's not easy to find substitutions but I'm doing it.
Don't be discouraged. Do the right thing to the best of your ability. And if someone in your community needs help band together. Pool resources. Share ideas. Help each other.
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u/ososalsosal Feb 17 '25
Go find clearance centres and you'll be able to boycott while also having the same products or better that were destined to be wasted. Win-win-win.
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u/PriorAcanthisitta587 Feb 17 '25
For me? It’s because I’m poor. I simply cannot afford to shop anywhere else.
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Feb 17 '25
When I saw this battle on TikTok all I could think was “does no one bake for themselves anymore?” Also a cake for Valentine’s Day is not something I’ve ever noticed before. When did that start?
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u/Temperature_Visible Feb 17 '25
In Canada We have much cheaper groceries in other stores, who will also allow price matching
A $30 pair of shoes will be replaced four times in a year. A $100 pair will last the year.
Alot of quality products will long outlast cheaper inferior products and be cheaper in the long run, often sold from your local Ma and Pa shop.
Yes their is such a thing as being so poor things get more expensive because of it.
I'm from the millenial generation where we monetise our hobbies, which is one step closer to being anti-consunption, as it allows us to slowly move away from these over consuming, extra polluting companies.
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u/ILikeAntiquesOkay Feb 17 '25
People that will fall back into their ways and return to these stores have no impact.
If enough people realistically didn’t spend their money with businesses they didn’t support the impact would be notable. Power of the checkbook. Haven’t shopped in a Walmart in nearly a decade — it isn’t much but it’s honest work.
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u/Fluffy_Salamanders Feb 17 '25
I mean it's probably not going to be an all-or-nothing commitment. Actively looking for alternatives when you can will still reduce consumption.
A good amount of content creators are probably sponsored and paid to make content promoting certain businesses and trends too.
I'm not on TikTok so I don't know what the cake looks like, but pretty much any cake made in a square cornered pan can be cut to a passable heart shape really quickly. Lop off three corners so it looks like a Royal cut gem that's viewed sideways ( 💎 )and take a triangle in from the flat middle top.
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u/dvdmaven Feb 17 '25
I looked into getting a Valentine's cake from a local bakery: $72. Mind you, they make great cakes, but $72 is crazy. I got two rose bushes last year for less. I bought a Red Velvet mix (my wife's favorite), a can of frosting, a jar of cherries and baked it myself.
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u/GenTelGuy Feb 17 '25
It's the TikTok comments section, that's not a place rich in intelligent comments
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u/JiveBunny Feb 17 '25
Lots of people have less money than they used to, and sometimes maintaining your principles becomes a luxury you literally can't afford.
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u/Aggravating_Run6929 Feb 17 '25
I used to run a small business, and everyone pushed me to raise my prices because it's "hand crafted artisan work" that mindset, for whatever reason, it's greatly encouraged in small business circles
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u/Conscious_Passage_27 Feb 16 '25
I made the mistake of saying this at the dinner table, Americans aren’t strong enough to boycott (I’m America btw)
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u/mx_martianX Feb 16 '25
Just one of the many strands in the web of complacency that’s been constructed for us. Divest by investing in yourself and your community.
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u/SurvingTheSHIfT3095 Feb 16 '25
We really don't know how to boycott.
I'm getting tired of the fake outrage
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u/247cnt Feb 16 '25
I spent double today on dog treats at a local store in order to avoid Target! Some of us made a deal, and we're sticking to it.
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u/ferns0 Feb 16 '25
I promise you that your instagram feed isn't "everyone". I have so many thoughts i don't know where to begin...
I don't know who any of these influencers are, but it certainly wouldn't be new for an influencer to jump on whatever trend everyone is talking about to take advantage of all the positive attention that will come their way. As time goes on the dopamine hit will start becoming smaller and smaller as people get bored of this trend and social media will move onto the next thing. I do not mean to say that these aren't good people or that they don't have good intentions, but tens of thousands of likes sure have a way of messing with your incentives.
The scope of this particular boycott really feels like it misses the mark to me. I have never heard anyone say they are boycotting companies because they have no DEI policy and they never had one. If your measuring stick of an ethical company is DEI policy then are the companies who bend the knee more unethical than those who never had a policy to begin with? It's human nature to be drawn to the headlines, and high-profile cases, but most of the evil is happening where we can't easily see. What if the company with a good DEI policy gets products from a supplier with terrible environmental and animal welfare records? It's awfully hard to be a billion dollar company without negative externalities somewhere along the way. I am sure some are much better than others if you tally up the points, but the one thing they all have in common is they all want you to consume more.
Perfection is basically impossible unless you are a hermit living in the woods. Do not let perfection be the enemy of progress. Let's say you spend $100 every week on food, toiletries, clothes, etc. If you go from spending that all at Walmart to spending only $20 at Walmart every week that is something to celebrate - not something to flagellate yourself for. We have limited time, money, and energy, so focus your efforts towards the changes that are the easiest and will make the biggest influence. Basically the 80/20 principle) If you need to spend 10x as much at a small business for strawberries or to drive two hours away to a farm to get your eggs, or whatever else in the name of perfection to avoid shopping at some specific store then at some point you are just harming yourself by wasting your limited resources than you are hurting some multi-billion dollar corp. There is very much a point of diminishing returns that you'll hit before you hit perfection.. and that's okay.
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u/BxGyrl416 Feb 16 '25
Fuck Walmart. They’ve gutted entire local economies. People really can’t see the forest for the trees.
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u/courage_2_change Feb 17 '25
Billionaires own these platforms, they control and manipulate the media. Creating disinformation and propaganda to make people give up.
It’s what they have been doing to republicans and on X. Now they doing this to government employees.
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u/scotttttie Feb 17 '25
The longer you do it the better it feels. It's the only power we truly have left in this capitalist hellscape. And it's free.
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u/saltytothegrave Feb 17 '25
i did laugh at that last one only because i was trying to be crafty and low cost for valentine’s day and make my own cards and i needed card stock and colored pencils and literally the only two places near me that would have it were target and walmart, and i had canceled amazon and deleted it lol. i ended up getting it from dollar general and they did not have card stock but heavy duty poster board did great, and i borrowed a friends colored pencils. so that felt good!!
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u/Disastrous-Peanut Feb 17 '25
Fighting for social justice is awesome when you're fed and housed.
Both those things are not entirely certain right now. Survival always beats out ideology.
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u/H2OMGosh Feb 17 '25
No, this is just ✨dropshipping cake✨. We can boycott places like Walmart or Target who don’t give a shit about diversity, and then ALSO be mad that a baker is jazzing up a $7 Walmart cake with some extra frosting to sell it for $100. Besides being ripped off, you’re now indirectly supporting Walmart with extra steps. You can put your money where you want, but most people don’t have the money to spend $100 on cake. Has nothing to do with not wanting to support small business.
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u/Knitwalk1414 Feb 17 '25
I don’t give money to businesses that don’t align with my values. Target, Walmart and Amazon won’t miss my money but if I can I will shop elsewhere. My life is different from others no judgement. People with children have to shop where they can. As per small business owners. “When asked which presidential candidate would have the greatest impact on the small business sector, 54% of small-business owners named Trump, while only 22% chose Harris, according to BizBuySell’s quarterly Insight Report”
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u/rwarxie Feb 17 '25
Or maybe some people arent participating for certain reasons? Not everyone NEEDS to follow boycotting trends.
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u/Faptainjack2 Feb 17 '25
It's not difficult to understand. The best place for my money is in my pocket.
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u/VPants_City Feb 17 '25
It’s a practice. We have been groomed to consume and consume easily and as cheaply as possible. I’ve been living on a budget for most of my life. If you really want to do it you will learn how. It takes time like anything. You don’t have to be perfect. Just keep learning how to be better at it
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Feb 17 '25
I'm so glad I've got HEB and COSTCO. Plus there's plenty of local bakeries doing cakes for like 50. It's once a year, spoil yourself to some non-corporate luxury
Edit: also, cheesecake is perfectly acceptable as a birthday cake and it's so easy to make
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u/bytegalaxies Feb 17 '25
do these people not have like a tom thumb or trader joe's or some shit? there's a lot more than just walmart and target
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u/a44es Feb 17 '25
Industrial production unfortunately works. It's a myth that it is always efficient, but many things are efficient as well. The problem isn't a large entity in production, the problem is exploitation. I wouldn't have a problem with big store items at all if the people actually working got compensated instead of investors
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u/eastcoast_enchanted Feb 17 '25
These people are so shortsighted. Americans are too comfortable and it makes me think we will never get anywhere and never be free of capitalism and these billionaires who are DESTROYING our country. I stopped shopping at Walmart about 15 years ago after watching the documentary “The High Cost of Low Prices”. That clued me in to a lot of other companies with shady practices. Got rid of Amazon prime about 2.5 years ago. I used to be a Target girlie. Not I don’t shop at Target anymore because of DEI. No, it’s not convenient. It’s hard for me to shop anywhere and I don’t eat out anywhere near as much as I used to. But my dollars matter. They are not profiting off of me anymore. This is one of my contributions to freeing our country from authoritarianism.
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u/Wonderful-Bread-572 Feb 17 '25
Did you guys forget that walmart is a monopoly or did you genuinely have no idea
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u/Adorable-Research-55 Feb 17 '25
Money always talks. Boycotts and general strikes are for privileged Berkeley progressives
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u/moosemastergeneral Feb 17 '25
Anticonsumption isn't boycotting and buying local. Its not fucking buying, or for that matter consuming. Make do without.
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u/saphirescar Feb 17 '25
“why should i pay extra for something i can get cheaper at walmart” because what you buy at walmart is probably made by slave labor, if that’s not reason enough for you then something is wrong with you
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u/Decent_Fisherman_832 Feb 17 '25
People aren't forgetting anything, affording to live is more important than supporting someone else's dream.
I'm sure we all would love to shop local and support our community if we could, but it's just unrealistic with today's wages and prices.
Stuff like this is what steers people away from being progressive. Even if someone does their best to support local, it's not enough.
Where the answer to not wanting to buy a $50-100 cake from a local bakery is to not have a cake, not enjoy a special day.
Tl;dr: Shop local where you can afford to and mind your own business. Your boycott isn't someone else's.
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u/Alessandr099 Feb 17 '25
I feel like part of it people don’t truly feel the benefit of keeping the cash within their communities as cashless became such a large commodity. Big business will always be able to outcompete small business, especially in hard times, because they have more flexibility to sacrifice profits just enough to squeeze out the small business competition. If more people understood this, I think they’d try harder to make the sacrifice of either spending more to, either support local business or none at all, to spite big business like Walmart that has only been able to get ahead by cutting quality and compensation
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u/TightBeing9 Feb 16 '25
You know there is a possibility these aren't the same people who said they were boycotting something. Not "everyone" was saying they were gonna boycott.
You don't boycott something so others will go along with it, you do it because you personally don't believe in said organization