r/Anticonsumption • u/cacxte • Feb 16 '25

Discussion What’s the point in Boycotting?

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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/Dalrz Feb 18 '25

Oh no! How do I know if mine was made in France?

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u/itsdickers Feb 18 '25 edited Feb 18 '25

In all my cast iron cookware “made in France” imprinted into the iron on the bottom - the bakeware has it imprinted into the bottom as well. They are all old (like 15+ years since I’ve bought them so it could be different now.) Generally if you’re getting it from like Home Goods or Marshall’s etc it will be Chinese. If you get it at Williams Sonoma or Sur la Table it will be French.

Edit: fixed my nonsensical autocorrect of Home Goods lol

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u/Dalrz Feb 18 '25

Ah ok. I’ll have to double check. How disappointing!

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u/BriefExtra2919 Feb 19 '25

Le Creuset cast iron is always made in France.

The pieces at HomeGoods are cheaper because they use cheaper colors of enamel and no ombre finishing (more time consuming to do). The only time the glossier, ombre enamel makes it to discount retailers is when there's overstock or a color line is discontinued.

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u/BriefExtra2919 Feb 19 '25

Le Creuset cast iron is always made in France. I worked for the company for a long time, and still maintain friends there to this day. It's only the stoneware that is made abroad - sometimes in China, but also Thailand.

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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/[deleted] Feb 17 '25

[deleted]

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u/TechInventor Feb 17 '25

The lead is sealed in the base. Undamaged cups are harmless.

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u/IAmASeeker Feb 17 '25

For clarity: the lead is the seal.

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u/cpssn Feb 17 '25

sub runs on fearmongering

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u/IAmASeeker Feb 17 '25

All vacuum insulated cups contain lead, just like your phone. That's what we make solder out of.

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u/Galactic_Whisker_364 Feb 17 '25

Not all solder is made with lead anymore though, and are they actually putting leaded solder in contact with food/drinks?

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u/IAmASeeker Feb 19 '25

Well the bit that's soldered should never be in contact with your drink.

They make a water tight cup out of stainless steel, then they put it in a slightly larger cup with a hole in the bottom. They suck all of the air out of the space between the 2 cups and then close the hole with a drop of molten metal. Then they paint and coat the outside.

We mostly use lead free solder on toys or jewelry but not tech. They used lead free solder for PS3s and Xbox 360s because they were legally classified as toys... but lead free solder doesn't withstand heat so most of those consoles failed after repeated use... now they are reclassified as "home entertainment centers" and use lead solder.

I am highly skeptical that you could get away with using lead free solder in a vessel that you intend to put boiled water into... it would just melt out onto you and stop being insulating.

Applying solder requires heating metal until it melts. It off-gasses lead into the air. Even if you used a blow torch to melt out the lead and eat it, you would be exposed to less lead than I am exposed to in the process of making a single repair. You're gonna be fine.

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u/the-vinyl-countdown Feb 17 '25

It’s called pricing by design

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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/HoldMyPoodle6280 Feb 17 '25

Exactly. Why not just try making one together or something? It's really not that deep, people just love making excuses.

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u/NovelPhoto4621 Feb 17 '25

I could be wrong but I think Kroger is ok?

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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/mackahrohn Feb 17 '25

So much goes back to him.

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u/lawn-mumps Feb 17 '25

The more I learn about him (regrettably) the more I know it to be true.

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u/GatheringBees Feb 17 '25

& to think I was named after that prick...

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u/garaile64 Feb 17 '25

How to destroy a democracy:
1- Find a crisis caused by a group of people.
2- Negotiate with this group of people.
3- Sabotage your political opponent by using this crisis.
4- Voets!

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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/SourceWebMD Feb 17 '25

I’ll have to try sometime. But I’m a terrible baker. I think I’ve burnt every pan of boxed brownies I’ve ever made haha.

I’m pretty darn good at cooking but I’m not sure why I can’t seem to get the hang of baking.

Luckily my wife if a phenomenal baker so use usually keeps me far away from burning the baked goods.

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u/[deleted] Feb 17 '25

or consider: you don't need cinnamon rolls and can get something cheaper. or you can learn how to make it yourself.

people don't seem to get that very soon, like it or not, these things you take for granted will become precious luxuries. i have little sympathy for people who can't withhold their money from harmful companies because they have such little self-discipline.

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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/Murky-Peanut1390 Feb 17 '25

The same people that preach to customers. " here we are a family "

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u/No_Importance3779 Feb 17 '25

And small business has no positions that paid as well as large companies. GM at Wal Mart makes several hundred thousands....how high does a small business pay its employees?

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u/garaile64 Feb 17 '25

To be fair, small businesses don't have the same budget.

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u/garaile64 Feb 17 '25

However, those small businesses still need to exist to avoid monopolies.

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u/Interesting_Ad_9924 Feb 17 '25

The best thing would be actual anti trust legislation and real enforcement. You can have all the small business you want, the market doesn't regulate itself

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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/chaosgirl93 Feb 17 '25

Also because the Soviet Union is dead.

The USSR really was a powerful boogeyman that made social democracies "work" because the people in power feared the Soviets inciting and supplying a revolution. Now that it's been gone a few decades, we're seeing the systems set up to avert that all crumble to dust.

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u/Ried_Reads Feb 17 '25

Well, it’s not fully unsolvable… if we were a communist nation, it’d be fine

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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/Consistent_Frame2492 Feb 17 '25

Also, fruit/veg stalls aren't a thing in the US. Pretty sure it has to do with health codes.

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u/Old_Collection1475 Feb 17 '25

Depends where you are, there are lots of fruit and vegetable stalls where I am.

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u/garaile64 Feb 17 '25

Brazil (if you meant fruit/veg stalls on the streets): "Skill issue!"

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u/6FeetBeneathTheMoon Feb 18 '25

There are fruit/veg stalls all over the place where I live in upstate NY. Extremely common here.

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u/RecklessTorus Feb 17 '25

Aside from the economy of scale/huge monopoly advantages that the biggest players have working against them, small businesses pay MANY, MANY more times what the mega corps pay in % tax

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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/zmajevi96 Feb 17 '25

That’s why if you have the option to shop from small businesses you should. Otherwise your town will end up with no other option that big box stores

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u/Ok-Geologist8296 Feb 17 '25

Unfortunately there's not a lot of small business either. That was the point of my comment. It's a depressed, old mining area and a lot of folks have been left behind.

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u/zmajevi96 Feb 17 '25

Right that’s why I said if you have the option…meaning people in towns that haven’t gotten to the point of your town yet

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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/ElJamoquio Feb 17 '25

the average American simply cannot afford to do all their shopping at small businesses

Yes, if they insist on consuming as much as they did the year prior, yes, they can't consume the same amount as if they consumed from Walmart, Amazon, et al.

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u/booksareadrug Feb 17 '25

People do generally like eating and not starving, yeah. This is not the gotcha you think it is.

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u/ElJamoquio Feb 17 '25

Yup, the only three choices are $100 cakes from a specialty baker, $40 cakes from Walmart, and starving to death.

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u/BecomeOneWithRussia Feb 17 '25

You're forgetting the fourth option, which is a $2 box of cake mix from Walmart.

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u/ElJamoquio Feb 17 '25

Nope, there's only the three options.

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u/BionicBananas Feb 17 '25

Forget the cake, in can be any "nice thing", a little bit of something that makes you happy in an otherwise mediocre life.
Yes, you can only buy the basic stuff and survive just fine, but most people want to experience a bit of luxury to spoil themselves from time to time. Simply preaching to have to forgo that won't work.

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u/RecklessTorus Feb 17 '25

A cake. What gross luxury!

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u/halcyon78 Feb 17 '25

heaven forbid you want to get a premade cake for a small birthday celebration.

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u/BullsOnParadeFloats Feb 17 '25

I live in a major metropolitan area, so I have quite a few options beyond the megacorps like Walmart and Target. I haven't set foot in either of them for years.

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u/Spirited_Ad_2063 Feb 17 '25

Yes, I feel this so much. 

I’m not poor, but consider myself working class. 

I do sometimes indulge in Starbucks lattes and pastries. There is a small locally owned coffee shop about 15 blocks away. 

I wanted to support the local business. They didn’t have a visible price list, but I assumed the price would be reasonable. 

16 ounce chai tea latte with oatmilk, and a somewhat stale cold chocolate croissant was over $13. And they had the audacity to give an option to tip! 

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u/mcdadais Feb 17 '25

Yeah, I can easily boycott Target. The one near me is about 20 minutes away, and I never liked shopping there too expensive. But I live in a small city with limited options. Walmart and Kroger is basically all I have.

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u/McDonaldsWitchcraft Feb 17 '25

Mix together one box of chocolate cake mix and 1 1/2 cups of cherry coke, bake at 350 F for 30 mins

Are you sure all ingredients in any brand of cherry coke are safe to heat to that temperature?? I know at least normal cola released some pretty unhealthy compounds when heated.

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u/ChoiceReflection965 Feb 17 '25

Yes, it’s safe. Using coke in cake this way is a common “hack” for folks who can’t eat eggs or dairy. I’m not sure what unhealthy compounds you’re referring to, but Coke is fine to drink hot and in many cultures it’s actually usually enjoyed hot instead of cold.

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u/IAmASeeker Feb 17 '25

Any soda will work for that so pair the flavour of the soda with the type of cake.

You can also do this in the microwave much faster.

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u/Corius_Erelius Feb 17 '25

All by design. Can't resist the powers in charge if you can't feed yourself.

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u/Brilliant_Growth Feb 17 '25

Okay but where are you buying the chocolate cake mix?

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u/ChoiceReflection965 Feb 17 '25

You can pick up cake mix pretty much anywhere. So wherever you usually get your groceries probably has it.

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u/Brilliant_Growth Feb 17 '25

True. I wish they were all made equally

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u/immmadatyou Feb 18 '25

i just don't understand people who say they can't "afford" sustainable options cause like i live in a rural mountain town on the equivalent to a teachers salary and i haven't shopped at a corporate store in years and managed to cut out all plastic-wrapped products through online brands. people don't want a revolution, they want convenience. and at the end of the day, convenience and complicity will be their downfall.

also buying that shit online is not that much more expensive. maybe before covid it was, but prices the way they are it has been super easy to switch to non-corporate, sustainably produced and locally focused products for no more than a 10% increase in cost. i have numbers if anyone actually cares

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u/BriefExtra2919 Feb 19 '25

I can understand for groceries and necessities, but it frustrates me that people act like not having a giant closet full of Shein clothing is a human rights issue. It is only relatively recently that people bought more than a few clothing items per year. But if you suggest that maybe people who want to boycott cheap clothing but "can't" should consider buying less clothing overall which would make affording better quality and more ethically produced items more attainable, suddenly you "hate poor people and don't think they should have nice things." No, I think they should have nice things, and Shein isn't nice.

My suspicion is that what people can't give up is not the clothes themselves, but the feeling of abundance that comes with shopping often and buying lots of stuff. With a low income (which was me for the first 30 years of my life), buying lots of stuff is not possible with brands that actually pay their people, don't put them in unsafe working conditions, and produce untold loads of waste for landfills by the day.