r/Anticonsumption 13d ago

Corporations Target foot traffic falls for seventh consecutive week after it dismantled DEI

https://www.retailbrew.com/stories/2025/03/21/target-foot-traffic-falls-for-seventh-consecutive-week-after-it-dismantled-dei
30.4k Upvotes

1.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

189

u/Correct-Ad-6473 13d ago

I really wish there was this kind of energy for Nestle.  I realize it's a little harder to boycott the entire brand because they cover many products, but there just doesn't ever seem to be unified pressure and Nestle in many ways is objectively even worse for humanity.  I'll take this win tho!

70

u/Xeptix 13d ago

It's easy to boycott a department store with a literal target on it. Harder to boycott a company that owns like 100 subsidiary brands which are sold in virtually every grocery and convenience store.

6

u/It-Was-Mooney-Pod 13d ago

Oh hey basically just wrong this in another part of the thread lol. I honestly think if people went after specific brands of Nestle it would be easier to jump on board than asking people to read the label of every water bottle.

3

u/Xeptix 12d ago

Yep I agree. It would be more effective if there was a concerted campaign to get 1-3 of their biggest brands (besides Nestle itself) out there and get that blasted on social media, then when that gets traction name 1-3 more. I could see that working. It would take a lot of inertia, but if enough people do it on tiktok/insta and then one or two news outlets pick it up, it could be self sustaining from there.

1

u/PartyPorpoise 12d ago

Plus there's a betrayal aspect to the Target turn, people are taking it personally. Target spent YEARS presenting itself as a cool, progressive company. It worked and they attracted a lot of buyers who liked that image. Target suddenly decides that it doesn't even want to pretend to care about those things, of course buyers will be upset. Nestle never put that much work into pretending to be a good company.

106

u/NevermoreForSure 13d ago

Nestle thinks access to free drinking water is not a human right.

20

u/Correct-Ad-6473 13d ago

They're repugnant, but some people still can't resist their tollhouse cookies.

2

u/PrestigePotato 12d ago

Nestle lobbies against parental leave so that women breastfeed less and buy more Nestle baby formula.

14

u/PhilosophyKingPK 13d ago

If there was a Nestle store like a Target we would all be boycotting.

15

u/Correct-Ad-6473 13d ago

There is a lot more effort involved, but it's rare in my life to see anyone boycott even the really obvious Nestle products so I'm not so sure.  Nestles shit policies affect parts of the US, but they overwhelmingly affect international communities and it's more difficult to 'see'.  

6

u/Monsieur_Perdu 13d ago

I boycot Nestle as much as I can. I do make a mistake here and there (for example purina I wasn't aware at first being from them.) But in general I am quite succesful in boycotting them.

22

u/Renegadeknight3 13d ago

Nestle is more difficult to boycott because it’s hard to know what is or isn’t theirs. They obscure their brand through hundreds of sub-brands

Personal anecdote I do purchase their boosts regularly, but I haven’t found a viable alternative (I tried huel but it was pretty terrible, I found it very difficult to get down)

9

u/Correct-Ad-6473 13d ago

It does take a little more effort to check labels or commit a list of products you may use to memory.  There were a few things we used that were bought by Nestle that we didn't realize for a bit, but you do the best you can with the options and choices you're afforded.

3

u/tmpope123 13d ago

I still don't understand how it's ok that parent companies can hide behind brands like this. Given how bad lack of competition is in a capitalist system, it's surprising that we don't force brands to state what the ultimate parent company is on packaging.

1

u/jennoyouknow 12d ago

Try Premier Protein. You can get it at Costco, but other places too. Owned by BellRing, which is owned by Post, as far as I can tell.

1

u/Renegadeknight3 12d ago

I get it for the calories, not the protein. Boosts have 530 calories per bottle, premier IIRC is about half that

13

u/guineaprince 13d ago

Yeh but Nestle doesn't have anything unique to them. Unless you live in the kind of food desert where Nestle is realistically your only option for certain products, you can do without. I haven't used anything of theirs since the slavery and water issue.

3

u/Correct-Ad-6473 13d ago

Nether have we, but it feels like either people don't know, care, or bother fully boycotting... Imo, at least.  I remember my oldest telling friends at school about how they shouldn't be drinking nesquik because kids their ages were enslaved by Nestle in like 2nd grade.  Funny, but not at all funny.

7

u/Teknikal_Domain 13d ago

2

u/Correct-Ad-6473 13d ago

That's a good link to keep handy.  Thx.  I'm pretty vigilant, but it's always good to keep checking!

2

u/AllieRaccoon 12d ago

That is a good link. I buy mostly organic food so avoid a lot of their food by default but didn’t realize how many water brands they owned. Adding Pellegrino and Perrier to my avoid list.

2

u/It-Was-Mooney-Pod 13d ago

It’s easy to see a Target boycott and just not go into Target. Nestle has a bunch of water brands and people aren’t going to look at the back of every water bottle to determine which company is responsible for bottling. Would probably be a more successful boycott if people attacked specific brands instead of the whole company, kind of cut them down a bit at a time. Easier to say “dont buy Perrier” and have people actually follow through.

1

u/dreamgrrrl___ 13d ago

The only thing I buy that benefits nestle is the Purina free and clean cat litter because I have yet to find anything else that works as well as it does.

1

u/Fluid-Signal-654 11d ago

People like chocolate. And bottled water.

They're just outsourcing their outrage so others can do the boycotts.