Just some additional advertising for todays boycott.
Retailers don't give a shit about nobody buying anything on a particular day, if they're all back the next.
This is a stupid idea.
this post was submitted on 28 Feb 2025
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"That's not going to do anything" They said, sitting on their asses, doing nothing, while others fought for change.
You can find this style of argument in virtually all discussions about protests and about whether they are okay or even effective.
Idk & idgaf, but you can't deny, that this makes the whole issue a lot more visible than just doing nothing.
Having worked retail sales earlier in my life and working as a developer in e-commerce in later parts, single day drops mean nothing. They're often a statical anomalies, even when there is a "reason" for it. If the business is short on monthly or quarterly goals they can always make up a single day loss with a strategic sale or product marketing & placement.
If we really want to hurt these companies, we need to orgaize larger than a single day of "fuck you". A single day might be good for awareness, but TBH, it's comes across more as virtue signaling and enabling social media bragging "I'm doing my part for TODAY".
All that said, I am doing my part for today, and have been doing my part for quite some time now, and will continue doing my part for the coming months and years.
I mean the point of it isn't to deprive retailers of one day of profits altogether, it's to show how much a sustained refusal to shop would hurt them. Whether or not it's effective depends on how many people participate.
I don't think it's going to be effective, but I'm not going to be the reason it's not. I can pick up my dish soap tomorrow
Another thing it does is helps people realize what power they have, even if one day of boycotting has zero impact on the economy or businesses. It gets those people who are participating started taking action, and thinking about their actions in the context of politics.
It's a very easy first step, and if people find that they can do a day, maybe they'll be okay with trying a week next time, or maybe showing up at a town hall seems easier. This is arguably more about getting people involved in the movement than actually sticking it to the corporations/oligarchy. That will come. But asking people who live paycheck to paycheck to boycott corporations for more than 2 weeks would be a huge ask without building up to it first.
This. It gets people used to the idea and shifts the Overton window of protesting, if you will. It's only the conservatives over on lemm.ee that don't like that idea.
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Not only that but I haven't seen a single actionable demand by the advertisements for this campaign. It's a hollow, confused threat that simply doesn't make sense.
Ironically I haven't spent money anywhere today but that's just because I spend most of my life trying not to pay giant chain retailers.
If someone wanted this campaign to work they would have united the whole thing under a banner or a brand, declared that this was not the first protest they would be staging, say something like: "this is only a threat, if companies don't do X in 3 months we will organize a week-long blackout. Then if they don't do anything after that week-long blackout we'll do another one for two weeks or a month."
That makes sense. That's negotiation and it's how you demonstrate the power the people hold.
The X should be something policy-based and actionable. It can be a huge sweeping demand but it has to be actionable. It should not be a laundry list of long term demands. Then, when you get that first demand met you can delay action and keep pushing later since you've proven the tactics work.
Compare that to what this protest is doing. It's pretty far-cry.
That's not true, companies are plenty worried about this sort of thing. Look at how Bud light panicked over the kid rock boycott. If he can do it, anyone can.
Its not a bad idea on its face. A sudden and sizeable shift in public economic activity on a given day would be meaningful if it could be invoked to put on pressure at strategic moments.
But "collective inaction" isn't enough. I might have taken this more seriously if they were paired with pickets. Perhaps for a reason more explicit than "We're generically unhappy!" Or if they came from someone I actually know, rather than a graphic plastered on my computer screen.
These seem like political action cosplay. If you're not in a movement and you're not using this time to coordinate further actions... hell, you're not even asking where this meme came from or who authored it... then what are you doing? How is this different than Valentine's Day, where you see a bunch of memes that tell you to go out and spend extra money? Who are you sticking it to?
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First I've seen extending this to restaurants. That seems a bit much. Most restaurants around me are small businesses. Not cool for the folks trying to keep a single place afloat.
I think it means more applebees and tgif and chilis and such
Small business owners are for the most part Republicans and are a large reason trump got elected. They may have closer ties to the community but fundamentally they still are capitalists and will vote for and support monetarily the party that cuts regulations and taxes. Restaurant owners, big and small, are the backbone of the campaign to stop minimum wage increases. They need to know, just as much as the big business owners, that austerity like this has consequences.
If you want to support the staff, which may struggle through this, buy the cheapest thing on the menu and leave a huge tip.
If your protest is convenient it's a shitty protest. I'm sorry, but this is a shitty protest.
That an corporations don't care about their daily numbers unless they are trending. Like, people won't buy stuff today, so they will just go buy the stuff tomorrow. Monthly and quarterly profits took no hit.
Businesses tend to notice trends during economic upswings/downturns. To date, consumer spending has been steadily rising in no small part thanks to upward pressure on wages and inflationary pressure on prices. If we're entering a recessionary spiral, you won't need to have a "No Spending Day". People will reflexively cut their spending when they lose their income.
Something like this might have more teeth if it was paired with protest marches or sit-ins or other actions intended to signal that prices had run away from incomes. But that doesn't seem to be the message this meme is sending. Nobody is getting encouraged to stand outside a Target and wave a big sign that says "Stop Bird Flu! Make Eggs Cheap Again!" or picketing an Amazon Warehouse over low wages and long hours.
Fully agree. While I wholeheartedly support the intent of this protest, it is entirely performative for the sake of the participants, not for the sake of actually affecting change.
Honest question, what is an accessible first step for a population that has basically never performed any collective action that isn't performative?
Is standing outside a local government building holding a sign to protest federal policy affecting change?
In my view, at least this one day action has a marginal economic impact. Holding a sign on your lunch break so you can post some pictures to Instagram is way more performative.
But it doesn't have marginal impact. It has zero impact. Whether you spend money on Thursday or Friday, the bottom line is the same. We are starting from the false premise that this has any impact, when the smallest amount of critical thought renders that false immediately.
Yes, get the hell out and stand in front of government offices with signs. Make noise. Be seen. Do anything other than pretending keeping your items in your shopping cart for one additional day has any impact.
Gotta start somewhere with people. The point is that anyone can do this, and it's easy to do, but it isn't really any more difficult to show up to a town hall. And while yes, you and I can (and probably do) take larger, more effective steps, longer boycotts, etc. We need numbers, and that, I think, is the real value of this.
A million times zero is still zero. We gain nothing by entirely performative action. Start somewhere, but make it somewhere meaningful.
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It only Bugs them if enough people stoppen getting specific stuff alltogether. Like no Nestlé, Selling the car and stop the need for Gas (if possible of course).
One day off is just another days top. Doesnt hurt them at all.
why not boycott all major corporations every day? it does require a bit of work, but the more money you spend locally, the better your local communities will be
That's just not how our economy works. "Local" business is not making toilet paper from trees they cut down in their backyard.
I'm probably getting downvoted for this but I hate hate hate this "consumption is power" bull shit boycotts. Consumption is NOT power. LABOR is power. If you work at these large companies you have a million times more power and influence by organizing.
Boycott today if it makes you feel good. But it's so incredibly missing of the point that I have to assume it is purposely missing the point of collective power.
Your power is in your ability to withhold labor. Not withholding consumption for one day that you'll just buy the next day. Hell, if these planned organized single day boycotts, if they actually had an impact, would be a way to maximize profits to reduce labor requirements for those days. It's so silly.
Organize your workplace. That is where your power is!
An example of spending as power being a fallacy is high-quality products that everyone who buys them loves them. Then, to boost profits the company uses a lesser quality metal (like pocket knives, guns, etc.). It is short-sighted, but it may increase profits. If buying exerted power, companies wouldn't trade out materials that people liked.
The engine of the modern economy is mass consumption just as much as labor, especially since a lot of labor is done overseas these days. Everyone not buying stuff from Amazon is just as much an existential threat to it as the entire work force striking. Either way you deny them there profits and force them to pay there fixed capital costs with no revenue.
You could argue it's less feasible to organize the mass of consumers then it is to organize a workplace, but the power is still there either way.
We need maps of what helps, and how much.
No more saying stuff doesn't work and misses the point. Only pointing to where it is on the map. Better for organizing.
Sorry. If you're actually asking but I thought I was pretty clear. Labor organizing is where power is. This starts at YOUR workplace. There are plenty of resources and "maps" to get you started but that is often very unique to your location and place of work. There is not a single meme image that I can post. This takes work. The start of that work is looking for labor organizing movements in your area and place of work. If there are no existing unions or labor movements you can contact the AFL-CIO or other organizations in your field. They can help you learn more about your resources.
This takes work. If I could post a meme image like the OP I would. But it doesn't work that way. You need to be ready to do work. Talking to your coworkers, agitating, etc.
Chris Smalls is your inspiration but we need 1000 more Chris Smalls throughout the country. Not one day of a consumer boycott.
This is not about being a downer towards any movement. It's about understanding that class war is always filled with distractions like these single day consumer boycotts that do absolutely nothing. People that are downers about them are trying to direct people towards what should actually be done. It's not one massive movement out of the blue. It takes a lot of local and small work to even get to having any leverage at that scale.
Once we actually have a massive labor organizing movement in this country THEN the leaders of major unions can call for and organize something like a general strike. But that doesn't happen on its own because someone posted a "general strike" meme on reddit. It's takes a lot of work, organizing, and very specific demands, and strike funds.
But this all starts with you and the organization of labor in your workplace.
We are fighting capital. It doesn't just end up with a bunch of peaceful protests and the capitalist class rolling over and saying "ok you can all have healthcare". They have all the power of the police, state violence, and media agitating. It's why you need massive organization, solidarity, and funding for your cause. And most of all very specific and united demands. Otherwise these movements quickly die when people can't pay their rent or buy food.
Okay, what helps? Standing outside Starbucks, Walmart, amazon warehouses, anywhere non-union, and spend your time trying to convince their workers to join a union. There's a reason that, when the Nazis took over, "First they came for the Trade Unionists". Don't say nothing. Let's Make More Trade Unionists
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This can have an effect in exactly two ways:
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retailers lose a bit of profit because they cannot optimize their staffing for this one day. They might be a little less profitable because they have one person at work who is not needed, for example. They might also get mad customers the next day when everybody goes back shopping and they haven't prepared for it. Similarly, they might have to throw away a few fresh products and not have them in stock later.
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if (and only if) people buy the stuff they need somewhere else instead. If this is about grocery shopping, well, you need groceries at some point. Doesn't matter much for the retailer when you buy it (apart from 1), as long as you buy it consistently at their place.
I support the protest, but if you want to make an impact, use that day to find alternative places to do your shopping in the future.
yet another classic misdirection from doing things politically to improve the political environment. And yet we wonder why everything sucks so much.
Go improve the political climate.
This isn't an either or situation, unless you were planning on buying a gun today to go shoot elon with, you not buying stuff today isn't going to prevent you from doing whatever it is you plan to do to improve the political climate.
By the way, what is it you plan to do?
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