Can we add bigger offenders like Wal-Mart and Amazon?
this post was submitted on 05 Mar 2025
753 points (98.3% liked)
News
27567 readers
6358 users here now
Welcome to the News community!
Rules:
1. Be civil
Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.
2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.
Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.
3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.
Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.
4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.
Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.
5. Only recent news is allowed.
Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.
6. All posts must be news articles.
No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.
7. No duplicate posts.
If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.
8. Misinformation is prohibited.
Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.
9. No link shorteners.
The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.
10. Don't copy entire article in your post body
For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Right? And why not just boycott all pubkically traded companies forever? 40 days doesn't do much
Because if you propose that, no one is actually going to do it.
Doing something is always more impactful than shooting for everything and ending up doing nothing. This is a great example of a smartly thought out mass movement; it has a specific goal, and a clearly defined set of terms. Remember, you can always expand or extend. It's far better to get a small thing moving than try to build a big thing that you never finish.
Further, a lot of dirt poor people literally rely on Walmart because Walmart was successful at gutting every other business out of their already dirt poor areas. That was literally Walmart's business model to undersell the competition until they were the only game in town, it's how they got so huge so fast. Large swathes of the South are like that. There's a reason they teach their employees how to sign up for food stamps.
Also, 40 days is long enough that some people are going to change their shopping habits on a more permanent basis. Creating even a longer impact on Target.
I don't get why anyone complains about fixed term boycotts anyway. You can just add another 40 days if Target doesn't get the message. It's not like you're signing a contract or something. Boycotts are a negotiation, and in negotiation you always leave yourself wiggle room.
People love to get into this "Only the biggest possible action and nothing else" mindset, and then never actually take any action at all.
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(3 replies)
I'm definitely with you on that in spirit. I would starve if I actually practiced that across the board. I figure if we start from the top down, maybe we can get the co-ops to come back. Our neighborhood co-op grocery closed down not too long ago, and all that's left are national chains.
I think it’s fair to commit to reducing your purchasing from these large entities significantly. By design, these companies have made it basically impossible to get certain products except from them, so do what you need to do in those cases. But you can get a lot still from alternatives.
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
Better than these one day protests that LITERALLY do nothing. At least a 40 day boycott would hit a fiscal month, vs a single day outlier protest.
That is the part that pisses me off so much about this. Yes. Target capitulated. Yes, Target needs to be told that's not good.
BUT WALTONS FUND THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION!
This can't be said enough, yet we can't get a days boycott on them for fucks sake!
load more comments
(6 replies)
Join me, I’ve been boycotting them for years.
load more comments
(2 replies)
It couldn’t come at a worse time for the company
Neither could their capitulation to Trumps bigoted rhetoric.
I got a lot of flak and eye rolls from my liberal friends a few years ago when I, as a queer woman, would criticize their Rainbow Capitalism. But Target is not an ally, they never were. They are simply a corporation that got some easy publicity in liberal spaces by showing the bare minimum decency.
Fair weather allies, aren't.
Just to build on this. No publicly traded company is an ally to any group but its shareholders.
That's why it's our responsibility as consumers to align their shareholder interests to doing the right fucking thing. Boycotts and other consumer action are part of their calculations on what the shareholder interests are, so a large population of informed consumers who vote their conscience with their wallet will provide pressure to do the right thing.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Target is under more pressure than companies like Walmart, John Deere or Tractor Supply, because Target went further in its DEI efforts, and it has a more progressive base of customers than those competitors.
This is wild move for a company on its arse anyway.
Damn and here I am participating in this boycott for so long without even trying.
Target sucks.
There's a boycott? I just don't shop there because it's the same crap as everywhere else for more money and a worse experience.
load more comments
(4 replies)
My wife told me we are boycotting, so lets do this!
I have 3 trans friends and as a super straight middle aged privileged all to hell white dad, fuck these corporate assholes.
My wife lives at Target. She's already found other places to get the essentials.
40 days.
Fill a target online shopping cart with every day items, stuff you would buy every week or every month, and abandon it. Nothing big or expensive, standard shit.
Do that a few times.
load more comments
(4 replies)
I've been boycotting Target for months now
When they took down all their pride stuff to appease the far right, I never looked back.
Ending DEI was it for me
Dear capitalist media... Target is being boycotted for being racist. And no, Target is not the victim.
These headlines ffs...
load more comments
(3 replies)
Putting a time limit on a boycott undermines the boycott.
Saw this with the Loblaw’s boycott here in Canada, it was very ineffective because they can just wait it out.
From the point of view of the boycotter, having a time limit helps mentally.
I think more people are ready to think "just buy somewhere else for a bit". If it becomes "forever" might seem daunting.
My two cents, not sure if this is the real reason.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Yes, just don't shop at Target.
It's strange that people forget that businesses like Target getting rid of DEI also gets rid of many disability act initiatives. There should be more outrage than just a boycott.
load more comments
(3 replies)
Using gift cards is OK if you're boycotting a place, right? I mean, Target already has the money and you'd just be helping them out if you didn't buy anything with them.
I'm a school bus driver and I always get a lot of tips (Christmas and end of year) in the form of Target gift cards. BTW yes, I agree that tipping school bus drivers is fucking weird. We already get paid and it's not like we're going to drive the kids into a tree if we don't get tipped.
Those are Christmas gifts. The parents are just showing appreciation for you already not driving their kids into a tree, not bribing you lol.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Not really. The explanation is somewhat complex.
Although target already has the money once a gift card has been purchased, they will not recognise the money as revenue until you use the card.
Suppose my lawn mowing guy charges $50 each time he mows my lawn, and he comes 12 times a year. In January I just transfer him $600 because I don't want to muck around with smaller payments all the time.
When he calculates his "revenue" for January, should he include the whole $600? It would be more accurate to set aside the $550 he hadn't really earned yet, and recognise that once he actually does the work.
There's more geaky accounting stuff I could say, but in summary if you want to send a message to Target management, refrain from using gift cards during the boycott.
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(3 replies)
Remember there are bots even on Lemmy to push the narrative that we have no power. Billionaires aren't scared of a couple less dollars, but they are TERRIFIED of us figuring out we can organize. Let's not fight each other let's fight the oligarchy!
these short boycotts won't fuck them on dollars, but there is a potential benefit: just in time economics and these long slow prediction-powered supply chains cannot handle this shit.
load more comments
(2 replies)
load more comments
(5 replies)
I used to pretty regularly shop at target. When they rolled back DEI proactively for trump, I stopped.
load more comments
(3 replies)
I work at the Target warehouse that supplies the northwest, should be interesting to see if this actually noticeably changes our daily product volume. Gonna hazard a guess at no probably not. I should have some idea within 24 hours thanks to just in time logistics but seasonal product could fuzz the numbers a bit.
Works for me though, I'm mostly here for the tuition benefit and I don't lose benefits eligibility unless I dip below 20/hr/week average which I can't imagine happening.
Update: Maybe, actually. Today was the lowest volume so far this week but we're just sorta back to the volume we were running last week. We'll see if it sticks.
Update 2: lol, today's volume is even higher than last week. It's just volatile right now I guess, no discernible impact.
Been boycotting them since my local one let ICE use their back parking lot to stage up and detain folks
Been part of a boycott for decades and didn't even know
Every one of these idiot companies pivoting to cowboy capitalism from rainbow capitalism are clueless about who actually has money in this country.
load more comments
(3 replies)
Every time I've gone into a target in the last 5 years, they legit looked like they were closing down. Idk why people are boycotting them in particular when Walmart and Amazon are way worse.
Every Target I go to is nicer than Walmart and has a more curated feel of products. I agree on the last part but it's because Target was advertising itself as being more in touch with things such as DEI and then backtracked, where Walmart and Amazon never positioned themselves as much.
load more comments
(3 replies)
load more comments
(11 replies)
I had no idea either. But I also haven't been to target in about 6 months and I've been boycotting pretty much everywhere else since last year. I haven't even done online shopping since October and it's been kinda nice going to actual stores again. Was gonna get a Costco membership next so I don't have to use Kroger. Unfortunately, the nearest Costco to me is about an hour away. Fortunately, I like driving.
load more comments
(3 replies)
Oh good I’ll continue to not shop there
Instead if 40 days, let's try 40 months.
Let's make them the next kmart
I was boycotting them from the point where I quit the job in logistics. That job was awful.