Voting With Money

Tis the Season to be Shopping, and as usual, I have to make decisions on where to spend that dough. I’m doing my best to spend as locally as possible, and avoiding my list of Do Not Buy corporations. This came up in a Facebook discussion today, and I’m going to copy-and-paste from my comments there:

I choose to spend my money where I feel comfortable doing so. I do not feel comfortable supporting companies whose behavior I find appalling. I no longer shop at a long list of places (including Target, Best Buy, and Urban Outfitters) because of their policies. I can’t bring myself to reward shitty behavior. I’d rather buy fewer things from companies I respect than more things from a company whose policies I find abhorrent.

…

I have no illusions about affecting Amazon by taking my money elsewhere. It’s more about me being able to sleep well at night. I feel better when I support businesses that don’t do things I think are horrible. I recognize that it’s impossible for me to buy ONLY from COMPLETELY ethical sources, but I’m not going to stick my head in the sand and pretend I don’t know things when they fall into my lap like this.

As an addendum, an Amazon employee who was part of the conversation said that Jeff Bezos takes customer concerns seriously and that I should write him a letter. I’m planning to do just that.

Please note: I’m not saying you shouldn’t shop at any of these places. We all vote with our money, and you can vote as you like. I won’t harangue folks who patronize these organizations/businesses any more than I harangue my friends and family who vote for politicians I think are horrible (I do reserve the right to jump up and down and yell that said politicians are misogynist douchecanoes, idiots, etc., mind you. I just try to do it on my own internet space rather than the comments section of other people’s).

Y’all have the right to see things differently than I do.

OK? OK.

An alphabetical list of places I don’t shop, and why

• Amazon
• Turned consumers into spies and local retailers into showrooms.
• Anti-labor and general creepiness.
• During a dispute over ebook pricing, refused to sell any books, physical included, from Macmillan.
• Best Buy
• Gave money to anti-choice politician
• Curves
• CEO supports pro-life causes
• Emphasis on weight loss and appearance rather than fitness.
• Salvation Army
• Anti-gay, to the point of campaigning against decriminalizing consensual sex between gay men in New Zealand, wtf.
• Target
• Gave money to anti-choice politician, then went back on tentative agreements with LGBT orgs to right the wrong and regain its pro-LGBT stance (among other anti-gay leanings from the higher-ups)
• Allows pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions they find morally unacceptable. (This may have changed, I haven’t been able to confirm.)
• Urban Outfitters (includes Anthropologie and Free People)
• Sells sexist bullshit.
• Steals from indie artists.
• Engages in anti-gay fuckery.
• WalMart
• The list is too long to include here. Starts with them pulling a shirt saying “Someday a woman will be president!” from their stores years ago because it “violated their family values policy” (no joke, I wrote them a USPS letter to complain, and they wrote me back with that “explanation”), and continues through sexism, anti-labor practices, anti-community practices, and more. See WalMartWatch for a long long list.