A quarter of US shoppers have dumped favorite stores over political stances (1 Viewer)

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    Optimus Prime

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    Has anyone changed where they shopped?

    We do shop less retail than we used to

    Mostly because we switched to buying from amazon
    ================================


    Americans are changing their shopping habits and even dumping their favorite stores in a backlash against corporations that have shifted their public policies to align with the Trump administration, according to a poll exclusively shared with the Guardian.

    Four out of 10 Americans have shifted their spending over the last few months to align with their moral views, according to the Harris poll.

    • 31% of Americans reported having no interest in supporting the economy this year – a sentiment especially felt by younger (gen Z: 37%), Black (41% v white: 28%) and Democratic consumers (35% v 29% of independents and 28% of Republicans).
    • A quarter (24%) of respondents have even stopped shopping at their favorite stores because of their politics (Black: 35%, gen Z: 32%, Democratic: 31%).

    More Democrats (50%) indicated they were changing their spending habits compared with Republicans (41%) and independents (40%).

    Democrats were also more likely to say they have stopped shopping at companies that have opposing political views to their own – 45% of Democrats indicated so, compared with 34% of Republicans.

    It’s a sign that consumers with liberal views are starting to use their wallets in response to politics in the private sector.

    Most recently, this has been seen with a backlash against Target – the seventh-largest retailer in the US that has enjoyed a typically favorable reputation among liberal consumers.

    In January, Target announced it was ending some of its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies, including a program that helped the company carry more Black- and minority-owned brands in its stores, saying it was trying to “stay more in step with the evolving external landscape”.

    Along with calls for a boycott on social media, Twin Cities Pride, the organization that runs the annual pride festival in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where Target is headquartered, said it was dropping the company as a sponsor because of its announcement.

    “What is more important is that we send the message that companies do the right thing,” Andi Otto, executive director of Twin Cities Pride, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune in January.

    The last few years have shown that boycotts usually come from the consumer base whose party is not in power in Washington. When Joe Biden was president, conservatives boycotted companies that were deemed too “woke”.

    After the beer brand Bud Light partnered with the transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney for a sponsored social media post, a backlash against the beer grew online. Anheuser-Busch, the parent company of Bud Light, lost $395m in the ensuing months amid calls for a boycott.

    Now that Donald Trump is back in the White House, liberal consumers seem more ready to respond to political tides.

    After Trump won the election, multiple companies announced they were rolling back their DEI policies and pledges – much of which was created in response to Black Lives Matter protests after the murder of George Floyd in 2020.

    Though some companies had been quietly rolling back DEI programs after the supreme court ruled affirmative action in higher education unconstitutional, raising questions about whether the court could end up scrutinizing diversity efforts in the workplace in the future, most companies were reticent about announcing any rollbacks publicly.

    That changed after Trump won the election, as the president said in his campaign that he would end all DEI.…….

     

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