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.…….

     
    One in five Americans plan to turn their backs for good on companies that have shifted their policies to align with Donald Trump’s agenda, according to a new poll for the Guardian.

    As high-profile brands including Amazon, Target and Tesla grapple with economic boycotts,research by the Harris Poll indicated the backlash could have a lasting impact.

    “Companies and consumers are playing a high-stakes game of chicken – corporations betting on convenience winning out over conviction, while consumers wield their spending power like a weapon,” said Libby Rodney, chief strategy officer at the Harris Poll.


    “The data suggests this is a miscalculation,” she said. When 20% of Americans are permanently changing their consumption habits and nearly a third of boycotters say they’ll hold out indefinitely, convenience may no longer be the decisive factor companies think it is.”

    When asked about the boycotts that have been making headlines over the last few weeks, 36% of Americans said they are or will be participating.

    The strength of feeling varied significantly among people of different generations, races and political views:

    • 53% of gen Zers and 46% of millennials said they are participating in boycotts, compared with 30% of gen Xers and just 22% of Boomers.
    • Over half of Black (53%) and Hispanic (51%) Americans are boycotting, compared with 29% of white Americans.
    • Democrats (49%) are far more likely to be boycotting now than independents (32%) and conservatives (29%).
    When given a list of reasons why they are boycotting, Americans said the top reason was they want to show companies that consumers have economic power and influence (53%) and express their dissatisfaction with current government policies (49%).

    Nearly half of those boycotting (46%) also pointed to companies rolling back their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies as a reason behind their boycott.


    It’s difficult to track the tangible impacts boycotts have on companies and exactly how many people participate in them. Many start on social media, but other consumers have said they made the decision to move away from companies on their own.

    Some groups have coordinated boycotts within their communities in recent weeks, particularly in response to companies like Target, Amazon and Walmart rolling back DEI measures. Target, for example, ended hiring goals for marginalized groups, while Walmart said it will no longer prioritize finding suppliers that are women- or minority-owned companies.

    Some Americans feel companies are giving up core moral values in bowing to the president.…….

    It is not only americans.- Europeans are getting more aware about where they spend their money, Amazon in particular has been singled out as have several other big brand names - And Tesla is dead in the water :)
     
    It is not only americans.- Europeans are getting more aware about where they spend their money, Amazon in particular has been singled out as have several other big brand names - And Tesla is dead in the water :)
    On the rainy Grands Boulevards in Paris on Friday, the branches of McDonald’s and KFC were doing brisk business.

    There was little sign of “le boycott” – a movement among French customers to reject American brands and products made in the US, in protest at Donald Trump’s trade tariffs and anti-Europe rhetoric.

    A poll, which splashed the front page of the Libération newspaper last week, found that more than six out of 10 French people support shunning American products, and almost one in three are already avoiding them.


    The #BoycottUSA hashtag has spread across social media networks in what researchers say is a “historic collapse” of the US’s image in France, America’s third largest European trading partner.

    Students Mathieu, 16, Jade, 15, and Esther, 17, heading in to the McDonald’s on Friday, were not about to be diverted by trade tariffs, however. “I understand why people are suggesting we avoid American products, but it’s something people with money can afford to do. As students we can’t,” Jade said.

    Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Tesla, Starbucks, KFC and X are among the US brands that have been cited as those to be shunned. Those questioned by pollsters also cited Apple, Microsoft, booking platforms Airbnb and Tripadvisor, Nike and Converse.…..

     

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