this post was submitted on 28 Feb 2025
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Just some additional advertising for todays boycott.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 hours ago

you don’t have all the cards!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 hours ago

I work at a Costco in Western Canada. Today (28th) was a little slower than slower than normal, but well inside the normal ups and downs we see. All of us are curious to see if the 1st is busier to make up for it.

[–] stevedice 19 points 6 hours ago

I didn't know about this and still participated by accident. What I'm trying to say is that if 1 day counts as boycott I'm severely concerned by the overreliance the general public has on those companies.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

Everybody will just buy more shit tomorrow. Are you people afraid of going into the streets?

[–] [email protected] 25 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

Who organizes this shit????? Can I learn about this ahead of time so I don't see the post literally at 10:30 on the night of the same day??

Like literally

[–] weariedfae 4 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

Do you know about the nationwide general strike on March 14th?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 16 minutes ago

Who's organizing it? Is the UAW involved? Last time I heard, plans for the next general strike including nationwide unions were set for 2028

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

There's also a national protest on march 4th, check out [email protected] for more info!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 18 minutes ago

Subscribed! I didn't know 50501 was on the Fediverse

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

ive seen this promoted all over the place for weeks

[–] [email protected] 1 points 17 minutes ago

Huh, guess I need to tweak my Lemmy feed then

[–] [email protected] 15 points 8 hours ago

If anyone is interested this was apparently started by a group called The People's Union. I get that 1 day isn't that impactful in the grand scheme of things, cuz it's not. But it's about organization. It's about coordination.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

It's good people are doing something, but I can't help but feel it would be way more effective if it was a sustained boycott of targeted businesses. Not buying anything for a year is impossible, but not buying anything from one particular store for a year is possible.

Could you imagine the dread corporate would feel if they saw Banana Republic get boycotted for 2025 and looked at the boycott schedule and their name was listed under 2026?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Yup. One day of no shopping means the big corps just weather a day of lower purchases and the next day people will be buying the stuff they skipped out on friday. It's hardly a noticeable blip to them.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah as much as id like to see pressures on some corps, I think it is better to target certain corps.

One day, as you said you are just buying the next day, or back loading a day earlier.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 hours ago

Coprporates only understand 10k/10Qs, market caps, and wealth increase for shareholders. So, that's right, quarter on quarter or year on year trend movements will be the only thing because certain EPS is not reached because sales was low, this is the only metric they will understand. I was watching a documentary once and there was a town or group of villages in India somewhere which had made a system to have near zero wastes in their eco system of crops and gardens and they went pretty much self reliant... I was like why can't we do that... I don't know whether that requires lots of research or whatnot.... But if any significant group of people can do that, all of the system will come begging.... On their knees or will try to destroy the doers.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 hours ago

Without any replacements, this boycott isn't going to last. We should be promoting alternatives with the blackout too. Costco isn't available everywhere.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 hours ago (5 children)

As expected, nothing came of this. Don't be pathetic. Stop buying from red states and wacko Trump supporters everyday.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Stop buying from red states

No wheat? Even imported Italian pasta is made from American Durum wheat. (Yes Italian pasta companies import US wheat, make pasta from it and then sell it as Italian.)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago

Sure. Eat a potato from a local farm.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 hours ago

Organising is now just posting the day of

[–] [email protected] 13 points 12 hours ago (3 children)

Got food at the local donut shop. Ate lunch and dinner from a food truck. The real way this could work is if everyone does this everyday and avoids non local chains.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago

While this is par for the course for me, I imagine lots of people across the states have had their local stores run out of town over the years, making this much harder. Other times, local stores are more expensive at a time when people really can’t be paying more.

Hopefully, it does help by getting people to consider local where they can. But I do think some people vastly overestimated this one day.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 12 hours ago

Like, i didn't buy anything today not because of protest, just because i didn't need too... Stuff like this will not be noticed

[–] [email protected] 37 points 15 hours ago (20 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

"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.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 hours ago

First, not going shopping for one day isn't "fighting for change", it's doing the bare minimum to feel like you're actually doing something.

Second, boycotts work, absolutely, but this isn't a boycott. This won't affect the overall sales numbers of these stores, just move them to a different day.

Finally, what are their demands exactly?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 hours ago

you can't deny, that this makes the whole issue a lot more visible than just doing nothing.

Yes I can. Because what fucking issue is this about? What are the goals this protest is trying to achieve?

Making a fuss about nothing, and doing nothing with any lasting effect, is not a protest.

[–] starman2112 45 points 15 hours ago (4 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 23 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

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.

[–] AlfredoJohn 6 points 11 hours ago

I don't knock the fact that things need to be done, but a general strike would be more effective if you want them to notice what an economic blackout would look and feel like. No company is looking at profits at a one day scale, so point blank, no one up top is going to see any effect from this. The fact people are still going to get what they need, but just on a different day means the only ones who noticed this or were affected by it were the ones who participated not the rich fucks getting paid tomorrow instead of today. We need to work towards tangible goals that have something that can be measured and affect real change, not cause more people to feel apethic when their efforts go unrewarded.

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[–] [email protected] 46 points 16 hours ago (36 children)

If your protest is convenient it's a shitty protest. I'm sorry, but this is a shitty protest.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

There's no way this had any affect. I like the sentiment but it won't work.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

Businesses seeing a drop in revenue as a result of a random patchwork organized online effort for a temporary boycott won't have any effect?

Of course it can. If businesses see it's possible for people to exercise economic control against them, it makes it just that bit harder for them to expect no resistance going forward. People see the result of their actions and are more likely to engage in other boycotts going forward, and businesses then have to be afraid of future targeted boycotts hitting them harder.

You don't successfully get a company to back down on anything with the threat of a boycott, if that company has no reason to believe you're even capable of boycotting them. Doing something like this makes it abundantly clear that it's possible, and thus increases the likelihood of businesses taking future boycotts seriously.

And if you want to say it won't work, then I'll tell you that as a cashier at a smaller local grocery store, today I saw nearly half of all transactions done in cash (usually it's 1 in every 5-6) to avoid giving credit card companies money, an older woman explicitly mentioning that she was disappointed she had to use her Visa card because she didn't have cash on her, and on top of that, I also saw a reduction in purchases of non-necessities (about a 20-30% overall volume reduction in total purchases) on top of people swapping out brands I'd usually see purchased like Coca Cola with smaller local drinks instead.

If this is what's happening at the small local grocery chain, then you might be able to imagine what was happening (or rather, not happening at all due to people staying home) to the large big box store down the road.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 hours ago

Businesses seeing a drop in revenue as a result of a random patchwork organized online effort for a temporary boycott won't have any effect?

No it won’t. This just means people buy the stuff the another day and is absolutely meaningless to their bottom line

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

I think it could work but literally no one knew about it today, and so if there is a dip there is no way for anyone to attach it to a movement vs a quiet Friday. I didn’t even figure it out until yesterday on blue sky.

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[–] [email protected] 54 points 17 hours ago (3 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 40 points 17 hours ago (11 children)

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!

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 hours ago

I found out about this yesterday. I don’t know what happened to the messaging, but lucky i saw it in time on blue sky.

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