Put your wallets away to show billionaires who we are.
Powerful people, whose dollars vote for the world we want
to live in.
Today, tomorrow, everyday.
It’s Economic Boycott Day!
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Next post: No Spend March
{ 59 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m happily taking part here in Massachusetts! I cut the cord with Amazon last year. Today DH and I had a discussion about doing the same with Walmart and decided we’re done with that behemoth. We will also be looking for a different place besides Home Depot for needs for our home. I’m hoping this is a good starting place to make our statement about the flaws in our country’s economy.
Joining from MA as well! Was thinking the same thing about HD- I think ACE hardwares are at least owned by local franchises?? Not sure how much better that is??
They are local franchises and the company gives them a lot of leeway in how they run the businesses. There’s a charming video on YouTube about one out west where the most knowledgeable person working there is a middle aged lady who knows everything about carpentry, engines, plumbing, and electrical.
Ruby, any chance you remember where “out west” that Ace is located? I’m in the West and would love it if it’s near me!
Riley, I was actually checking my local ACE hardware store’s website this afternoon — I’ve shopped there before and the staff has always been so helpful.
That’s a great idea. The employees at my closest ACE have their pronouns on their name badges, so there’s zero chance that it’s MAGA owned.
Thanks everyone in giving me ideas of franchises to replace Home Depot. I appreciate it!
If you have a Habitat Restore , try them.
I’m also an Ace Hardware fan! Never had a request they couldn’t fill and the employees are unfailingly helpful.
I am delighted to boycott the big box stores and fast food joints. In fact, I won’t need to go to ANY store or business or restaurant today. I’m substitute teaching, made coffee at home, and packed a sack lunch; after school, I’ll head home and read or watch some TV (antenna, not cable or streaming) and eat a home-cooked supper. Can’t wait to see what the news says about our boycotting, if it made a dent in the national economy. Hopefully, it did. Hopefully, the Powers that Be will sit up and take notice.
Put my wallet away and, for good measure, cancelled my Washington Post subscription. Now WaPo is pleading me to renew at 75% off. Nope. Not gonna.
These kinds of renewal pleas are so frustrating. If the company can handle my account at 75% off, why don’t they just do that in the first place?
Because they’re drowning in cancellations now.
Bezos has just destroyed WaPo. No longer can you trust it for fair and accurate reporting. And this is the paper that exposed Watergate.
I hope to continue this boycott for myself. I am not much of a shopper anyway and can count on one hand the number of times I eat out in a year.
I hope the oligarchs that bought this presidency for the orange one in exchange for his get out of jail free card suffer immeasurable losses.
I say bad words when I think of them or him….
YES! Let’s all get creative and shop local!
I’m in!
Staying home today, not spending any money any where. I did spend a long time on the phone with a federal employee resolving an issue with my Medicare application. She was so kind, smart and diligent in resolving the issue, and I gave her my heartfelt thanks.
Haven’t bought a thing today. probably won’t tomorrow either.
However–I wish we could stop assuming all billionaires are evil. I’m actually friends with a couple of them and they are kind, good, and have helped me a lot. So there we are. Sorry if I’m being Cap’n Bringdown.
Rose,
You are so not Cap’n Bringdown. I can’t say I know any billionaires personally, but I know there are many of them out there that care deeply about our country, our environment, the global issues we’re having, etc etc. I, personally, do not paint them all with the same brush. It’s the clowns who have aligned themselves with the Orange Turd I have a problem with.
I get that. And it’s probably for the best I don’t run a zillion dollar multinational company–because I can’t imagine aligning myself with Cap’n Cheetos. However, in my long corporate career I have seen how the Feds can ruin a company if their executives don’t play ball. It sucks. I hope I would do the right thing but then that would involve damaging my company and derailing the people who work for it. And God knows the Orange Menace is the absolute pettiest politician ever.
Not all billionaires are evil oligarchs.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation sends huge amounts of money to advance global health care to the poorest Third World nations.
Let us not forget Shark Tank’s Mark Cuban, who also owns the Dallas Mavericks basketball team. He has singlehandedly done what he can to bring the cost of Rx drugs down. His Cost Plus mail-order pharmacy charges the price it pays for a medicine plus 15% plus the pharmacy fee, if any. His website says, “We started Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company because every American should have access to safe, affordable medicines. If you don’t have insurance or have a high deductible plan, you know that even the most basic medications can cost a fortune. Many people are spending crazy amounts of money each month just to stay healthy. No American should have to suffer—or worse—because they can’t afford basic prescription medications.”
Warren Buffet has advocated for a better tax system. He wants his fellow billionaires to pay their fair share of income taxes so that regular Americans don’t have to foot the entire bill for our government. He’s also contributed to the Gates’ foundation.
These billionaires are the good guys! They are changing the world for the better. Too bad Musk and Trump et al don’t take a page out of their playbooks.
Yes, I’m sure Mark Cuban takes a loss !
I’d add Nick Hanauer (?sp)to the list of not-evil billionaires. But *can* one actually get that rich without exploiting workers, whether here or abroad?
No spending today from this household in north Florida!
No shopping at all today, but I do need one item for my book club tonight and I’m going to walk or ride my bike to the local, employee-owned grocery store for that.
joining in! even bought my gas yesterday to make sure I wouldn’t have too today.
I’m there in spirit, but we’re road tripping to meet friends for a few days of hiking in a glorious National Park. It will unfortunately take two tanks of fuel to get there. Beyond that, no spending. Of course I packed snacks and prepped all of our meals.
Well, there is one more thing….After 9-12 service calls (depending on who’s counting), Whirlpool finally agreed to replace a refrigerator we bought last August for a tenant. They delivered a replacement on Wednesday and it was DOA. They were quoting 2-3 weeks for a replacement. I absolutely lost it. After several calls and three hours, Whirlpool is sending us a full refund. Lowes is delivering a new refrigerator from a different manufacturer tomorrow. I guess technically did buy something today, but our 87-year-old tenant has been a saint through all of this and I can’t make him wait one minute longer than absolutely necessary.
Huh.
Hope there’s still Park staff wherever you’re heading.
Sadly, I was thinking the same thing.
I do know the Boulder Nat Park at lake mead had their PHD water scientist fired so don’t go near the water. Someone died of pathogen a few years back so he’s been keeping all the water safe, including drinking, shower, and hand washing water. He was 2 weeks from being a permanent hire. He said a lot of the equipment he uses is time sensitive and hopes it doesn’t go to waste. Other than that its a pretty park with natural foliage and wildlife.
If you want to sock it to Whirlpool, I got a letter saying the Whirlpool Foundation is going to do a $1 million match for Habitat for Humanity, the homebuilding charity made famous by President Jimmy Carter. For every dollar people send in during March, Whirlpool will match it up to a million smackeroos. So if you donate, Whirlpool will also have to give Habitat some money. Deadline to contribute is March 31 and donations may be sent to Habitat for Humanity, Donation Processing Center, 322 W. Lamar St., Americus GA 31709-9800.
Joining in from NJ! Earlier this week I had an ad on my FB feed for a subscription to Mother Jones — it’s been a couple of decades since I subscribed, but I decided that less than $15/year is a good price for independent journalism that matches my values.
Yes, and don’t forget there are numerous publications and websites that stand up to the Orange Evil. Pls. support the ones you can. If you get AP news via the internet, pls. chip in a donation, as AP is being punished for calling the Gulf of Mexico by its rightful name; tRump is banning them from his news conferences and flights since they won’t go along with his renaming it the Gulf of America. Also, National Public Radio and Public Broadcasting System are on tRump’s enemies list, so pls. contribute to them if you want them to survive. And encourage people to listen to NPR and BBC news instead of Fox. (The latter is just a propaganda outlet, not real news. The said so under oath in a court case. Which they lost.)
I kept my wallet in my purse. It felt good, but I doubt it will make any difference.
No spending for me today, save a pizza from a small local pizzeria for dinner. I checked my gas tank last night to make sure I wouldn’t need to buy gas today. I was heartened to see a lot of my friends/social media acquaintances taking part.
@Gina, I joined you in the “pizza for dinner from the local pizza joint” (not even a franchise, donates tonnes to many local fundraisers, hearts of gold).
I haven’t had pizza for three months and tonight was the night.
Otherwise, no purchases.
I shopped at our local thrift store today, to support hospice in our county. And I bought our dinner from the local Chinese place. I paid cash for both so as not to engage the banks. I am waiting to pick up my meds until the weekend (corporate pharmacy). So I did shop and spend, but I kept it hyper local and in cash.
I intentionally went to a small bookstore (not fancy, it is in an unremarkable old house) owned by a local woman and bought a used book as a gift. I also went to a local, woman owned, antique/consignment store and bought a vintage Hummel figurine as a gift. I paid cash in both instances. The Hummel was wrapped in used bubble wrap.
I also attended a yoga class at an independent studio owned by a mother/daughter pair in town.
I made a donation to an immigrant assistance group. We are focused on giving more and very strategically this year.
I didn’t buy anything yesterday and plan to keep this going as much as I can. I tried to spread the word to others. I doubt we will hear any news if we did create any discomfort. The powers that be would not want us to know that we made any type of problem for them. So, please keep going even if you don’t hear anything. Remember, the less money we spend the wealthier we will become. Also, our money will not be used for causes that we do not support.
One way to increase our impact is to call *all* our elected representatives and tell them how much we *didn’t *spend. Might also call the mighty corporations and tell them as well. I start with getahuman.com to look up their numbers.
I stopped into a local nursery and bought a gift card for my mom’s birthday. I paid cash. My oldest daughter is in town. I made grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner with what I had on hand. My youngest ate the rest of the tikka masala leftovers. This is instead of eating dinner out or getting takeout. I offered to pick up from a local restaurant but everyone was fine with what we had. They also were participating. My oldest packed snacks and bought gas before Friday in anticipation. My mom gave her some ground beef from the freezer to feed her dog instead of picking up some at the store.
We spent no money in any stores yesterday! How I gave the finger to the Man addition.
1. I did take two of my Guinea pigs to my friend’s pet food store for customers to pet.
2. I bought Mickey Mouse ears off of Marketplace (for my great nephews 1st birthday party) rather than from Amazon or Walmart.
3. Sold 3 buckets of rabbit manure for fertilizer off of Marketplace,
4. Got our free slurpees at 7/Eleven and didn’t buy anything else.
5. Emailed Costco to let them know I will continue to shop there because they haven’t done away with their DEI policies.
An extra one
6. I emailed the Dept of Education to let them know my disgust at them asking employees to rat out schools that are not doing away with their DEI policies.
Re: your #6. Good for you, but is there even anyone left at the Dept. of Education to read your correspondence?
Checking in from VT. The only purchase I made yesterday was at the local co-op for some locally produced bread and breakfast sausage.
For 2025, I’m tracking how many purchases I redirect away from Amazon. So when I have a full cart, I’ll start searching where else these products are sold and try to buy from the smallest vendor.
Went on OpenSecrets and found out that the owner of my coffee supplier made a donation to something I didn’t support, so trying to find an alternative, local option now.
I’m also going to ask my massage therapist and hair dresser if they prefer/want me to pay via check. They both mentioned the fees they have to pay when customers pay via credit card.
Successfully completed a blackout on the 28 and today as well! I plan to keep going as long as I can. I have already made so many changes to my own consumerism this year (canceled Amazon, found a local pet supply store near me and ditched Walmart). I am shopping immigrant owned markets and farmers markets for fresh foods. Next up on my own personal list is the social medias-you know the ones!
I follow two purchasing policies: when I shop at small local businesses, I pay cash. And when I eat at a restaurant (which, admittedly, is not often anymore) I hand the tip directly to the wait staff. Even with a family owned local eating place, since I discovered my favorite local place was not passing on tips put on credit cards. (
We did the economic blackout yesterday but I think we’ll keep doing it. It’s time to build even closer community with my local businesses and farmers. Screw those butt kissing, dictator loving, sacks of greed!
My eBay store was dead on Friday 🙁
I’m on board with avoiding big box stores, but Friday sucked for my little online business.
If it’s any consolation, liz, when there’s something we *have* to have that we can’t get locally here in our semi-rural area, we look at eBay first.
Took part in the economic blackout from Utah. If I lived closer to any of our national parks I would have taken part in the protests going on today.
I don’t know that we’ll see any news pinpointing the effect of the blackout, but I hope a lot of us will continue to shift our spending away from these corporations and back to the small, local businesses in our communities. Over time, I think it’s going to make a huge impact.
I stayed away from retail all day, and didn’t even get in my car. I went for a walk, and a random stranger gave me a “RESIST!” pin. It’s Portland. In the day after the election, a random stranger gave me a hug.
Love both of these!
It’s Sunday early afternoon and I have not found any articles about the effects of the boycott on Friday, only ones saying the boycott would be happening. I will keep looking.
Sadly, you may be right — but let’s keep on trying.
Here is a (foreign news outlet) link I found about the boycott:
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/global-trends/economic-blackout-how-a-24-hour-blackout-became-americas-rallying-cry-for-change/articleshow/
Thank you– I am blocked from that article, though encouraged if news of the boycott is spread internationally. I don’t want the rest of the world to think all Americans are comfortable with our lives these days.
Rather disappointed that major news agencies, (or even local ones), are not seeing this as a potentially important news story. Or at least not yet.
I gave an interview about the economic boycott for Marketplace, but they didn’t end up including me in the segment, which was a disappointment. I gave great quotes too. Sad face.
Boo! Next time, we hope!
Tell us the great quotes here, and we can spread them around. BlueSky, and….