I have a personal boycott list. Sometimes it’s a big deal, sometimes I just got the wrong waitress, or the company just got greedy.
Generally getting on my boycott list lasts for a couple of years, of course if the company keeps being crappy, or if I just don’t have a reason or opportunity to visit they will stay on there. In addition, sometimes I have an “avoid” status.. similar to a boycott, except it is more of me trying to steer clear of the place.
Anyway here is the list of my current boycotts.
Target – This used to be my preferred retailer, when we visited the U.S.; preferred as opposed to Walmart anyway. When Target came to Canada, I was very happy. They dropped the ball however, and their entry into Canada had some problems, pricing was higher than in the U.S. and higher than their competition; in addition they couldn’t keep their shelves stocked. I avoided Target for about 6 or 7 months as a result, I started returning to Target and shopping after they had their act together. It was much better than Walmart, and I was grateful to have the competition, the choice, the cleaner stores, and a company I believed to be corporately responsible. However a change in management meant the new CEO who had been against the Canadian expansion in the first place, killed all of the Canadian Stores. He put thousands of people out of work, he left malls who had agreed to give up their previous leases for Target, scrambling for new anchors, many of them still have not found anchors, and all the stores, and employees in that mall now suffer. The CEO suggested that this was because Target Canada was losing money, not only would I expect the company to be losing money after months of renovations, new store acquisitions, not assessing the competition well enough, and not having a proper supply chain in place; but the company could not keep shelves stocked, which seemed to indicate they had under-estimated demand as well. The failure of Target Canada was poor management, not a poor marketplace, those mistakes were fixable by Target without pulling out of Canada. Target Canada may say that nationally they were not making money, but many of the stores were making money, and around me more than were not. Other options than leaving the country were available, and in addition, Target was growing quickly, after another 2 years (at most) they would have been profitable even without closing some of their poorer performing stores. If the new CEO thinks that *I* or my family will take our business back to him in the U.S. then he is mistaken.
Dairy Queen – At least the regent avenue location – After visiting this place way too much with my family, buying food, and ice cream very regularly, we joined the DQ fan club. This club sends out BOGO coupons. One month for a combination of reasons I got 3 BOGO coupons sent to me and one to Amy, (each coupon can only be used once), this normally happens in January of each year because of how they send their coupons. I’ve used 3 before, reasonably often I use 2 coupons in the same month (one to me and one to Amy). Sometimes the restaurant wants to enter the coupons one per transaction, sometimes they take them all at the same time. This January, I tried and the guy said no problem, then seemed to change his mind in the middle of making the ice cream, but before I paid. He called the manager on the phone who said “one per customer” I explained, that I had 6 people in the restaurant.. they were each customers, and could pay.. he wouldn’t allow it. I even said we could leave the store and come back. He still wouldn’t allow it. I complained to DQ Headquarters, once trying to email but their website form was broken. I tweeted.. they said to call the 800 number. I called the 800 number who said they would pass on my concerns to the local manager. I did not get a call back.
Dufrense Furniture – This is a case of use trying to buy a dishwasher, and the salesman being super focused on me and not Amy. Amy resented it, and this is her boycott more so than mine, but we obviously aren’t going to buy furniture if Amy doesn’t like the place.
Ashley Furniture – This is a case of bad customer service. Specifically buying our kids bunk beds, having the wrong parts come, a long wait for new parts to arrive while the kids had no bed to sleep in, poor customer service trying to get it resolved..
Trump – Anything associated with Donald Trump. I’ve had disagreements about politics before. I preferred Bush over Gore, I then couldn’t believe people would choose Bush W again (over Kerry). I preferred Obama over McCain, but I really respected McCain, I preferred Obama again over Romney, but again I liked Romney. But Trump is a disgrace, to the US, a stain on the beliefs of the American people, an outcome that some will point to as proof of every negative stereotype about Americans. Does he have some positions that Rock the boat, and might be good? I would agree with that. Does he have the ability to pull them off? No, he definitely does not. He will make the US a target, every moderate reasonable person who stands up for the US will be left unable to defend it’s policies or the people who elected this man. He is a used car salesman who has sold fear, uncertainty and doubt to a minority of American voters and been elected president, he is the poster child for why blindly following a Party does not work as we know that many Republicans had more in common with Hillary Clinton than Donald Trump, but had to follow the Party when they knew he and his policies were wrong for the country.
(Avoid)Walmart – is in avoid status. They put too much pressure on suppliers to keep costs low. Those suppliers include malls, vendors and employees. Keeping costs low to be competitive is one thing, but Walmart hurts the livelihood of many of these suppliers and reduces the quality of goods we as consumers get, this trickles over to other stores and suppliers who build cheaper goods and cut corners to be competitive. Still, Walmart has everything and try as I might I end up visiting it a couple times a year.