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.
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.
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.
This was, by my estimates, maybe 30-50% of all the customers in the store. I’m not saying this is the rule, or that it’ll be identical across America. I think my area is probably much more likely to engage in this blackout than others, but I personally think this movement actually caught a lot more people than you might think at first glance.
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.
No it won’t. This just means people buy the stuff the another day and is absolutely meaningless to their bottom line
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.
Again, see the part of my post where I specified:
This was, by my estimates, maybe 30-50% of all the customers in the store. I’m not saying this is the rule, or that it’ll be identical across America. I think my area is probably much more likely to engage in this blackout than others, but I personally think this movement actually caught a lot more people than you might think at first glance.