I started out with an intent to try and spend my money locally by purchasing my fresh meat and vegetables from the Minneapolis Farmers Market and wherever else I shopped, doing my best to buy American made products whenever possible.
Also on my loose list of criteria was shopping at places that were good to their employees. I decided that unless I wanted to check the employment practices of every business I frequent, this would have to be reflected to my perception by the actions of the employees while I was in their place of employment. I don't know about you, but I can usually tell when an employee is not invested in their workplace beyond collecting a paycheck. We've all been somewhere where we've been made to feel like we, the customer are interrupting something (usually totally unrelated to the job at hand). But I digress....
In the spring I started visiting the Minneapolis Farmers Market. I have to say that all the fruits and vegetables I got there be it something I had eaten before or some weird looking thing that I had to ask what it was and how to prepare it were delicious! Don't even get me started on the fresh meat,eggs and cheese. Until I actually started doing the majority of my shopping from the following farmer/vendors:
http://www.bluegentianfarm.com/index.html
http://www.localfoods.umn.edu/bar5poultry
and so many others, I labored under the delusion that eating this way was more expensive. I was wrong. But again, I've digressed....
To keep myself on track, maybe I just need to list the places I began boycotting in 2010.
In April, I decided that Arizona was not a place that I would be visiting anytime soon because of the new immigration laws they had implemented. I understood the reasoning behind it but for the life of me, I could not justify spending any money in a state that was going to punish an entire group of people for the actions of a few, especially when the implementation of the law was based on the color of a person's skin. Not to mention the part played by immigration in Arizona.
In May, I began boycotting BP, not unexpected if you've read any of my previous posts about the oil spill in the gulf.
In June, I added Rainbow Foods to my boycotting efforts because they decided to keep their Fuel Perks affiliation with BP.
In June, I also decided to boycott Whole Foods because of an op-ed piece that the CEO wrote for the Wall Street Journal. I didn't expect to remain true to this boycott very long, but that op-ed piece made me want to learn more about the company and with a little further research, it became apparent to me that I wouldn't be going back anytime soon.
(If you are curious, this site has a nice round-up of some things I found quite troubling about Whole Foods: http://michaelbluejay.com/misc/wholefoods.html )
In July after seeing that Target and Best Buy decided to take advantage of the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizen's United decision and make some serious corporate campaign contributions, I added them to my boycott list. For the record, I would have done this with no regard to what party they chose to give to (in this case it was the Republicans). If I want to contribute to a campaign, I will. I don't think corporations who accept money from everyone, have any business giving to one political ideology or another unless they are guaranteed that the contribution reflects all their customers and employees. But that's just my opinion.
In September, 3M decided to jump into the political fray with a $100,000 donation so I rounded up every 3M product I had. I couldn't bring myself to toss it out so I donated it to a women's shelter and added 3M to my list. I think this will be my first holiday season without Scotch Tape. So far so good.
A week ago, I actually had a passing thought that I hadn't been pissed off enough to swear never to shop somewhere specific or not buy something for a while. I allowed myself the luxury of thinking that maybe things had calmed down. But no-such luck.
I saw an interview with the CEO of Heinz who said that Heinz will not be hiring Americans because of the ‘uncertainty’ produced by the ‘inability’ of the U.S government to resolve tax rate issues. In the same interview, he stated that Heinz will be opening plants and hiring workers in China and other countries.
I am now boycotting all Heinz products forever.
On December 3rd, President Obama announced the U.S-Korea Trade Agreement. Uh-oh...If that wasn't bad enough to my NAFTA hating soul, it had the full support of Thomas Donohue the U.S. Chamber of Commerce... and much to the relief of the Heinz CEO it also has the full support of Sen. John Kerry.
Good luck America.
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