Purchasing Antipathy towards US?

[Last Conformist]

Avoiding to buy American would be too much of a hassle to do even if I wanted to.

[:) Smiley]

Living in the US, it's hard to not buy stuff made here, but when given the choice, I buy stuff that's made by companies in California as opposed to some other state.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Sir Ralph
Consumer boycotts are stupid, and the only one you hurt with it is yourself.

Wrong. They work quite well. Pepsico was forced to make a deal with a bunch of tomato pickers (whose product is used at Taco Bell) in Florida over a multiyear international boycott. South Africa was forced to end apartheid. And so on. What most people forget in boycotting, however, is to inform the boycotted company that you are boycotting them, so they will know the reason why their sales are slipping, rather than thinking its just some trend.

[child of Thor]

The only country i boycott is Israel. But i boycott plenty of big label products(McDonalds/Coke/Sports labels etc).

My weakness is in computers though

And i've noticed its very hard not to buy 'made in china'

so i've started to make my own clothes

[Harovan]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
Wrong. They work quite well. Pepsico was forced to make a deal with a bunch of tomato pickers (whose product is used at Taco Bell) in Florida over a multiyear international boycott. South Africa was forced to end apartheid. And so on. What most people forget in boycotting, however, is to inform the boycotted company that you are boycotting them, so they will know the reason why their sales are slipping, rather than thinking its just some trend.

Might work with a company if you tell them that they're boycotted, but with a country? Why would I boycott a US product just for being from America, and what should I say the company in question? I boycott you, because your president is a ***** and is ****ing up the world? What would I do if the manager answers "I don't like him either and didn't even elect him"?

We had a case here in Germany a few years ago, when Shell decided to sink their oil platform Brent Spar. Environmentalists raised the alarm and made a big stink, and a big part of the European population boycotted Shell gas stations for weeks, the leaseholders of which got punished for no own guilt. And the end of all was, Shell caved in, but bringing the platform to land and to scrap it the conventional way ate way more resources and did the environment much worse than sinking it would ever have done.

What concerns South Africa, a customer boycott alone wouldn't have had any impact I fear. It was a complete economical and political boycott, that brought it down, not the denial to buy some fruit.

[chequita guevara]

I doubt scrapping the platform was worse for the environment than sinking an oil derrick.

As for South Africa, consumer boycoots pushed corporations to divest from South Africa. Sure, not having Coca-coloa anymore isn't gonna hurt them, but not having bottling operations anymore is gonna cost jobs and state revenue. People and communities are trying the same tactic with Burma and Israel. In such cases, the movement is loud enough that these countries know why their products aren't selling.

If there was a loud enough outcry in Europe to boycott American products, as well as the products of companies that do business in America, American corporations would take notice. Business is not patriotic, and if something is hurting its bottomline, they will take steps to remedy it. Of course, given the amount of business we do with each other, it would hurt Europe just as much as the U.S.

[DanS]

I am curious about how this antipathy has changed over time.

[Bereta_Eder]

When you see what they're doing in iraq and before is better not to buy. then again one can't be bothered to check everything so maybe some coca cola or a zippo or a little shirt wouild be american

[Bereta_Eder]

but i do have a weakness for american royal pizza i admit (but maybe it's greek for all i know)

[Tassadar500]

Originally posted by child of Thor
The only country i boycott is Israel. But i boycott plenty of big label products(McDonalds/Coke/Sports labels etc).

My weakness is in computers though

And i've noticed its very hard not to buy 'made in china'

so i've started to make my own clothes

[chequita guevara]

American royal pizza?

[Whoha]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
I doubt scrapping the platform was worse for the environment than sinking an oil derrick.

As for South Africa, consumer boycoots pushed corporations to divest from South Africa. Sure, not having Coca-coloa anymore isn't gonna hurt them, but not having bottling operations anymore is gonna cost jobs and state revenue. People and communities are trying the same tactic with Burma and Israel. In such cases, the movement is loud enough that these countries know why their products aren't selling.

If there was a loud enough outcry in Europe to boycott American products, as well as the products of companies that do business in America, American corporations would take notice. Business is not patriotic, and if something is hurting its bottomline, they will take steps to remedy it. Of course, given the amount of business we do with each other, it would hurt Europe just as much as the U.S.

Or they could demand increased protection from European imports.

[Imran Siddiqui]

I know it's the onion, but...

How many times will you use a taco-shell holder?

It's very useful, dammit

I love tacos

[Urban Ranger]

Just tangental.

Nobody here buys an US car, or US anything for the most part. European imports takes the high end of the market, Japanese takes the low end and electronics market, and Chinese takes the low end of eletronics and home appliances markets and whatever is left.

The only exception is cigarettes...

[Sikander]

My girlfriend and I try to avoid buying Chinese products, both for political and quality reasons. I really can't stand buying crap.