Is Consumer Activism a Lost Cause?
Does it really matter if I stop shopping at Target?
A few weeks ago, I posted a thread on the Substack chat about creating a calendar that would include all the so-called “DEI” holidays that Google announced it was dropping in the wake of the new presidential administration’s self-described “war on woke.” I asked Purse readers which dates I should include, but I also casually mentioned that I was too embedded with Google to actually boycott the company. While no one offered any holiday suggestions, people had a lot of strong feelings on how one might actually quit Google.
The conversation got me thinking about the hundreds of small consumer decisions I make on a regular basis, and how hard it often feels to truly be a conscious consumer. This is a topic that often comes up in the essays I write for The Purse, and I think many of you feel a similar struggle. We want to use our economic power to fight back against injustices we see in the world—and there are so many right now. But also, it often feels futile. Much is made in this country about rugged individualism, but at the end of the day, how much can an individual really do? Google isn’t going to care one way or another if I stop using its suite of products, but I very much will feel the pain of moving my email, calendar, and thousand documents to a different program.
I worry that I’m woefully inconsistent with my consumer activism, and if I’m being honest, most of the time my decision to not support a business has more to do with how easy it is to cut it out of my life. Take Hobby Lobby and Goya, for example. I tell myself I don’t shop at Hobby Lobby because I don’t agree with the billionaire owner’s politics, but the truth is, I’m not a crafter, and if I were to need some supplies, I could find them elsewhere.
At the same time, I do buy Goya products despite the fact that the company’s president is also a conservative billionaire who gained national attention for spreading 2020 election lies. What can I say? I like the beans! They taste better than a lot of other canned beans out there. I’m not sure what story I tell myself to justify the hypocrisy here, but frankly my choice of canned beans isn’t keeping me up at night. (Maybe it should be?1)
In a recent essay, Katie Gatti Tassin points out that consumers boycotting brands as a means of political action “transcends party lines.” I had already forgotten conservatives boycotting Bud Light in outrage after it partnered with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney. (Including Kid Rock shooting up cases of beer with some sort of semi-automatic weapon.2) More recently, conservatives threatened to boycott Costco over its DEI policies. I can’t help but wonder what a brand would have to do to unite both the left and the right in a protest?
With big tech companies like Amazon and Google, it’s almost impossible to quit them entirely, so wide-reaching are their businesses. I canceled my Prime membership during the pandemic in part because I had read about how badly the company treated its employees (both in the warehouses and at corporate headquarters). But I also had a big personal motivation. I was annoyed by the way pricing worked on the website, and I found it really hard to track whether I was paying a fair price for my purchases.
But I haven’t completely cut the company out of my life. We’ll order from there a handful of times a year (well-meaning family members frequently give us Amazon gift cards for holiday presents), and we use my parents’ Prime account to watch movies. But even if I never, ever used one of Amazon’s consumer products again, the tech behemoth is everywhere. I still remember the series Kashimir Hill wrote for Gizmodo in 2019, where she spent six weeks trying to completely cut the big five tech companies out of her life, starting with Amazon. And she couldn’t do it.
In an effort to disengage with Amazon Web Services, the world’s largest cloud computing platform, she installed a VPN, which blocked over 23 million IP addresses controlled by Amazon, including the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s website. “Government agencies love AWS, which is likely why Amazon, soon to be a corporate Cerberus with three ‘headquarters,’ chose Arlington, Virginia, in the D.C. suburbs, as one of them,” she noted in a parenthetical.
And that was six years ago. I have to believe that Amazon’s reach has only grown since.3 But I also appreciated one line in Kashimir’s piece, admitting why she couldn’t entirely give up Amazon even if it was actually feasible: “I just like watching television shows on demand too damn much.” Girl, I get it.
When you start to really think about how massive these companies are, it’s hard to not feel like your individual actions are just plain silly. And it’s easy to start to believe that there’s no way to really make a difference. So what does it matter if you watch TV shows on Prime or not?
For a while, I was able to fool myself into believing that Target was a corporation that cared thanks to a number of progressive policies it set forth in the 2010s. In 2016, the big box store announced on its website4 that it “welcome[s] transgender team members and guests to use the restroom or fitting room facility that corresponds with their gender identity.” It has an insane return policy for Cat & Jack kids clothes, and parents can drop off used car seats for recycling. Most notable, perhaps, was its response following the murder of George Floyd, which took place just miles from Target’s corporate headquarters. In 2021, it announced it would commit to spending $2 billion over five years with Black-owned businesses.
Five years are not quite up (the commitment was through the end of 2025), but the vibes have been shifting for a while, and Target is changing its tune. It announced on the eve of Black History month that it was ending its workforce and supplier diversity programs. “Target will also stop participating in external diversity-focused surveys, including one from the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy group,” CNN reported.
I wish I could claim that my first thought was, “What’s going to happen to all those Black-owned businesses?” But in reality it was probably closer to, “Now where am I going to buy toothpaste?” Followed quickly by, “Does no one have a backbone anymore?!” And also, “Why do we ever believe corporations are going to do anything but simply respond to the national sentiment in order to get the most customers possible?” Their duty is first and foremost to shareholders, right, and making the most money?
I don’t even want to imagine the kinds of conversations that take place within huge Fortune 500 companies like Target, but after seeing the big box store swiftly pull back from its diversity initiatives, it’s hard to not believe it was all virtue signaling this whole time, and I’m just a ding-a-ling who believed the hype.
But it sucks, right? And not because now I have to find a new place to buy toothpaste. (We have a Costco membership; we’ll be fine.) I’d argue it’s a problem for two big reasons. One, it’s terrifying that the national sentiment is swinging away from supporting diversity and equity programs. And two, what will happen to those Black-owned small businesses? Many of them have spoken out arguing that consumers should not stop shopping at Target because it will only hurt the Black businesses. I’m not going to wade into that debate because that shit is complicated, and it may simply be one of those situations where there is no right answer. Because even if we all continue to shop at Target but only buy products from Black-owned businesses, who’s to know if that will be sufficient to convince the company of its mistakes? I honestly have no clue.
This was all top of mind when I started seeing calls for a one-day boycott of Target, Amazon, and other big companies start to circulate on Instagram in mid-February. I immediately felt mixed about it. Of course I want to show my economic power! But really, what is one day going to do?
There are so many good essays about the many problems of the February 28 boycott, but one that really stood out was by
, which had the killer headline “The Revolution Is Not A Crash Diet.”5 In the piece, Virginia did a wonderful job diving into the “murky” origin story of the boycott’s founder. But she also shines a spotlight on the biggest issue with the boycott: What’s the point?“Boycotts work best as an organizing strategy when they are used to pressure corporations into agreeing to specific demands,” she wrote. “They also take longer than one day to work.”
Of course they take longer than a day! This economic blackout had about the same bite as “A Day Without Women,” which took place on International Women’s Day on March 8, 2017, as a way to protest…well, truthfully, I can’t remember what point we were trying to make, but that was peak pink pussy hats, and we all know how that turned out.6 There was a lot of hand-wringing and social-media shouting back in 2017, too, but to what end?
As Virginia wrote in her piece, “Surely, one reason this particular event is going so viral is because it promises to make us feel fired up, morally righteous and committed to change…but we only have to do it for 24 hours (and we can sleep for like 8 of those!). We can ‘boycott’ today…just by waiting until tomorrow to press checkout on that Target cart.”
I had that same thought on February 28, as I told Ken to put off grocery shopping ’til Saturday, and I held off on buying a five-pack of pilates sessions from a local studio via the Mindbody app. (Is that a big business? IDK!) But we didn’t not spend money on Friday. We had a babysitter that evening. I bought pizza for her and Freddy before Ken and I headed to a local bar to celebrate a friend’s birthday (happy birthday, Doc!), where we paid for dinner and drinks. Does that not count because I was patronizing local businesses? I guess according to the rules of this particular boycott, yes, but again, it all feels sort of silly.
I loved the Substack Note from Shandra Strickland pointing out that the Montgomery bus boycotts lasted over a year. A one-day economic blackout, just like a single day without women, isn’t going to move the needle.
My life wasn’t disrupted by not spending money on Amazon, Target, or Walmart for one 24-hour period. I could probably never spend another dime in any of those three stores, and I wouldn’t miss out on much. Yeah, it would be inconvenient. But I can’t help but think we’d all be better off if we started embracing a little more friction in our lives.
Marion Teniade used that exact word in her insightful essay “The reason these boycotts ain’t hitting like they should,” which was published a full month before the February 28 event. She wrote about the importance of “conflict and friction” in our fight against the destruction of our country, while also arguing that consumer boycotts are simply not enough.
“Your individual consumer choice will not change how capitalism works, because capitalism designed itself to absorb that choice. That’s why the satisfaction of an imprecise boycott dissipates so quickly, and you go back to telling yourself, helplessly, that there is no ethical consumption under capitalism. Withholding capital isn’t an act of creation or connection. It’s just a deferred transaction.”
She goes on to argue that what we need now is not consumer citizenship but community citizenship. This is the only thing that will create real change, she argues, even if it’s slow and frustrating work. “But in a choice between impossible (winning on capitalists’ terms) and difficult (winning on ours), we should choose difficult,” she wrote.
I couldn’t agree more, but also, Marion isn’t giving us a free pass to shop at Amazon, Walmart, or Target. “I think divestment—which is meaningfully different from boycotting—is a good thing,” she wrote in the comment section of her piece. “I’m saying that your individual choice is not a *sufficient* replacement for your political voice."
Oh but it can be so hard to use your political voice! Many of us are struggling right now, trying to figure out what the hell we’re supposed to be doing to stop the people in positions of power from completely destroying our society. (I’m aware that many people think all this destruction and disruption is a good thing.) We feel helpless, and as usual we fall back on easy fixes: a social media repost or a one-day boycott, essentially empty calories. Even if it does nothing to actually make real and lasting change, we get to cross “civic duty” off our to-do list and go on with our lives. It can be hard to know how to engage with your community. Where do you even begin?
I don’t have a tidy conclusion to this essay because I don’t really know what we’re supposed to do. But personally, I am going to try a few things. One, I’m going to continue to not shop at Target and Amazon. I realize I’m one person, and it will do absolutely nothing to hurt their bottom lines, but I will feel better about how my money is being spent. And two, I’m going to follow Marion’s advice and work harder to be a good community citizen. New York City has a huge mayoral primary this summer, and while I have yet to choose a candidate to throw my support behind, it’s hard to imagine a more important election to focus on at this moment.
What are you doing to make a difference? What are you doing to make your political voice heard? What are we all doing to add some friction and fight to our lives?
Random Extras:
I talked to many friends and read many articles in the writing of this essay, and as usual it was impossible to fit it all in. I do want to shout out
of , who recently wrote about her decision to move away from recommending Amazon products. I really appreciate her thoughtfulness and transparency. Also, I loved the piece from on Gen Z women opting out of shopping in protest of companies’ politics.It was so fun to share my (tiny) desk with
! I love her desk tours, which feature so many cool women include Shannon Watts and Leslie Stephens.Big congrats to
, whose hilarious new book, Mama Needs a Minute, is out today!Speaking of her book, I’m giving away a copy, as well a one of her fun “No worries if not!” mugs, to one lucky paid subscriber.7 Maybe today’s a good day to upgrade to paid?
It turns out the Goya president was ousted in late February under “mysterious circumstances,” according to CNN.
His boycott didn't last long. CNN reported he “forgave” Bud Light in December, less than six months after his assault on those cases of beer.
Pulled this stat from Statista: “According to estimates from Synergy Research Group, Amazon’s market share in the worldwide cloud infrastructure market amounted to 30% in the fourth quarter of 2024, ahead of Microsoft’s Azure platform at 21% and Google Cloud at 12%.”
All of this has since been scrubbed from Target’s website and replaced with more generic language.
I feel a little guilty dragging this particular event, because hindsight is 20/20, and I think a lot of well-meaning people really believed in the “Day Without Women” event.
The sweepstakes is limited to readers within the U.S. It closes at 11:59 p.m. ET on March 31, 2025. To enter without upgrading to a paid subscription, please reply to this email by 11:59 p.m. ET on March 31, 2025, that you would like to be entered in the sweepstakes. If there are any further questions, simply respond to this email, and I will do my best to answer them.
I think, if anyone might find this helpful, being mindful of changing your personal expectations from a “I want it right now” to “it’s okay if it takes a bit longer to get this thing I want” will do quite a bit of damage to behemoths like Amazon, as well as helping us parse out “need” versus “want” and our collective attitudes changing toward our daily consumerism will be devastating for the corporations who mine our attention and data. And redirecting our consumer habits to include small businesses/local farmers markets/etc over the long term, even when getting your toothpaste (diapers for me) at Target will have a huge effect, on our hearts and wallets and lifestyles. America enforces the fallacy that every action should be HUGE, just like we enforce the idea that every president must be “The One Who Will Save Us”. I’m an indie bookseller and I’ve fought Amazon since the beginning and what Bezos is brilliant at (he tested it on books and wrecked our industry) is know how to convince people that “get it RIGHT NOW” is the ultimate goal, regardless of need or want or even being polite to the extremely underpaid bookseller who researched that book title you couldn’t remember and told you could get it faster on Amazon after they offered to order it for you. He does NOT want us to learn patience and slow down and diversify our consumerism. Nor does Google or any other huge corporation. And the law is on their side because corporations have more rights than people.
So every decision to do exactly that, slow down and think and maybe do a little gut check or research, each day, is a win for both you AND for the collective. Conservatism has many issues but it’s important to keep in mind that Liberalism has taught us to feel guilty for every little thing, keeping us from enjoying our now, from being present. So throw that guilt complex to the wind. Take a deep breath, think about who you are and how you be the most you can be and slow down and get rest and love yourself. That’s revolutionary.
Just because it's not possible to be a perfectly ethical shopper (there's an oxymoron!) in the 21st century doesn't mean we can't try to do better. Reducing our consumption in general is better for the environment, but that doesn't mean we should give up entirely if we can't get it to zero.
I'm trying not to let the perfect -- which doesn't exist -- be the enemy of the good enough.