Business Ethics - Companies that you refuse to do business with

Big Phoenix_sl said:

Guess I should of said dont be an idiot and parrot the whole "walmart is a terrible company because they treat their employes and business partners like shit so dont shop there" mantra. Wal-mart is no worse than anyone else in the retail business, the difference is that they are the biggest.

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You're very... very wrong about that. They are far and away worse. Other retailers can't get away with what WM can simply because WM is so much bigger. They wield far more power and abuse it to much greater degrees. There is a reason Wally world is so much cheaper than almost every other retailer, and a reason K-Mart has been floundering for years. K-Mart stores are the biggest dumps I've ever seen and they can't pull those kinds of tactics with suppliers. It just won't work. I actually don't shop at any low-end retailers because I have enough disposable income to be able to buy products that don't sacrifice quality to be "affordable". And if you think a retailer like Nordstrom pulls the kind of shit Wal-Mart does on a supplier like Allen Edmonds you are out of your goddamn mind.

Also, the whole "well everyone else does it so quit your whining" argument is flimsy and stupid. "Getting fucked by corporations is a way of life bros, just gotta accept it. Otherwise you're just a moron being led around on a chain". Stupid argument.

well. I am with Tuco. I can't think of any brand I boycott on ethics. there are brands I avoid because I have been dissatisfied with quality. Hewlett Packard, many car brands(never a Chrysler, Ford,etc,)
I'll avoid Apple like the plague. I'll avoid some brands due to cost. Sony. Kleenex, etc. (store brand tissues are just fine thank you. Ill play $1.10 for a box of tissues, not $4.00) big Y here in new England is pretty great supermarket. store brand is very high quality.



But for the Walmart haters.
http://democrats.edworkforce.house.g...rt-May2013.pdf

"According to a New York University study published in 2005, Wal-Mart employees earn 28 percent less, on average, than employees of other large retailers."

The long story short of this was, Walmart pays lowest wages. those low wages in turn, remove any possibility of upward movement. And place a large amount of employees on government assistance. To which is then outright costing tax payers. aka, walmart can afford low wages, because taxpayers are paying their wages for them.

Now, is walmart the problem, or is the minimum wage the problem? Its teh classic question of, Walmart going, "but what I am doing it totally legal!" and everyone else going, "yes. That is exactly the problem."

CaughtCross_sl said:

Coors. They put up billboards all around LA for USC. Being a UCLA fan, im not going to spend money that supports USC.

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Related: I live in Kansas City Missouri, within 10 miles of the Kansas/Missouri border. I refuse to spend a dollar in the state of kansas. fuck them. I conveniently found out that when driving to Texas(I have friends there) I can leave KC and make it just across the Oklahoma border out of kansas before I have to refill my gas tank. Theres a town that is literally 1 mile over the border, I always have to stop there and fill up because I'm running on fumes by that point.

Theres also a popular chain of Mexican restaurants in KC that originate in lawrence kansas, as well as a large chain of sub shops. I won't eat at either.

tl;dr fuck the state of kansas

You shouldn't boycott something for ethical reasons, that's retarded. Only boycott because of smells and overpricing.

Bojangles' was out of biscuits once at breakfast, I boycotted them for like 6 months before I broke down.

On ethical grounds, I never buy Chiquita bananas (former United Fruits) or L'Or?al products (a century of close ties with extreme right wing groups).

Bank of America is it. All of the shit they pulled before, during, and after the housing crisis would be enough but they ended up with my parent's mortgage when they got saddled with Countrywide. My parents haven't ever, ever missed a payment and are zero dollars behind but as soon as it hits ten days to the next due date those sons of bitches start calling wanting their money.

Are you still living at that residence? Are you planning on making this payment? Is the house still being maintained? You do know that if you become delinquent we have the right to come into your house and inspect the property, right? When are you planning on making this payment?

Zero months behind, been paid late zero times, and these vampires are calling at 8 P.M. on a Sunday to remind us if we are late someone is going to be knocking on the door to do an inspection. I hope their executives all get bowel cancer.

[Obligatory Wal-Mart comment]

I'm going to avoid brand name medicines like the fucking plague, especially since so many of them are two generic medicines mixed together or an old generic that has been "reformulated" to be extended release. I guess that's as close as I'm getting to a boycott.

McCheese_sl said:

I've never avoided a company on ethical grounds. For me price, convenience, and quality are the only deciding factors in whether or not I'm a customer.

For example, I like to buy American when possible, but if there is a cheaper, relatively comparable version from China sitting next to it on the shelf, I'll most likely go with the Chinese one.

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Heh, I'm the exact opposite -- I will always buy the American one, usually without regard to price. This doubly applies to anything metal or of high price because my Chinese metal tools completely rusted over in less than 5 years of being in a closet in Georgia. Furniture too. I went around town looking at the cheap imported shit that's just nailed together and it doesn't compare to more expensive US-made furniture that uses (gasp) actual wood joints.

Probably obvious from what I just wrote, but I do not buy from companies that source the manufacture of premium products to Asia under the auspice of "reduced labor cost". If Intel can do the most advanced manufacturing on the planet in the U.S., so can any other high-end company.

Edit: In case you are wondering how I manage to buy mostly American things, Amazon Prime is my friend.

Algiz_sl said:

[Obligatory Wal-Mart comment]

I'm going to avoid brand name medicines like the fucking plague, especially since so many of them are two generic medicines mixed together or an old generic that has been "reformulated" to be extended release. I guess that's as close as I'm getting to a boycott.

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I know a number of chemists at Pfizer. They are get hit hard by generics. Every time a patent runs out, they get hammered.
Spend billions on R&D. have your drugs copied and you get undercut. there is a reason generics are much cheaper. Zero overhead on research, or clinical trials, and any marketing on the part of brand name, results in sales for the generic.

Not saying we should give all sorts of power to the brand name guys... but progress does require innovation to be profitable.

Azeth_sl said:

dear morons,

give 1 valid reason to not shop at WalMart... it for damn sure better not be because they take business from mom & pop.

Should they close & apologize for being the greatest capitalist entity in the history of the world?

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They treat workers like shit while raking in tons of money and buy everything they sell from China...does that count?

P.S. I worked at Wal-mart when I was younger so I know firsthand the dirty practices they use on workers. Coincidentally I also received money
from a class action lawsuit long after I had quit because of them not giving employees mandated breaks and not paying them correctly.

Caliane_sl said:

I know a number of chemists at Pfizer. They are get hit hard by generics. Every time a patent runs out, they get hammered.
Spend billions on R&D. have your drugs copied and you get undercut. there is a reason generics are much cheaper. Zero overhead on research, or clinical trials, and any marketing on the part of brand name, results in sales for the generic.

Not saying we should give all sorts of power to the brand name guys... but progress does require innovation to be profitable.

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You know, I agree. Let's look and see how long until they're bankrupt...http://pfizer.newshq.businesswire.co...inancial-guida

Holy fuck these guys are printing money. Glad you're keeping an eye out for them!

Caliane_sl said:

I know a number of chemists at Pfizer. They are get hit hard by generics. Every time a patent runs out, they get hammered.
Spend billions on R&D. have your drugs copied and you get undercut. there is a reason generics are much cheaper. Zero overhead on research, or clinical trials, and any marketing on the part of brand name, results in sales for the generic.

Not saying we should give all sorts of power to the brand name guys... but progress does require innovation to be profitable.

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Sure, I feel sort of bad for the chemists and the people who do actual work. But fuck the business side of pharmaceuticals. Whenever something is about to go generic, the company swoops in with fresh new stupidity at $30 per pill. Sure, there's an argument to also lowering the costs of R&D and such, but does anyone think that companies wouldn't just scoop up the extra money?

And generic companies are not much better.This bullshitis becoming a near-monthly occurrence for various generics.