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Monday Mini: Are the Boycotts Working? · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and SMITHA. I hope for stuff.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: I've never told your prediction if I heard idiot.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: And welcome to today's Monday Mini. Where are we going to
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: talk about things? Any current affair things. So with that,
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: let me go ahead and put a time stip here.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: It is January fifteenth, twenty twenty six. I had to
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: write that down because I knew I would get it wrong,
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: because I still am in twenty twenty five. Sometimes I'm
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: in the nineties. To be fair, I'm in my twenty
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: twenties years, so closer, that's okay. And our country is
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: seemingly in a fiery blaze, and there's been a lot
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: of action being taken out there. So whatever is happening,
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: there's a lot of those who are trying to do
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: some good, whether it's protesting, voting and campaigning, advocacy work, boycotting,
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: and so much more. So we thought we would look
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: at what is happening, and as we know more and
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: more brands and companies and influencers are as we would say,
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: bending the knee to the current administration and many of
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: its fascist tactics and policies. We wanted to review what
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: is happening with some of the things that we have
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: been doing, including boycotting some of these said companies and brands,
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: and whether or not they are working. I think we
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: need to do some reviews and kind of come back
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: and analyze our tactics and get together and try to
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: see what is effective and what isn't. I'm not going
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: to say I don't want to be a naysayer because
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: I am by nature a pessimist. It works for me
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: because at least if I look at the like, oh,
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: things are going to be bad, but when they're good,
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: I feel like I win either way, right right, And
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: it's not such a pessimistic outlook.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Today.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: There are things to be considered, there are things to
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: be changed, and there are things to be looked at. Again,
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: I think I need to go ahead and forewarn everybody
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: before we start. This information is really difficult to find.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: I don't know if it's because the research is not
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: out there yet, the research is mixed up because of
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: circumstances beyond our own, or whether it's like economic circumstances
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: that have changed things, whether it's those tearfts that have
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: been in place, or whether it's the fact that inflation
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: has happened and so people are not able to buy
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: as much or do as much. There's a lot to
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: be said. Again, then there are a lot of bad players.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: You can look at our social media platforms to see
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: the many bots that are on there the way you
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: would think, especially with platforms that once were left leaning,
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: Twitter which is no longer Twitter, even Blue Sky, which
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: was more for I think left leaning, it's kind of
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: kind of gone downhill as well, as well as you
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: know TikTok after its buy out, after a lot of
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: the administration, there's a lot of threatening after they've been thinky,
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: we've seen more and more biased looks and a lot
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: more bots coming into play. So there's a lot happening.
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: So with that, there aren't too many updates. I will say,
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: I know we're freshly into twenty twenty six, but we
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: don't even have that much information into the late year
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: of twenty twenty five. I think the latest that I saw,
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: honestly in some of the reports were in August of
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty five, and I thought at least we'd get
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: a little more than that. But we will say within
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: a couple of months of the boycott announcements, So whether
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: that happened January of last year. February of last year,
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: we had a blackout about economic blackout in February. We
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: have some of those statistics and we do want to
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: talk about that as well. This is also a reminder
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: that there are boycotts happening because I know this phase
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: is out. Oftentimes we finally like, did it work, and
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: we don't know. I'm going to go back to it.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: And a lot of these brands and a lot of
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: these companies offer services that are convenient and accessible, so
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: I cannot let that go. We know that there are
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: those who just cannot participate, and that is understandable, and
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: for people to judge that, I think we need to
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: step back, do what we can do personally and let
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: everybody else do themselves. Like that's just what it comes
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: down to. Okay. So, with the cut of a DEI,
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: as well as sponsoring of the current administration and ongoing
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: gendercide around the world, there have been many lists of
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: companies to boycott, including Target, Tesla, Amazon, and more. So, again,
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: has it worked? I feel like that answer is a
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: yes no answer. I guess that's just gonna be. That's
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: just the reality of everything. Companies like Target, who has
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: hinged its marketing and sells to more left leaning and
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: diverse consumers. Have seen a pretty big hit. So this
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: is from a Forbes article from March of twenty twenty five.
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  Speaker 2: They write Target's stock prices is down twenty four percent
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: from one hundred and thirty seven points on January twenty fourth,
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: the day Target cut its programs to one oh four
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: point seven on March fifteenth. Within that timeframe, the stock
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: is down ten percent from when the forty day kickoff
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: began on March fifth, accelerating an ongoing downward trend in
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: as stock crisis since late twenty twenty four. So it
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: has to be noted right now that Target has been
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: hit by a lot of different sides of the boycotts,
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: including the decision to change their DEI policies, to them
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: having pride related things, to them taking off the pride
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: related things again. So there was a big conversation in
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: the conservative world that would go into Target to try
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: to make videos of them having pride the memorabilia, especially
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: if it was geared towards kids. So they were hit
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: on like they could not find a ground to stand on.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: With that, you can add the increased inflation and the
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: idea that Target is more luxury because you know, the
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: targ of it all came through than a place like Walmart,
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: which has not shown much change in their revenue or
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: stock prices. So when I went through a lot of
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: the articles and research, they based a lot more of
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: their success and fails on stock market changes, which is
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: really gross in itself because we know who this serves,
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: and we know who makes the most money and definitely
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: not the individual consumer. But so you'll hear me go
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: back and forth about that conversation with a lot more
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: like stock numbers than anything else. So Walmart, as we
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: just said, really did not see as much of a
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: downward spiral than Target, which again they are have been
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: on the list for boycott for years for plethora of reasons,
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: including like how they treat their employees, not unionizing, who
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: they bring in, who they target for like shoplifting type
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: of accusations, all of that, and it has been a secret.
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: Again the company does seem to lean right. A lot
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: of the donations they give to are conservative candidates, so
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: the impact again has not been that much. From the
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: usnews dot Com, this is their month's report, which was
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: from twenty twenty six This is a more recent report.
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: Walmart may have been deemed by moderate reputational risk and
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: regional store revenue losses, but the stock has held up
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: well with a thirty two point five one year return,
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: So even though they do dip in consumership, when it
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: comes to stock prices, they hold strong. It's kind of
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: that's what they see as a success in a business. Again,
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: Companies like home Depot, who again was also very leaning
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: a conservative, but now they're going to add the whole
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: like supporting ICE to detain laborers, so they kind of
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: have a renewed boycott. They have been hit pretty hard.
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: Actually again this may be due to the renewed interest
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: in the newest latest call for boycott because of their
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: cooperation with Ice. Again back to that US News report
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: that it was initially hit hard from its DEI rollback.
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: It fizzled. That boycott kind of fizzled away and people
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: kind of ignored it. But the overall worth has remained
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: flat in its downward spiral, which may have again something
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: to do with the economy and people doing less home
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: projects and less renovations because they cannot afford the amount
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: of costs, which apparently like cost of wood went up exponentially,
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: so if you're trying to like build things, you're not
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: gonna be able to afford it. As well as the
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: fact that the day laborers are gone and scared, and
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: those are the people who they would use to have
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: these renovations. So there's a lot that's going down. So
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: even though they've stayed flat, that means they have not
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: gained profits. So that's good news home Depot. If you're
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: looking at this as a boycott, that was a win.
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: That was a win for many people, which I'm kind
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: of surprised by honestly, again because home Depot has always
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: been known as a conservative company. So Amazon, which is
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: also considered a like a more conservative company, they also
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: have been impacted by the boycotts. Again back to that
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: US News article, they had significant drop with consumers, but
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: that doesn't necessarily translate in that stock world that we
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: talked about. They have gone up in the last twelve months,
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: but the profits are minimal in comparison to years before.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: So though it is going up, it's not as profitable
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: as it once was, which makes a difference. Even if
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: they are not showing that they're going down, the fact
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: that they're making less than usual. Is kind of a
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: fearful state for them, even though there are billions of
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: dollars in that company, So you know, you know, it's
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: still something that we work on. Again, this is one
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: of those companies we talk about when it comes to accessibility.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: It really does make a difference for a lot of
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: people who are not able to go out or who
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: are immunocompromised and are able to stay home and get delivery.
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: These are things that are accessible. And I will say, like,
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: for me, a lot of the times I'd rather not.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: I was like, is this Am I going to Amazon? Walmart?
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: Or Target? Yeah? Which which devil do you choose? On
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: this one? Tesla? And this is from Forbes dot Com
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: Tesla's share prices. This again, this was immediately after doage began,
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: so I believe these numbers are from March as well.
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: Forty percent since December, with more than five hundred billion
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: dollars being wiped off the company's value. Beyond just the
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: United States, Musk's effort have triggered a global reverberation as
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: sales across Europe have slumped for the automaker, and I
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: think in general, like they are trying to get rid
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: of these Tesla's, the cyber truck really kind of hit
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: a halt with its purchases. I haven't seen the numbers
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: since then because I haven't feel like it's like steadily
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: in place. But that dip was a hard dip, and
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: I love to see it, to be honest, I'll love
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: to see it and then her the blackouts that have
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: happened in the past several years. I know we've chosen
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: different times, including Black Fridays. I believe people don't shop
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: on those days, as well as cyber Mondays, which were
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: trickeries that were happening with a lot of these online
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: places because they would uptick their prices and pretend like
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: they were given discounts, which is a whole another level
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: of disgusting to me. But I will say I didn't
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: see too much about the aftermath of these blackouts, like
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: did this work, how many people participated, what companies did hurt?
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: But numerator dot Com did give some good numbers and
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: research facts. They based it on sales on Fridays, which
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: is typically apparently a bigger days of sales because it's
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: payday for many people. All those different things, And this
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: is from their twenty twenty five article, and it reflects
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: the blackout that happened in February of twenty twenty five.
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: I believe on the day of the economic blackout, we
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  Speaker 2: observed a dip in shopping activities across channels and categories.
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: Fewer households made purchases. Both cells and trips were down
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: versus the average Friday. However, at a total market level,
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: these changes generally fell within the range of typical week
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: to week variation and were not statistically significant. So this
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: is one of those things like, yes, we saw a change,
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: but did it make a huge change that people really
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: were fearful companies were fearful. That's again that not really
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: but kind of. So they wrote a bit about market
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: wide impact. So overall, the market wide impact they wrote,
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: across all retailers and channels FMCG, online, restaurants, and more,
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: household penetration was down by two percentage points compared to
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: an average Friday. Sales fell five point four percent and
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: shopping trips were down four point one percent. While noticeable,
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: these dips didn't meet the threshold of a statistical significance.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: It's worth noting that the blackout encouraged essential purchases to
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: be made locally if necessary, which may have dampened the impact. Now,
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: I will say there was a lot in conversation from
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: those who were leaders of these blackouts who did encourage
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: to go buy locally, and so those reflections may have
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: made a difference and made me more significant than we
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: know because people tried to do that. I will say,
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: we have like local markets here, we have to cap
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: farmer's market which is locally owned. We have a beautifore
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: farmer's market which is also locally owned. So those places
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: like that that would get our money better quality, less money,
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: but that still went into sales. So I am interested
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: in seeing what that would look like. Again, I did
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: not find those numbers. It just talked about the impacts
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: more like pre beforehand rather than the aftermath. Again, however,
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: in that same report, they did talk about the more
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: visible impact, which was on the retailer level, which we'd
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: love to see. So they wrote the blackouts effect were
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: more visible at select retallers, namely Amazon, Target, and Walmart,
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: where household penetrations dropped by two point two percentage points
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: from twenty four point nine to twenty two points seven.
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: This was a statistically significant decline, suggesting influence beyond standard
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: week to week variation. Cells at these retailers fell by
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: six point two percent and trips declined by seven point
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: five percent. While those jobs did not quite hit the
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: significant threshold, they were notably steeper than the total market declines.
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: According to a Numerator survey fielded the night before the blackout,
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: these three retailers were the most likely to be targeted
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: by participating consumers, so they report that though the overall
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: success wasn't necessarily huge, though it was significant, though it
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: was noted it was the overall ability to mobilize and coordinate,
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: which has has always been a concern for the government.
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: So we were able to see that, yes, this can
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: make a difference, we just have to press it harder
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: and harder. So we saw that it made some significant
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: dents into bigger corporations, which is exactly the point. So
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: is not a total fail. It wasn't the most successful,
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: but it isn't a fail, And of course there's so
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: much more to be done. There are comprehensive lists that
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: you can find that participate in boycotting, whether it's in
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: protests of the government, the deportations, the genocide, those who
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: are anti union. There's so many things that you could
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: choose to protest for, and they are sometimes like, yeah,
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: they're all the above, let's just say no to these
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: companies if we can. Some of the lists that you
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: can find that have these resources are a BDS, the Boycott,
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: divest In Sanctions, the Ethical Consumers, and the People's Union USA.
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: They have some lists that you can look through. I
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: think again, this is a hard thing to do when
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: you live in a very consumer driven world, especially in
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: a country that's very consumer driven as well, and convenience
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: has been one of the biggest markers of what we buy.
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: You do what you can. It's hard to figure this out,
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: and you want to be a consumer who was responsible,
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: do what you can, be kind to yourself, and do
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: what feels right to you. Again, I think these are
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: one of those things that when we have a target
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: and we have a bigger organizing level, it does work well.
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: But again we have to understand this is not black
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: and white in that we have talked about accessibility, we
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: have to talk about just being able to live, affordability.
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: There's so many things in this conversation and who has
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: privileged to do what, but don't give up hope because
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: it does make a difference.
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: It does, It really does. And we've really been Samantha
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: and I have definitely really been grappling with all of
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: this and what can we do and where and so
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: understand that we're with you listeners if you feel the
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: same of where can I do this? Where can I not?
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: But yeah, we would love to get some any resources
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: from you listeners of go to this company for ethical consumerism.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: We love it, yes, so please send those our way.
• 17:11
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• 17:13
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• 17:27
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• 17:30
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