Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

About a year ago, Talk of the Nation had a show about a new decision by Target Stores: to disallow Salvation Army bellringers from the entrance of their stores.  During the course of the show, a caller phoned in to disagree with Target about this decision.  Neil Conan, the host, asked her if her upset with the decision was going to cause a change in her spending habits:

Neil Conan:
Would you, after hearing this, that some places are excluding those bell ringers, would you exclude [Target Stores] from your shopping list?

Caller:
Um (laughs) ... I don't know ... I don't know.

Neil Conan:
Possibly not, in other words.

Caller:
Possibly not.  Because Target has such a wide variety of things and ... I don't know.

The reason that this conversation sticks out in my mind has nothing to do with the bellringer controversy and everything to do with this caller's response.  To me, it was the epitomy of a person having zero connection between her wallet and the companies where she chooses to spend her money.  She was upset, and called a national show to talk about Target making a bad decision.  But to stop shopping there?  That would be much too much of a hardship -- of course she was not going to stop shopping there.

I was reminded of this call yesterday when I went to see Walmart: The High Cost of Low Price.  The movie is a muckraking type movie, and is extremely slanted against Walmart.  It has stirred up quite a controversy -- but in general if you are the type to read a blog like mine you probably know most of the information that is in this movie.

As I watched the movie, I kept coming back to the fact that consumers who dislike Walmart need to be taking much more of a personal stand against the store.  At one point in the movie, a man whose small-town business was allegedly a casualty of Walmart's coming to town was talking about how profits changed once the Walmart opened.  He said something to the effect of "once it came to town, it caused profits in our town to drop 50%".  What he really should be saying is "Walmart came to town and my neighbors decided to spend their money at Walmart instead of frequenting the small local businesses."  When it comes down to it, Walmart can come to town but if no one decides to shop there, then no businesses would close.

I get frustrated with what I call the "zombie effect" with some people when it comes to a place like Walmart.  Many times you will hear this type of effect when people are fighting a Walmart coming into their town.  They make it sound as if it's inevitable that stores will close down, and that everyone will be shopping at Walmart.  But the thing is, we all have a choice.  No one is going to hold us down and force us to give our money over to Walmart.  We choose to spend our money there (or at Starbucks, or Target, or Home Depot or any other store that is controversial). 

Of course there are more facets to the Walmart issue, but the bottom line is this:  The only thing that Walmart will respond to is a change in their profits or a change in their stock price.  Period. 

So, this holiday season, ask yourself if you are spending any money at Walmart.  Or if any mutual fund you own has Walmart stock.  Or if you are spending money at any other store you disagree with.  Because every day, with every dollar we spend, we are voting with our dollars -- in a language that those corporations understand.  And the only way that we can vote against any corporation is to withold those dollars and choose to spend them somewhere else.

Comments

[JEff]

while i agree w you that stock price/profit/growth/power are the only things that motivate walmart and the majority of corporations, the low costs and other economies of scale provided by something like walmart can make it difficult for people to 'vote with their dollars' depending on their individual circumstances.

[jen]

Jeff - agreed. However, I think that if the people who can afford to not shop at Walmart lead the way, then it would at least help the situation.

[molly]

great post, jen. we were just talking about this yesteray in the parking lot of IKEA Seattle. There are some things I really love about the store, but as we were walking to the car, I was overcome with the unbelieveable magnitude of consumer activity going on at the store JUST AT THAT MOMENT ALONE.

But "big" in and of itself is not a reason to avoid stores or vote elsewhere with your dollars. That's my opinion anyway. I get very annoyed by that oversimplification.

So, does anyone know of an accessible, reliable resource to investigate large retailiers along a variety of dimensions - how they treat their employees; conditions/wages for production/assembly workers; environmental practices - in products, packaging, etc; predatory competition, etc?

How does IKEA achieve its economy of scale?

[jen]

> But "big" in and of itself
> is not a reason to avoid
> stores or vote elsewhere
> with your dollars. That's
> my opinion anyway. I get
> very annoyed by that
> oversimplification.

Molly, I definitely agree with this statement. And I agree with the opposite too -- "small" in and of itself is not a reason to absolutely shop at a store.

I hope that someone has some insight into your other questions. I'll let you know if I find anything out on this end.

[Mary Catherine]

For anyone looking to do more research on your favorite/least favorite corporate conglomerates, check out

BuyBlue.org

[Philippa]

Jen, this is a wonderful post and so neatly articulated my feelings on this issue. We have a choice where we spend our money, and as long as people keep spending money at these places then nothing will change - because the almighty dollar is the only thing these corporations are interested in.

I'm finding in Australia (where I live) that more and more people are turning away from these chains and are patronising smaller local stores (having said that, McDonalds and the like continue to thrive here - we still have a long way to go). But it's reassuring to read something like this and realise that I'm not the only one who cares.

Wishing you all the best for the festive season.

Cheers,
Philippa

[cookiecrumb]

Hey Jen: I've never shopped at Walmart, though I've had the opportunity. I guess I just don't want a cheap Barbie doll that much! :D
But seriously, I stepped inside one in Pleasanton a million years ago just to smell the cooties. I've never liked the idea of a business that deliberately puts a drain on the local community just to line its own pockets (I'm talking about their nonexistent health-care plans, which results in "free" emergency room visits, and the fact that so many employees of Walmart qualify for food stamps).
I was gonna throw out the buyblue.org thingie, but Mary Catherine beat me to it.
God. We could go on and on about the "elitism" aspect of selective shopping. C'mon, people. Costco is "blue," and even if their food is not always locally sourced (it often is), at least it's inexpensive.

[Maria Binns]

Totally agree with you. Why are we so afraid of living differently? Australia is also becoming a country full of huge shops and smaller stores are being forced out of business by the dozen. But we are trying to stop it. In Western Australia in a recent referendum we voted that we did not want longer trading hours. This helps to protect our small businesses who could not afford to stay open in the same way that big stores can. So, our shops close at 5.30pm at night and arent open on Sundays. We have late-night trading on Thursday nights. AND no-one misses out on anything. On Sundays we generally spend time with our families and go to the beach. Hopefully we will continue to fight it!
Thanks for speaking your mind.

Maria

[Kalyn]

I was excited to find Buyblue.org. And even more excited to find that Costco (my personal favorite store) was on the list.

I'm a public school teacher, so I could sure afford to save money. But the way I look at it is, shopping at Walmart costs us money in the long run.

[molly]

thanks for the link to buy blue. i had heard of it before, but for some reason thought it only pertained to political contributions. IKEA looks pretty good, with the exception of raizing some historic buildings to make way for a parking lot.

[rache]

great post!

[Donna]

In the city I live in there is a Wal-mart less than a half hour away in both directions. Still they want to build here, and even though they were offered land to build on, they won't. They want to be closer to the core area. It's been in the courts for years.

[jen]

Mary Catherine & Cookiecrumb - thanks for the buy blue link. Like Molly, I thought that it was only for political contributions and am excited to see how deep the site is.

Philippa - thanks for the kind words. I tried your link and it won't work for me -- is that the correct url? Would love to check out your blog.

Philippa & Maria -- so interesting to hear about how it is in Australia. Maria, v. interesting about the trading hours referendum. Interesting way to even the playing field.

Cookiecrumb -- Stay away from those Barbie dolls!

Kalyn, Molly, Rache, and Donna -- I really appreciate your input.

[Maria Binns]

Your article inspired me to write about another on consumerism. Tis the season to feel a little pissed about this I believe. Please read at ozgirl.blog.com.
Cheers
Maria

[ianqui]

It was with very much sadness that I decided to boycott Target, not because of the salvation army policy, but because of the Plan B pharmacy fiasco.

Let me say that it's been a hardship, but I agree that one must take responsibility for their beliefs.

[Philippa]

Hi Jen, yes that is the correct URL but blogger went haywire yesterday so you might be able to get in again!

[Philippa]

Hi Jen, yes that is the correct URL but blogger went haywire yesterday so you might be able to get in if you try again today!

[lauren]

Just found your blog via Grist. Thanks for a succint and clear post about voting with your dollars. In addition to reducing holiday spending altogether (it gets a bit out of hand, doesn't it?), I have been focused on shopping at local, independent businesses. It seems that the list of business that I don't want to support is growing longer, but I definitely don't want to become a zombie who just complains about this stuff and doesn't do anything. Anyway, thanks for a great post.

[Jen (not the blogger)]

Great thoughts, and it has implications on so many aspects of our life, especially the health and well being of our communities. Some great education has occured, but we still have a ways to go. Here's what I overheard at the gym this morning: "Have you gotten all of your shopping done yet? Yes, almost. I love shopping at Kohl's. Me too, they have great stuff and I really like to keep my dollars in my community by shopping at the one near my house." Too bad she couldn't have kept her dollars even more local by shopping a locally owned place.

[mrs D]

I've been into a Wal-Mart one time and one time only. I was on a deperate search for cheap shower curtains and with someone whose whole family shopped there. Never again. I felt as if I'd have my soul sucked out of me if I'd stayed any longer.

Since you've already got the link to buyblue up, I thought I'd mention a good source for further information on the evils of Wal-Mart. Over at the group blog My Left Wing, JR Monsterfodder has a great series of posts about Wal-Mart and he's got another anti Wal-Mart group blog over at The writing on the Wal.

[Amanda]

I remember being shocked (and deciding it was time to stop going to Blockbuster) when my sister (who was nearly 30 at the time) described getting into an argument in class (re-entry student she was) about whether or not she cared enough about Blockbuster's censorship policies to boycott the chain.

I was surprised to learn that she cared enough, but more surprised that a professor would actually challenge her on that. Apparently the whole class was quite insistent that she was bs'ing about her boycott. That alone depressed me.

Americans will boycott stores that post "holiday" greetings instead of explicit "baby jesus birthday" greetings, but we can't get it together to stop destroying our own communities.

[jen]

test

[bluecanary]

My red state mother put her money where her mouth is. She refuses to shop at Wal Mart, which is pretty much the only game in her tiny, tiny town. She has to drive about 40 miles to do her shopping and is widely regarded as the crazy liberal (because really, when your town's median income is less than $18K, it really makes sense to vote GOP).

No one can say she doesn't stick to her beliefs, though.