Boycott bad business week.

Hey everyone,

I wrote this thread as a response to an earlier thread about America going on strike. Well maybe as much an addition to that thread, it really got me to thinking and I felt like I had come up with a relatively easy approach without sacrificing much time and energy. All it would take is a little synchronization of the schedules of a really large group of people. We could remain anonymous if need be, but still have an impact. And the best part is that you could do it, basically doing all the things that you normally do, just in sync with everyone else.

What are your thoughts? Any ideas how we could ramp up the week to be more effective?

What say you ATS?

ETA: Im having trouble linking other threads on ATS, whatever I'm doing wrong I always get the 404 whenever I try and visit the link. Other website works fine, just not ATS threads.

Here was my response in that thread:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What if instead of striking for work, we made a national week or day to boycott certain elements of society. Say for instance we took a day and did not go into into the banks. Or better yet, everybody went into the bank and took out 100$ then spent the cash instead of using bank cards. Each day in the week we could refrain from using some element of business.


How about this... Boycott Bad Business Week!

Sunday: make a colorful poster, fix it up with a lots of colors and put this schedule on it. Make two and put them up in both rear windows of your car for everyone to see. Maybe a link to a website giving directions for the weeks boycott. If you don't have a car then put the poster in the window on the front of your house for all to see, or a telephone pole if you want to be anonymous, then leave it for one week.

Monday: Take out 100$ from the bank and reserve to use it through the week instead of using your bank card.

Tuesday: Make your breakfast lunch and dinner at home for the day, or whatever, just don't eat fast food.

Wednesday: Don't get gas in your car. Make sure that you do it some other day of the week.

Thursday: No TV whatsoever, not even for one minute, use Netflix, watch DVD's or go online instead.

Friday: Write a letter to the government, email it, whatever, take five minutes, pic your favorite gripe and go with it.

Saturday: Take a break, and feel good for being a part of something positive, make a mental note of your efforts, come up with some good ideas about how to make it more effective and share the idea with as many people as you know.

If enough people followed this schedule for one week, we could get some attention. Big business would notice, the ideas could get some exposure and nobody would have to sacrifice anything, well, except American idle... but we could always rearrange the schedule that week, DVR, or watch it online instead. The only effort it would take would be in scheduling.

We could all do this together the first week of every month. Free to us, but bad for them. We could possibly learn a thing or two in the process as well as bring awareness about some really bad business practices out there.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Who knows, something like this would be easy to pull off and it could go viral if enough people shared it.

Anyone else wanna try?

I am already on a permanent boycott of most things so what do I boycott? I am pretty much at the limit I only use what i very much need the rest i do on my own.

Sounds as ineffective as gas boycotts.

People will just spend more the week before or the week after. Big enough businesses won't be affected as their wealth is tallied quarterly. The only businesses affected by boycotts are small businesses and Mom&Pop commerce, as they usually can't afford slow business for very long.

I know, I know, me too. I have never paid a cable bill in my life. But as well, I have never written a letter to the governor, so I could easily make a contribution.

I just felt that the idea could be fun. We could have our kids join in as well, and we could all do a little something good without having to sacrifice too much.

reply to post by DaTroof


I know, it doesn't seem like too much, but if a good amount of people in your town skipped Tuesday when they were filling up the tank, someone would notice.

How about a Bank of America being empty all day long without a single customer? Im not saying that someone has to actively avoid any of these businesses for any length of time, I'm just saying that if we all chose to do our banking on any other day than Monday, someone would notice, and we could get a little exposure to our ideas.

In the example of the banks, they would surely lose money. Employing people to be there when services were not needed. Everyone using cash instead of cards for a couple of days a week...

Could be interesting.

reply to post by Quauhtli


I talk about this with friends a lot and we think that it would be possible to take a little power back if you could just get enough people involved. I mean the operations of these bis corporate business are so astronomical that one month of bad sales could cripple them.

Probably the best bet would be to start a big business boycott site and get people to actually sign up. If they registered as someone that would boycott when they are called upon then I would hope they could live up to that. The idea is to get everyone to have a little skin in the game, and to participate in a cause like this you already want to, so sign up and live up to it.

I think a lot of boycotts fail because people realize they need certain things, so even if its boycott shopping day they decide they need a 32 pack of socks for a dollar and forget about it. I just don;t think a boycott shopping day would work..or a boycott gas day. The key is to not try and stop people from what they're gonna do, but ask them to make another choice. Boycott specific companys until they feel it. Boycott Walmart but go ahead and shop at Target, Boycott Exxon, but go ahead and get gas from Shell, I know they all suck but you got to pick your fights. Just saying people are gonna buy crap and gas, but if they start to think where they buy it, bam, there could be a million less customers, so even black friday (which is really disturbing by the way) won't save them. Just a thought

And while we're at it, once you get enough people to sign and get committed, go ahead and short the dang stock so you can get some of your hardearned money back.

What does everyone else think?

AWA

reply to post by AwakeWeAre


Yes.
I like your ideas. Maybe we could plan different themes, and businesses to refrain from visiting on certain days of the week in order to bring awareness to that particular place or their bad practices.