Consumer boycotts are targeting day retreats. Are they working? What we know.
Consumer boycotts target companies like Amazon and Target. This is what we know.
As the boycott of consumers, launched earlier this year, continues and expands, new surveys show that almost a third of the consumers surveyed are taking part in such behavior.
Consumers boycott retailers and businesses for several reasons, including diversity, equity, inclusive efforts, and corporate rollbacks on what some organizers call corporate greed.
A new study by Lending Tree surveyed over 2,000 people and found that 31% boycott businesses, while 23% are targets of boycotting, particularly supporting businesses.
Does consumer boycott work?
Boycotts can have a variety of results. They have worked for political rights.
Conservative activists have been successful in recent years in forcing DEI efforts by staging boycotts on retailers and businesses to undermine sales.
Campaigns using hashtags and slogans such as “Go Woke Go Broke,” the boycott of conservative activists aims to become the country’s largest consumer name, including retail chain targets. Some have managed to cut sales and force policy changes.
Now, Target and other companies have found themselves under attack from the other side and are facing a boycott call from day supporters who are angry at the rollback.
Supporters point to targets citing decisions to end some diversity policies as contributors to a sharp pullback of retailer consumer spending that occurred in the first quarter.
Which businesses do consumers boycott?
The target was launched on February 1st and was the subject of several boycotts, including one led by Minnesota activist Nekimalevy Armstrong. Bryant’s group is now encouraging supporters to boycott their targets forever.
Target did not respond to the latest request for comment on its boycott efforts due to the USA Today publication deadline, but previously provided the following statement to USA Today:
In late May, Bryant also called for a digital protest from General Dollar, saying that retailers had left Day’s efforts and hadn’t invested in the black community. In an interview with USA Today, Bryant said protests continued and refused to meet him in a letter that Dollar General sent to the retailer.
Dollar General responded to inquiries from USA Today by providing a copy of the letter it sent to Bryant. In the letter, Dollar General Executive Bace Bild Bace Pristence and Geaner Counsel Rhonda M. Taylor said that Bryant’s claims about the company do not show the company that the meeting is productive.
Taylor included information about General Dollar to “fix some of the misconceptions of the company and our business.” Taylor included details of the retailer’s charitable contributions, including a donation of $500,000 to the National Museum of African Americans in Nashville.
The People’s Union USA also held several boycotts and economic power outages, starting with the economic power outages on the 1st February 28th. The group then held a weekly boycott of retailers and companies such as Target, Walmart, Amazon and McDonald’s.
Organizer John Schwartz has encouraged supporters in his Instagram post, boycotting July 4th festivities, including parades and fireworks, instead staying home with friends and supporting local businesses. The group said it will be expanding its retailer boycott to Home Depot, Starbucks and Amazon throughout July.
In an Instagram post, Schwarz criticized Amazon, saying workers were struggling, and the company’s sales helped Amazon founder Jeff Bezos pay for a gorgeous wedding in Venice.
Starbucks is opposed to the employee union, and Home Depot quietly erased DEI’s webpage, Schwarz said.
In a statement from USA Today, spokesmen from all three companies defended the company.
An Amazon spokesperson said the company remains committed to building a diverse and inclusive company. The company maintains many mechanisms to ensure employees are safe during high temperature events. The company also said that employees in regular full-time operations earn average hourly base wages of $22 or more per hour, and average compensation of $29 or more per hour when including benefits.
A Starbucks spokesman told USA Today that he will receive an average salary worth $30 per hour for people who work at least 20 hours.
“At Starbucks, our success starts and ends with our partners (employees). We respect the right to choose to be represented by or not represented by our unions through a fair and democratic process, and continue to work to make Starbucks the best job in retail,” the company said.
A spokesman for Home Depot shared a statement saying that eight core values have driven business success over the past 45 years.
“We are proud to have a culture that welcomes everyone, and we believe it will help us achieve our business goals by supporting our peers, building relationships and fostering innovation. As we continue to improve our communication, we have been used for a long time to represent the welcoming culture we have built here.”
Almost a third of those surveyed boycotted business
In the Lending Tree survey, consumers who said they boycotted the company cited a variety of reasons, including discrimination (43%), political contributions or affiliation (41%), and religious messages or practices (29%). 45% of the consumers surveyed said they were looking at the value and stance of their business at least once before making a purchase. General Zers is the generation to do the most research, with 59% saying they do so.
Of the respondents, 23% said they are specifically supporting their business as they are targets for boycotts. Of these, 31% said they were Republicans and 20% said they were Democrats.
“So many people are boycotting the company for some reason,” Matt Schultz, chief consumer finance analyst at Lending Tree, told USA Today. “One of the things that I found most interesting about our data is that high-income earners are more likely to boycott them,” Schultz said 43% of six-figure earners boycotted their business.
“It’s important that people talk to the extent that they know the power they have,” Schultz said.
The boycott organizers were pleased with the findings.
“This report confirms what we already know,” Schwartz told USA Today. “People are awake and paying attention. Almost a third of Americans have already boycotted their businesses, and almost half are studying the value of their companies before using DIM.
Levy Armstrong said the loan tree findings confirmed what she and other organizers were looking on the ground.
“Consumers no longer tolerate corporate hypocrisy,” she told USA Today. “This is not a symbolic protest, it’s economic resistance.”
Bryant was happy with the findings, but believes the numbers could be even higher.
“It’s amazing how people get engaged and plugged in. Our community rarely, or rarely, so I think it’s probably higher than that,” Bryant told USA Today. “I see it all as a good indication and I think the bank receipts are even more eloquent than the number of votes.”
Target stock has been falling sharply since the beginning of this year. On January 31st, the shares closed at $137.91 before the first boycott began on February 1st. It reached a minimum of $88.76 on April 8th, down 35.6%. It has started to rise again, but it fell below the stock price earlier this year. On July 1st, the stock closed at $103.88, down 24.6% from January.
Target also cut its annual forecast in its final revenue report on May 21, reporting a sharp decline in the same store sales quarterly as customers pulled back purchases due to inflation and economic concerns. Target also acknowledged that its performance was affected by a boycott of consumers.
In-person pedestrians at targets are also affected, according to Placer.ai. Placer.ai uses panels of tens of millions of devices and employs machine learning to estimate in-store visits. Traffic fell by 8.10% in the week of February 17th, waning and flowing, and sometimes increasing. According to the latest available information, traffic remains negative as in-store visits for the week of June 16th fell 2.9%.
According to Placer.ai, in-store traffic at other retailers and large food chains changed over that period. Costco rose 2.0%, Walmart rose 0.1%, Best Buy fell 1.4%, McDonald’s fell 0.3%, and Starbucks rose 0.4%.
Some Boycotters are back in business
Of those surveyed, 48% of boycotters said they ended up boycotting and then returned to business. That number rises to 70% of people with children under the age of 18.
Schulz of Lending Tree said 53% of men have returned to businesses they’ve boycotted earlier, while 41% of women say it’s not.
“Women may be less likely to boycott, but once they do it, it shows that they are much more likely to never return,” he said.
Betty Lin-Fisher is a consumer reporter for USA Today. Contact her at blinfisher @usatoday.com or follow her on X, Facebook, or Instagram @Blinfisher, @Blinfisher.bsky.social.. Sign up for our free daily money newsletter. This includes Friday’s Consumer News.
