Do you boycott any brands ?

[Answerprancer]

If so why ?

I am not a fanatical boycotter but here's a selection of brands I avoid :

Nestle (for promoting their milk products in 3rd world/developing countries over breast milk).
Shell (for allowing a teacher/campaigner to be murdered amongst other things)
McDonalds (for being a revolting globalising, greedy, lying evil business)
Coca Cola (ditto)
Procter and Gamble (suspected animal abuse)

I'm not 'holier than thou' about it but I do try to avoid buying into any products/services that I believe go against my humanitarian beliefs.

[Answerprancer]

...ah yes, Starbucks - that's another one (for deluding the public that they are "fair trade")

[Buenchico]

Can I spot an inconsistency here?

There are people who want workers in overseas countries to be provided with employment but also those who don't want UK employers to take their factories overseas. Given that their can only be a finite amount of (profitable) production across the world, that doesn't seem to add up to me.

[tiggerblue10]

I haven't boycotted any store for ethical reasons but I have decided never to set foot in Lidl again. Apparently they don't source their food items from selected places like other supermarkets do and I can definitely tell. The quality of their food is dire IMO although my dad still goes there as its cheap.

[micmak]

In 1989 A friend worked for a company that made skirts for M&S. At that time the skirts sold for £25. The company has now closed down and the manufacturing gone to Asia. So 21 years ago and £25 for a cotton skirt. M&S made the money not SR Gents who closed down due to the greedy M&S establishment..

[boxtops]

To go back a few posts - I understand that one of the problem with milk powders in certain countries is because the water used to make it up is suspect/polluted/tainted, so the baby ingests each time it drinks.

[Buenchico]

Butch: Yes

[starone]

Ooh yes, sorry about the name, it has romantic connections - my late husband said if he came back in another form he would call himself Redvers Starbuck - but I never buy Starbucks coffee anyway because apart from other considerations it tastes like crap.

[mike11111]

Have to agree with you one this one, Chris. Very complicated issues. A united Ireland, with or without British rule makes perfect sense. The reasons for incorporating Ireland into the UK (so as not to be a base for a French invasion during the late 18th C have disappeared). Partition in the 1920s was meant to prevent bloody internecine warfare in the North from the Protestant majority. Only took another 40 years for it to unleash. This is why I find history so fascinating; pity much of it has had to be written in blood.

[Buenchico]

Be careful, Mike! I've got a feeling that you might be joining a minority group here ;-)

[Answerprancer]

Sorry SB1, I wasn't judging you if that's what you thought .Yes - that's another reason I don't use them. (Plus they clobber local small businesses)

[Buenchico]

Starbuckone:
While I agree that Starbucks coffee is far from the best (and certainly grossly overpriced) I'm confused by your username. Unless I'd read your post I would have assumed that you loved Starbucks!
;-)

[mightyWBA]

Of course everybody in Ireland wants it to be united and the big evil English are stopping it from happening.
Latest casualty in the British army in Afghanistan today....
A member of the Royal Irish Regiment.
Read your history.Respect the majority in Ulster.

[micmak]

This thread has totally gone off topic so I'm going to bed . Goodnight..

[starone]

No Chico, they didn't come into the equation, I loved my husband, not Starbucks.

[Andyvon]

Tigger -

People (like me) shop at Lidl because they do have some very good deals. I wouldn't buy much of their produce including all the cheap non-food items they have. I've got caught with that stuff in the past. However, there are many items in Lidl that you can't go wrong with and which are far cheaper than the other supermarkets. For example:-

Olive oil, butter, pepper and other spices, washing-up liquid, fruit and vegetables, baked beans, part-baked bread etc. I also like their fish which is much cheaper because the pieces are of different sizes rather than being uniform in size like the other stores. Cornish pasties, sausage, cheeses are all good too.

[ann_h]

Mike111 and society -
the issue about the Nestle breastmilk scandal (and it is a scandal) is the Nestle promote formula as superior to breastmilk, and provided it free to new mothers. Until their own milk dried up after a couple of weeks. Then they had to buy the stuff. Many (thousands estimated) babies have died due to underfeeding when the formula was too expensive and watered down, and also because of the difficulty of getting clean water.
These are mothers who could have adequately breastfed their babies, and would otherwise have done so.

[mike11111]

I am now of such an age where I have shed my youthful prejudices and can judge each issue on its merits. I am therefore quite happy to be in a minority (though discreetly, as I don't want to alarm the neighbours and frighten the horses).

[Buenchico]

So, AP, what's wrong with 'clobbering local small businesses'?

Competition is the name of the game, with (hopefully) a few winners and hundreds of losers. If one businessman sets up in competition with another, he should not be satisfied until his rival has been forced into bankruptcy, destitution and ultimately suicide. Winning is the only thing that matters.

[starone]

Bit more on Starbuck Chico, he was a character in Moby Dick, not a coffee shop.