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If you cancel your Amazon account and you want to buy something (anything) where can you shop? I mean Walmart is almost as bad as Amazon, right? I am tempted to shop Canadian but I don't know anything about the politics of the owners of Canadian companies.

This is a central dilemma-- how do we stop supporting our enemies with our money?

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DOES ANYONE KNOW WHERE WE CAN SPEND OUR MONEY WITH FRIENDS AND NOT FASCISTS?
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This entry was edited (1 week ago)
in reply to Dave Goldsmith

eBay and Poshmark Canada and other online sellers. Use small local businesses as much as possible. Screw the mega corps that support poverty and financial slavery.

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in reply to tend2wobble

Small local businesses are often politically problematic. If anything the worst of small business is worse than the worst of big business. I absolutely avoid patronizing small businesses with fishies on their business cards, for example. My buycott list is largely those businesses both small and medium that have spent some amount of money on advertising in the queer newspaper, but that isn't even a first approximation of an information repository. It's very difficult to research businesses in general. At some point such research needs to be adversarial in character, like investigative journalism, or perhaps "oppo" research in politics.
in reply to Lorraine Lee

@lori @tend2wobble

How about a list of owners of businesses who contribute to Progressive candidates?

in reply to Dave Goldsmith

@lori @tend2wobble for small businesses you sometimes literally have to do detective work going as far as monitoring social media postings of owners and employees (Here in Britain not all their owners will openly state their political or religious views, but the Reform UK supporters tend not to be quiet about it)

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in reply to Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK

I tend not to judge a business by the views of their employees, as I want to think of employees as having lives of their own. I think your methodology has a point, though. Employment is a power matrix. An employee who's willing to out themselves on both their workplace and their opinions is (by definition?) an employee who shares their employer's worldview.

For what it's worth, goodsuniteus.com has data on the political contributions of employees of large American businesses.

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in reply to Lorraine Lee

@lori @tend2wobble I'm thinking of smaller leaner local businesses in my bit of England, where the employees and business owners are often the same people (there may even only be one person running the lot) and despite fairly strong anti-discrimination employment law, bosses will still hire people with similar political views to themselves (as small businesses tend not to get audited as often for diversity)

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in reply to Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK

Oh absolutely businesses at that level are well worth supporting if they're somewhat known quantities.
in reply to Lorraine Lee

@lori This is true. We give the benefit of the doubt until a sign shows up or a clue is dropped somehow. When they expose themselves and we dump them , we call and tell them why and sometimes, how much we’ve spent at their business.

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in reply to tend2wobble

@lori Everyone is entitled to an opinion but if we like a business and its products or service, we prefer not to know because once we smell RW/GOP/TRUMP stench in person or in advertising or labor practice, we are gone forever. 30 plus years have never stepped foot in a Walmart after their founding family’s deception and destruction of Midwest small business. youtu.be/RXmnBbUjsPs
in reply to i_give_u_worms

@i_give_u_worms @tend2wobble Good news: eBay has managed card payments through a different processor for some time. TIL that more recently, they’ve dropped PayPal as a payment *source* as well.
in reply to Dave Goldsmith

The problem with Amazon (or to a lesser extent, Walmart) is that they have most things you could want under one virtual "roof." It's so easy.

I'm still navigating these waters, myself, but I think part of it is learning to buy different kinds of stuff from different sellers.

I recently discovered ThriftBooks, for example. They're independently owned, and shipping was pretty fast. Not "Prime" fast but speedy,

in reply to Lance

@analogfusion Can't guarantee this will happen for you, but more than once I have ordered #books in "good" or "acceptable"condition from #ThriftBooks and received copies that were in much better condition than advertised - like-new or seemingly new. Great company, my bookshelf is full of books I have bought there.
in reply to Dave Goldsmith

@analogfusion Read all about it here: thriftbooks.com/about-thriftbo…

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Dave Goldsmith

@fm2279

I agree with everything that you say and I've been practicing much of it since the election but I'm asking a someone different question. Is there anywhere we can shop with friends? Are there any companies any businesses any individuals any list of friends any list of progressive stores?

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Dave Goldsmith

@fm2279

Until we fix this glaring problem I fear all of our efforts will be marginalized. We simply have to stop supporting our enemies with our money!

in reply to Dave Goldsmith

Unfortunately many don't have great options other than Walmart. My area has a few grocery stores that are pricey and an Aldi, but for other needs at reasonable prices Walmart is the only option. So, I chose the lesser of two evils, ended my Prime subscription and went with Walmart+. At least unlike Target, they never patted themselves on the back for their DEI policies before pulling back. I also use the Goods Unite Us app to see where company donations go before shopping.
in reply to Dave Goldsmith

@Dave Goldsmith I switched to WalMart m'self when we dropped Prime, which had the funny effect of us buying less, so while WalMart isn't really any better than Amazon, they're not seeing as much of our money as Amazon had been, so I guess that's better? And we're saving money just on the membership over there.
in reply to 🌴 Seph πŸ’­ πŸ‘Ύ

@vextaur

I'm going down the exact same path! It's f****** frustrating that our choices are between an active fascist and a less active fascist! We progressives should be ashamed of ourselves for having progressed zero since Nader.

Felonious Trump ended the First Republic. This is fascism. AOC and Bernie can win now on the issues that the majority of Americans have wanted for decades: Universal Health Care, the return of Roe v Wade and massively taxing billionaires into millionaires.

in reply to Dave Goldsmith

Piecework pay scams are evil in every way, but this ad really reeks of political statement and puts them even higher on my shit list.
in reply to Dave Goldsmith

I use Costco for a lot of what I previously used Amazon for, spread other purchases out, and limit other purchases to emergencies. But it depends a lot on what you actually need, since any "one-stop shop" is probably terrible.

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in reply to John Colagioia

@jcolag

Yes I heard good things about costco. I'm not really looking for a One-Stop shop I'm happy to shop at multiple locations I'm just looking for companies who are run by and owned by people who support Progressive causes. Do you know of any such list?

in reply to Dave Goldsmith

No list comes to mind, unfortunately. And searching for the examples that come to mind like thrivemarket.com/, wearpact.com/, blueland.com/, bookshop.org/ doesn't turn anything interesting up.

Changing the criteria to various vulnerable groups, this looks like it has potential, though startsmallthinkbig.org/shop-sm… and this article has some pointers including that link coppercourier.com/2023/12/21/w…

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in reply to Dave Goldsmith

I use Amazon to search for a product and identify the maker, then, using search, try to find and order directly from the maker.
in reply to dana

@dana

Yes, I do that too but I don't know if the owner of the manufacturing company is a progressive a liberal conservative or a fascist. That's what has to change.

@dana
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