I get the boycotts for Target, Walmart, and Amazon for rolling back their DEI programs and bowing to Trump. What companies are treating employees fair or standing up for human decency? Seems like Costco gets brought up?
Most things I need I can get from my local grocery store which seems pretty non evil but where do you go if you need like a new keyboard?
You can always go for smaller/niche companies. System76 and Wooting come to mind for keyboards.
You have to do research and pay a premium. But you’re way more likely supporting a business that cares about its employees.
In general consume less. And when you do need to make bigger purchases, do your research.
Wooting is Dutch?
Yep, Dutch with manufacturing in Taiwan. So not super relevant to this thread.
System 76 is US based including keyboard manufacturing. They’re a small company that gives a lot back to the open source community.
If there’s a place that you just can’t stomach to shop because of how they treat their employees then I highly recommend you do not shop there. I was avoiding Walmart before avoiding Walmart was cool.
However…
Boycotts only really work when organized, towards an end goal. What was Walmart doing before, what is it doing now, what do we want it to do, and who’s coordinating? That’s how you change corporate policy through boycott.
If certain DEI policies are important enough to you to boycott when a company removes them then that’s fine. I guess it’s also worth asking what it is about any given program that makes it good enough for not, which companies should or shouldn’t have it, why, and all that.
I’m not sure if it’s still true, but I seem to recall SC Johnson having profits as the lowest of their corporate objectives with higher ones being things like improving people’s lives and bringing value to the world.
Granted, it’s all just text, and times change, but I’d be curious to know if there’s any truth to it, especially today.
You mean the fuckers who gave kids cancer with talcom powder and have done everything in their power to not pay damages?
Yeah. Fuck. That.
I believe you mean Johnson & Johnson, which is a different company.
No idea about the morals of SC Johnson, I hadn’t heard of them till now, but have used a product or 2.
Nope. That’s Johnson & Johnson. Different company.
Bruh if my company was named SC Johnson after what Johnson and Johnson has been up to I’d change my company name to avoid what dumb asses like me just assumed.
Costco
Since employees end up suffering more from boycotts than executives or investors do, I don’t think you should boycott anything. If you really need the delusion of being an avenging angel of justice without misdirecting it at people who are no richer than you, maybe go vandalize a CEO’s car.
That’s an uneducated take. The amount of goods and services required by a population as a whole isn’t affected by boycotts. What one company loses others will replace since they have a profit motive to do so. This requires them to hire additional labour which can easily come from what labour boycotted companies lay off.
That’s assuming a boycott has such a large impact as to require a workforce adjustment which is basically a fantasy scenario in most cases.
Stop convincing people into more apathy than is already plaguing us.
IMO the uneducated take would be to think passages from an Econ101 book reflected the IRL hardships of changing jobs, possibly relocating, being out of work during the transition, willingness to take a pay cut out of desperation, etc. The word “sophomore” comes from the Greek term meaning “wise idiot” - closely related to the Dunning Kruger effect. Also “apathy” doesn’t mean recognizing ineffective, self-serving virtue-signalling for what it is.
Seems like Costco gets brought up?
Costco only does this shit as a union busting effort btw.
I mean… is that union busting? I thought I read the union threatened to strike. Costco raised wages to advert a strike. Isn’t that just unions working as intended?
It’s absolutely not, lol. Like, I have no problem demonizing the worst companies, but we should be less critical of the better options. Unless you want to create a grocery and retail store chain and distribution network out of nothing…?
Grocery stores have some good actors with employee owned and coops.
costco being anti union is news to me. especially since they are very loudly not dropping their dei program.
Literally every corporation that has ever existed—or ever will—is anti-union.
there’s anti union as in “we think they’re a nuisance but we are tolerating them” and anti union as in “we are going to do everything in our power, legally and otherwise to make sure a union does not form or actively work to break the union that is in existence now”, companies like amazon and walmart and starbucks. if costco is anti union they are definitely not the second from what I’ve seen.
Costco is the latter but it’s a grocery store so their mechanisms are limited. Here’s a Costco union busting just a few days ago: https://dailyiowan.com/2025/03/30/workers-accuse-coralville-costco-of-union-busting/
Also you should accept that every company with a union wants it gone and is trying to find ways to kill it. Hire more staff to non-union positions, shrink union positions, delay contract negotiations, close unionized shops preferentially, buy off union leadership with perks/collaborationism. Many a petite bourgeoisie has shuttered their union shop citing financial problems only to reopen a few months later, suddenly union-free. And of course, slowly whittling away union sentiment and pushing a decert.
Dr Bronners soap has specifically reaffirmed their DEI policies since Trump’s reelection, and they have a 5-to-1 cap on the top-level exec’s salaries compared to their lowest paid retirement-vested employees. They seem to walk the walk from what I’ve seen and read.
Holy shit. Imagine if more companies did the 5 to 1 cap thing.
Even at 20 to one it would drastically change some company payscales.
Needs to apply to “bonuses” so there’s no loopholes though.
I don’t really believe in ethical consumption, but Penzys spices are awesome! They’re such troll too, I love it!
The only one that comes directly to mind is Valve.
Besides that I’m not going to follow this narrative too much of finding “the good ones”.
Used computer store for keyboard, or Craigslist or Market place
King Arthur Flour!
Penzey’s spices.
I’m not 100% sure, but I think HEB hasn’t done anything yet to kowtow to the current admin’s policies.
I miss HEB. family owned and private. Thus why they get away with treating their employees so well, paying them well, and supporting their communities all while also being the largest private employer in the state of Texas. That company is a great example of how a company can both grow to a large size and not be evil. If they ever go public you know all of its charm will instantly get cut in the name of shareholder value.
Yeah. That’s my local grocery store. It sounds like they treat their employees well and do a lot in the community. And tortillas.
NetBSD, Signal Foundation, other FOSS orgs
Dropout TV
