athelind: (Default)
athelind ([personal profile] athelind) wrote2004-12-08 12:32 pm

What Party Does Your Retail Dollar Support?

Blue Christmas

This hooks in neatly with [livejournal.com profile] cargoweasel's recent comments about Economic Activism.

[identity profile] rikoshi.livejournal.com 2004-12-08 12:34 pm (UTC)(link)
Wow, I'm happy to see that I coincidentally seem to lean towards Blue-oriented retailers. This pleases the Rikky.

[identity profile] cargoweasel.livejournal.com 2004-12-08 12:37 pm (UTC)(link)
Awesome. I only knew about costco already. This is a great resource.
richardf8: (Default)

[personal profile] richardf8 2004-12-08 12:58 pm (UTC)(link)
I just joined Costco.

[identity profile] ceruleanst.livejournal.com 2004-12-08 12:58 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm disappointed in all those nice restaurants, but I think Chick-Fil-A is all the boycott I can handle. Hooray for Arby's and their Chicken Bacon Swiss.

[identity profile] rikoshi.livejournal.com 2004-12-08 01:07 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, I noticed that too, actually.

Unfortunately, I don't think I could bring myself to stop eating at Maggiano's. Le sigh.

[identity profile] ceruleanst.livejournal.com 2004-12-08 10:09 pm (UTC)(link)
You may have noticed they're all closed on Sundays, which is a hint. About 10% of the company's profits goes to anti-abortion organizations. When I first found out, I was amazed that I hadn't seen the similarity in the advertising tactics before. Just picture a baby holding a sign that says "KIL MOR DOCTERZ."

[identity profile] archteryx.livejournal.com 2004-12-09 05:47 am (UTC)(link)
Heh. I knew that they were run by Christians -- the Sunday closings are because of that -- but I'd also been told that the owners weren't of the more virulent strain of evangelicalism that seems to be taking over these days.

I'd be curious which anti-abortion organizations they give to. Not all of them advocate murder. If they give to one of the truly radical ones that DO, they deserve alot more then just a boycott. Last I heard, funding murder..or advocating it openly..is a crime.

-- ArchTeryx

[identity profile] ceruleanst.livejournal.com 2004-12-09 01:48 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm having a really hard time finding any solid information now. An exact breakdown of the company's charitable donations doesn't seem to be available, and Googling to find any connection between Chick-Fil-A and Right-to-Life returns a vast haystack of Christian news sites that mention them separately. But I did find this.

[identity profile] hedgegoth.livejournal.com 2004-12-08 01:21 pm (UTC)(link)
Hrm. They fail to note other things that the retailers do for the community beyond political contributions.
Sears is heavy Republican donator, something that puts them in my good bucket though is that Sears pays the difference in salaries and maintains benefits for their called-up military reservist employees.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/sears.asp

*shrug* I'd just be biased against utilizing just one thing to determine at which retailer I spend my money.

[identity profile] cargoweasel.livejournal.com 2004-12-08 01:42 pm (UTC)(link)
They do point that out in their documentation, that this is just an early example and they will be going into more detail about each company's practices.

[identity profile] tikaani.livejournal.com 2004-12-08 01:59 pm (UTC)(link)
They have a lot more work to do, since it's claiming "2004 donations" yet lists "Tricon Global Restaurants" as a donator, a company which hasn't existed since 2002.

[identity profile] cargoweasel.livejournal.com 2004-12-08 02:05 pm (UTC)(link)
Tricon changed their name to the much friendlier sounding Yum! Brands but they're still the same company.

[identity profile] tikaani.livejournal.com 2004-12-08 02:10 pm (UTC)(link)
Reasons aside, they've been giving money for two years under another name, been operating as such, doing SEC reporting as such, but this list doesn't have that? That's all.

[identity profile] cargoweasel.livejournal.com 2004-12-08 02:12 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, that clearly invalidates the entire effort. Why should they even bother?

[identity profile] tikaani.livejournal.com 2004-12-08 02:45 pm (UTC)(link)
*sigh* I never said it invalidated their effort, It just points out they obviously have a lot of work to do before one could even consider it accurate.

[identity profile] pathia.livejournal.com 2004-12-08 01:22 pm (UTC)(link)
The long term goal is to help reduce corporate money from politics; this is not a geographical boycott.

By...shopping with companies that give shitloads of money to Blue instead of Red?

I would think you'd want to shop with companies that don't give to EITHER party to accomplish this goal.

[identity profile] cargoweasel.livejournal.com 2004-12-08 02:15 pm (UTC)(link)
Good freakin' luck.

[identity profile] hedgegoth.livejournal.com 2004-12-08 01:27 pm (UTC)(link)
*nudge* i need your snail addy please - email to scott at urbandragons dot com?

[identity profile] bfdragon.livejournal.com 2004-12-08 06:05 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm not really sure how much that puts me at ease, it seems to give less confidence in the democratic party then it does make me want to shop there.. oh well.

Interesting the difference of scale between the two, it's usually much higher on the red side. It is interesting that the Democrats get more money from oil companies (Though I guess you don't have to pay for what you already own).

Social Conservatives in thongs?

[identity profile] jeffxandra.livejournal.com 2004-12-09 07:43 am (UTC)(link)
The Limited Partnership including Victoria's Secret contributes mostly to Republican party?