Do you vote with your wallet? On what? And Why?

[Asura]

Question, do you "vote with your wallet"?

Are there certain things you either buy or don't buy, out of some kind of principle?

On a related note, this is something I've been wondering about of late. I've had a few over the years.

For example, I didn't buy the FFX collection on Switch because of the whole "FFX-2 has a one-use download code but in Japan it's on the cart" thing.

I thought it was a ****ty practice by Square, and didn't buy it... But of course, it sold pretty well and other companies have done it. I'm sure there are many people who haven't bought the Mario collection on Switch for similar reasons, but it's charted as a best-seller so obviously Nintendo aren't losing sleep over it.

As the years go by, I've come to feel that apart from in very specific cases, this is a waste of time. Nothing changes or affects those who do these things, and all that happens is that I don't get the things I otherwise want for no good reason. So I'm in a bit of quandary.

How do you vote with your wallet?

[Dogg Thang]

I do but I feel similar to you in some ways. When people complain and others say "just vote with your wallet", that's not actually a solution. Because 1) it's not a vote and 2) that lack of a sale doesn't come with an explanation attached. When a company tallies their sales, they don't also have a column of 'not sales and why'. And even if you do stand up for your principles, it only matters if other do it too.

But yeah, there are certain things I won't buy because I don't like the actions of the company. But if that was examined on a case by case basis, I'd quickly be exposed as a hypocrite. For example, my recent Oculus purchase. I think Facebook are one of the most insidious companies on the planet. I think they're filth. I hate pretty much everything they do. So when it came to VR, as some of you saw, I wanted other options for that reason. But when it came down to it, I didn't find a better product for me and I shoved my principles deep down and bought it anyway. If you accused me of being part of the problem, you'd be right. I did not vote with my wallet.

[CMcK]

I don’t use social media or Google search.
I won’t use businesses with iffy practices or dodgy executives (eg Samsung). Especially firms that use their position to push agendas like Brexit such as Wetherspoons or Tate & Lyle.
I’m looking at buying an electric car but as much as the pace of a Tesla appeals Musk is a total fantasist and their labour practices and anti-union stance means they won’t see any of my money.
I wouldn’t dream of giving money to to right wing media by consuming their bile.
I will never visit Americaland again or go to China despite my fondness for various aspects of the Chinese culture.

You can’t know what going on everywhere all the time but I do feel better knowing that I’m not endorsing it by giving these things my money.

[Lebowski]

As far as games go i don't tend to boycott stuff unless its a really shady practice like EA pushing pay to win mechanics in full price games (Star Wars) or exploitative mechanics like £20 skin packs in Fortnite, this sort of cost is crazy considering how much it costs to make each one. and it leads to online bullying too. one boy among my sons friends group was regularly singled out for Being Poor and called a no skin for not owning any custom skins, would you believe it.

If an advert really annoy me i will avoid that company like the plague though them Bloody Halifax ad's are always universally awful and have been since the 90s, its like by using their products and banking with them your supporting their audio visual torture.

[Brad]

Yep.
No facebook, sold my Oculus. No EA games, No Activision and no Ubisoft.

Nope.
Still use Amazon when I can't find an alternative (I do try)
Still get coffee from Nespresso because I NEED good tasting coffee and I want convenience.

So, I'm a total hypocrite. I vote with my wallet unless that's sufficiently inconvenient to me at which point I stop thinking about it and get on with my life, hating myself a little inside.

[Cassius_Smoke]

[MENTION=9465]Brad[/MENTION]

Im exactly the same. I'll avoid anything EA, Ubisoft and Activision but then I'll use Amazon and a Samsung phone.
It's impossible to avoid everything.

[kryss]

I use a pencil still, I find it marks the paper better.

[Neon Ignition]

Nope. To be honest it's because it accomplishes nothing and no-one cares what I do or don't buy so the only person being punished by me not getting a product I want is me. I don't worry though, if I were the opposite and properly serious about only buying from a purely ethical standpoint I'd probably never be able to game again and have to live in a mud puddle eating grass and drinking rain.

It's fine to object or push back against stuff but denying a conglomerate a single sale isn't the way.

[Cassius_Smoke]

Depends on your values.
Its easy for me to avoid EA, Ubi and Activision because I don't give a flying **** about any of their stuff.
Ill also avoid Primark and H&M because of child labour. But if its not something that bothers anyone I'm not going to preach or convert anyone. I do it for me.

And its not just a single sale if enough people do it.

[Golgo]

There are certain evil game corpos that I pretend to disdain and places that I pretend never to shop (mostly because you can find cheaper in indies anyway). But the moment these devs, publishers or shops do something appealing I cravenly jettison my scruples and do that thing that Bill Hicks said.

[fuse]

I try to, but with full knowledge that I'm a hypocrite and continue to use some of the world's worst companies when it comes to ethics - Amazon being the big one. While I'll never fully cleanse myself of them, I really should try and reduce my reliance on them.

I've briefly subbed to NowTV a couple of times but otherwise try and avoid anything with Murdoch's touch. I'm certainly going to do my best to avoid ever setting foot in another Wetherspoons. Games-wise, I've not bought a thing from Play-Asia since they pandered to the Gamergate crowd and just generally turned out to be a bunch of edgy dickheads (I took the time to make that one very clear to them in writing too).

[dvdx2]

Nope. To be honest it's because it accomplishes nothing and no-one cares what I do or don't buy so the only person being punished by me not getting a product I want is me. I don't worry though, if I were the opposite and properly serious about only buying from a purely ethical standpoint I'd probably never be able to game again and have to live in a mud puddle eating grass and drinking rain.

It's fine to object or push back against stuff but denying a conglomerate a single sale isn't the way.

I’ve been vegetarian for the last 3 years now and pretty close to vegan (which is the aim). For ethical reasons, personally I seriously detest fast food places that wholesale churn out cheap meat products on a wholesale scale like kfc, McDonald’s, Burger King etc etc. I wouldn’t give them another brass tack, even for a coffee or coke. Same goes for places like Iceland - wouldn’t set foot now inside a store and haven’t done so for years. You certainly wouldn’t have to drink rain and eat grass - the substitutes nowadays are amazing.

Does it make a difference? If enough people make the change then yes, It can certainly accomplish something. The biggest societal changes come from shifts in attitudes, take voting for example and changing consumer habits, eg smoking / tobacco products; everyone smoked when I was growing up, including me and the look at the contrast in 2021- Don’t for one minute think no-one cares what you buy: businesses certainly do and they can boom or bust because of it.

[wakka]

[MENTION=3822]fuse[/MENTION] Feel free to enjoy NowTV if that was what was holding you back - Murdoch sold Sky a couple of years ago.

I have done this previously, like not using Amazon for years, and having to defend that to friends who demanded to know why I wouldn’t get Prime. I’ve mounted many a self righteous tirade on this topic when prompted.

Then the pandemic happened, and now I get an embarrassingly huge amount of groceries and products from Amazon. It’s insanely useful and it would be greatly inconvenient not to have it.

I don’t feel good about that. But to be honest, I have to agree with those saying that by ‘voting with your wallet’, you kind of just end up hurting yourself. I’ve done it with other businesses too, and held a grudge. It just ends up being this pointless negative emotion, the intended target of which will never be aware of.

I think I lose more than I gain from taking this approach, personally.

[Neon Ignition]

I can't really think of one true example of meaningful change having come from it, it always comes from other avenues instead.

Smoking was curbed more from the Government removing peoples rights around it. People stopping drinking fizzy drinks and switching to water, the three biggest brands in the world are owned by Pepsi, Coca Cola and Nestle. Same with vegan, vegetarian brands where companies like Linda McCartney Foods are owned by the same company that supplies all the chickens for Freebirds Foods.

Don't get me wrong, I mean it purely from the OP question point of paying money into a company for a product. Not at all in terms of people buying these things because they lead healthy lifestyles or don't like eating foods that were derived from animals. I just mean that if peoples habits in spending change then companies also change to weather those occasions too.

The Oculus Quest point is a good one. Facebook is a scum company but the Quest 2 is a great product. If enough people vote with their wallet then the Quest 2 would fail. Facebook wouldn't though, it'd move on to other profitable ventures while VR faded away leaving us in the end with a dead tech avenue.

I get it though, I agree it comes down to individual values so I'm solely basing this around my own. On a lighter take I'd say I see it as I like Herbie and the Volkswagon Beetle, so if I can like a car conceptualised by Adolf Hitler then I can stomach a new Mass Effect from EA

[Hirst]

I absolutely refuse to pay 10p for a tiny sachet of tomato sauce at the chip shop. If I'm going there, I will either take my own bottle and keep it in the glovebox or use all the spares I've gradually saved up from consistently asking for free ones at McDonalds when I get an 89p hamburger (the cheeseburger is 10p extra for a lousy slice of cheese, bring your own).

I'll also never buy any of the rip-off food at the cinema, but I stopped going to the cinema in 1997 when the ABC closed and the Cineworld wanted something insane like £5 to get in. Never again, though at least I didn't buy any of their food. I watched The Fifth Element while eating a 15p Swiss Roll from No Frills discount supermarket. That was before the affordable No Frills became a dedicated Kwik Save store, the prices shot right up after that. Swiss Roll went from 15p to 23p almost instantly, after that I was done.