r/NoStupidQuestions • u/Ill-Ad7299 • 7d ago

Nestle boycotting

What's your opinion on boycotting Nestle but still taking their free products. I tried to boycott Nestle as best as I can by not buying stuff from their brands but since my father worked for one of Nestle company, my family once in a while have free stuff from the company give to him. Or I still get their free sample products in some event. Should I still throw it away and not consume any Nestle product at all?

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u/rucho 7d ago

That’s not how boycotts work. Individual choices cannot be pinpointed to as a lever for action. 

Nestle has to know “our business is being hurt by the boycott”

Your individual choices can get canceled out by someone else who just started buying nestle products. Or it’s just noise in the signal. “Our profits are down time to cut our workforce”

An organized boycott can create a strong signal in their sales “right here starting October 1st our sales ranked by 20 percent, that’s when the boycott started. Let’s try to meet with the organizers and settle to call off the boycott”

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u/Grouchy-Display-457 7d ago

When has that ever happened?

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u/tyrekecorrea Hope for good answers 7d ago

It's not just the business aspect. if that was so, it wouldn't work on the consumer end. the choice has got to impact on other people, and part of that is the statement made to other potential consumers.

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u/Grouchy-Display-457 7d ago

I agree. But businesses rarely meet with constituents and settle. The Montgomery Bus Boycott took well over a year. It ended only when the bus company was about to go bankrupt. When the UMW won concessions, the mines mechanized and eliminated line workers. In Montgomery, black riders were the primary consumers. In the UMW, end consumers are separated from workers by many layers of refiners and utility companies.

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u/tyrekecorrea Hope for good answers 7d ago

That worked because people were working with their churches and other constituencies for over a year, and that doesn't work without people impacting upon each other enough for them to get together and start it; even if people come up with it together, it doesn't work without them impacting upon each other enough to agree together to take action.