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?

  • Silent John@lemmy.mlEnglish
    2·
    28 minutes ago

    I don’t really believe in ethical consumption, but Penzys spices are awesome! They’re such troll too, I love it!

  • davel@lemmy.mlEnglish
    877·
    20 hours ago

    ACAB: All Corporations Are Bastards. Corporations are not your friends. Brands aren’t your friends.

    • Lumberjacked@lemm.eeOP
      19·
      9 hours ago

      I used to not vote because all politicians are evil. Someone pointed out that if everyone picks the lesser of two evils then things are going to get less evil. I’ve voted every opportunity since.

      Corporations are just legal structure organizing people together to do something. The soup kitchen, local artisan, person cutting hair out of their house, they all set up an LLC to operate under. They didn’t instantly become evil.

      But if I need to buy a blender, plywood, or underwear (my shopping list this weekend), I’m going to have to buy it from a corporation. If I could buy it from a less evil corp then hopefully I make things less evil.

        • Lumberjacked@lemm.eeOP
          1·
          3 hours ago

          Thank you. This sent me on a rabbit hole of differences between LLC and Corporations. LLC being a pass through protects the owners a little bit but passes through all the tax and some of the liability (hence Limited Liability). I remember reading something about how banks got significantly more risky with investments and predatorily with their practices when they started moving from partnerships to corporate structures.

          Maybe we should get rid of corporations and force all companies into a partnership or LLC structure. Less to hide behind.

  • usrtrv@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    231·
    20 hours ago

    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.

      • usrtrv@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        3·
        12 hours ago

        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.

  • eldavi@lemmy.mlEnglish
    30·
    22 hours ago

    i use the nothanks app on my phone to scan the bar codes and it tells me if it’s okay to buy or if i should boycott, along w why

    • Pudutr0n@feddit.cl
      521·
      22 hours ago

      I found the thing you mentioned a good idea so I googled the app to find out how they decided who should or should not be boycotted. I landed their homepage and it said they offered digital marketing solutions.

      I’d love to use something like that if community driven but sounds like an important conflict of interest.

      • eldavi@lemmy.mlEnglish
        15·
        22 hours ago

        that’s good to know that they’re doing the same thing as adblock plus did.

        there are other apps that do the same thing and i’ll be trying them now; thanks for the heads up.

        edit: maybe this one?

        • Pudutr0n@feddit.cl
          10·
          20 hours ago

          Buycott seems promising cause campaigns and boycott lists are user-driven (which, you know… could also be faked I guess) and haven’t found anything fishy in their policies yet, but still snooping around on them. Gonna look into their ownership now.

          Edit:

          So umm… apparently Buycott was founded by a random 20 something year old LA dev (Ivan Pardo), a 2008 CS guy from Colgate University who basically coded it on his own. Boycott’s social media has been inactive since 2016.

          Their business model is they sell access to their barcode API, which basically means they sell the pics of the barcodes and the product descriptions people add voluntarily to companies to do what they want. Not great but you know… better than digital marketing services.

          Buycott is related to solidarity tech, which Ivan Pardo also founded, and is a CRM who claims to be “helping unions & grassroots organizations build people-powered movements that transform society…” which could be legit. They’re not free and they’re not cheap and they claim to cater to unions, advocacy orgs and non profits… but idk. Am I full paranoid delusional or does this sound like a honeytrap kinda thing? Like if I was an evil right wing politician this is exactly the kind of company I’d want to have leverage over to be able to sabotage opposition. And we don’t know who Pardo’s partners are. Only that he’s founder.

          Oh, also, solidarity tech openly claims they give their customer info to Google analytics in their terms, which, you know… Kinda concerning when your “I’ll handle your grass roots movement” software sees no reason to not freely give your information to the most blatant and thinly veiled CIA front in contemporary history.

          In their webpage they say they are “Trusted by Progressive Campaigns and Causes” and name a full total of 5 clients: Debt Collective, UAW, Pilipino Workers Central and CWA. As a non american I don’t know what these things are…

          idk I don’t trust them. But I’m also running out of options at this point. Might as well use something. They seem like the best so far.

          • eldavi@lemmy.mlEnglish
            3·
            20 hours ago

            based solely on what you’ve found (and not doing my own homework): it seems like they’re going the adblock plus route where they’re good to use until they get a critical enough mass of users to start selling their data and the we’ll have to switch to the ublock origin like alternative.

            • Pudutr0n@feddit.cl
              2·
              20 hours ago

              I’d go with buycott until something better appears tbh. I’m gonna see how it works for me. Too tired to keep snooping for today.

              • eldavi@lemmy.mlEnglish
                2·
                20 hours ago

                i think i’m going to start using more than one at a time as a cross comparison and investigate the dissenter.

                • Pudutr0n@feddit.cl
                  2·
                  20 hours ago

                  Not a bad idea but keep in mind you’ll also potentially be adding yourself to lists. i assume i just ended up in a few databases i’d rather not be in by doing this snooping alone. Hard to tell the sheep from the wolves. I’m not an american though and my country isn’t currently on “hardcore mode” political setting. Stay safe, friend.

        • Pudutr0n@feddit.cl
          6·
          21 hours ago

          I checked out boycat.io

          Searched a bunch of “everyone knows they’re bad” companies and the info they provided seemed accurate, reasonable and well sourced.

          However, their business model seems kinda fishy. first of all they sell “I’m a nice company” certifications, which in itself s a conflict of interest, but especially if you can’t find who the owners of boycat are anywhere on the site or the internet, their whois information is private and if you look at their privacy policy, they allow themselves the right to track “usage data” (i.e. what you scanned) and “location data” which they later allow themselves to “share” with “service providers”, which are “companies providing hosting, data analysis, marketing, customer service, and technical support.”… so umm… Yeah. Basically same conflict of interest as the other company, but less explicit.

          And again,. not once do they say who owns them, how they started or is behind them nor do they provide an explanation on why they don’t talk about themselves… Cause I could understand well intending devs trying to keep private to stop companies from threatening them, but tell the community this is why you don’t share your info. Their contact us doesn’t work either.

          I would really like to see something community driven but i guess big companies could infiltrate something like that easily. I’ll look into other solutions and let you know if i find anything promising.

          ps: 90% of their news were about Israel-palestine, which, you know… OK, good and important but ummm… I’d also like to know about other stuff.

        • Pudutr0n@feddit.cl
          2·
          22 hours ago

          Sure. Mentioning them helped me remember i have to get my act together regarding who i give my money to, so even if they’re evil now something good may have come from using and naming them. Thanks for the reminder. I needed it.

    • Wigglet@beehaw.org
      4·
      20 hours ago

      Is there a way to add brands i want to avoid that aren’t on their list? I live in Aotearoa so I’m not sure if the list will have everything included

      • eldavi@lemmy.mlEnglish
        41·
        14 hours ago

        agreed, but only for now.

        if you read further on in this post, it’ll appear that their ultimate goal is to give brands the opportunity to clean any ghoulish reputation w money.

  • edric@lemm.eeEnglish
    101·
    20 hours ago

    I’m not 100% sure, but I think HEB hasn’t done anything yet to kowtow to the current admin’s policies.

    • MrEff@lemmy.world
      4·
      20 hours ago

      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.

    • Lumberjacked@lemm.eeOP
      3·
      20 hours ago

      Yeah. That’s my local grocery store. It sounds like they treat their employees well and do a lot in the community. And tortillas.

    • Peaches@lemmy.todayEnglish
      1·
      18 hours ago

      They’ve made some small donations towards the current administration during elections, but they also give a decent amount back to their communities too.

    • Lumberjacked@lemm.eeOP
      9·
      21 hours ago

      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?

      • Empricorn@feddit.nlEnglish
        4·
        20 hours ago

        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…?

    • ctkatz@lemmy.ml
      4·
      20 hours ago

      costco being anti union is news to me. especially since they are very loudly not dropping their dei program.

      • davel@lemmy.mlEnglish
        152·
        20 hours ago

        Literally every corporation that has ever existed—or ever will—is anti-union.

        • ctkatz@lemmy.ml
          5·
          20 hours ago

          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.

          • Terrarium [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
            4·
            13 hours ago

            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.

  • BCsven@lemmy.ca
    82·
    21 hours ago

    Used computer store for keyboard, or Craigslist or Market place

    • sping@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      1·
      9 hours ago

      But then you have to eat Tillamook cheese… I has no idea cheese could be so bland before I moved to the NW USA. And orange, for some reason.

    • Lemonzinger@lemmy.world
      2·
      14 hours ago

      Dang if I didn’t read something about the cow treatment at the milk farms they source from. Was sad to hear.