Consumers are rallying to speak through their wallets − or lack of spending – as a way to protest the retreat by some companies from diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and President Trump’s actions to eliminate federal DEI programs since taking office. They are calling on consumers to boycott specific retailers and for one day later this month, to refrain from spending any money at all.
Numerous social media accounts are sharing the message of a 24-hour consumer spending blackout planned for Feb. 28. Consumers are encouraged not to spend money in stores or online for the day and if they have emergencies or essentials they need, they are encouraged to support a local small business.
It is unclear which organization started the Feb. 28 blackout, but several Instagram posts by a group called The People’s Union and its founder, who goes by the Instagram handle “TheOneCalledJai” have been reshared and circulated about the Feb. 28 one-day blackout.
From Bud Light to Target: Boycotts take off
The strategy has worked for the political right.
In campaigns using hashtags and slogans like “go woke go broke,” boycotts waged by conservative activists have taken aim at the nation’s largest consumer names including retail chain Target. Some have succeeded in slashing sales and forcing policy changes.
Followers of Robby Starbuck pressured the likes of Walmart, Ford, Harley-Davidson and Tractor Supply to rein in their DEI efforts.
Bud Light, owned by beer giant Anheuser-Busch, struggled after conservative blowback over a social media campaign with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
Target moved its Pride displays from the entrances to the back of stores after shoppers confronted employees and vandalized displays. Last year, Target scaled back its Pride collection and did not carry the collection in all stores.
A growing number of companies have retreated on DEI commitments as those efforts come under greater scrutiny in a rapidly changing legal and political climate.
Shortly after taking office, Trump ordered federal agencies to crack down on DEI and investigate the DEI programs of private companies.
Now Target and other companies find themselves under attack from the other side, facing calls for boycotts from DEI supporters angry over the rollbacks.
That’s an increasingly common dilemma for corporations and one of their own making, said David Primo, professor of political science and business administration at the University of Rochester in New York, who blames years of “haphazard policymaking” by companies on contentious issues like DEI.
“Companies need to figure out what they will take positions on, what they won’t take positions on, and then stand firm,” Primo said. “Holding your finger to the political winds is not an effective way to run a company in a polarized world.”
What is the Feb. 28 consumer economic blackout?
In one of several videos about the Feb. 28 blackout, the Instagram handle “TheOneCalledJai” said the day of economic resistance is to show that “we the people are the system.”
“For decades, they have told us that we are powerless, that we have no control, and that this system is too big, too strong, too unshakable.”
“We are going to remind them who has the power. For one day, we turn it off for one day. We shut it down for one day. We remind them that this country does not belong to the elite, it belongs to the people and this will work,” the Instagram video said.
“Some of you might say one day won’t make a difference and that’s exactly what they want you to believe,” he said. “If enough of us participate, they will feel it and if they don’t listen, we escalate.”
A second economic blackout aimed at blocking purchases from Amazon from March 7 through March 14 has also been announced by the same group.
In an interview with USA TODAY, John Schwarz, who is the man behind the Instagram handle, said what started as a bold idea while he was posting a video to express his frustration has gained traction quickly.
“I’m trying to use my platform right now to organize and gather people who can see past what divides us and potentially maybe down the road legally find some way to unionize ourselves, to create a powerful voice within the system to create change,” Schwarz said.
“But for now, the economic blackout is about getting people together, up off the couch, so to speak, to do something together,” he said.
Schwarz said the economic blackout isn’t to protest one specific thing, but the timing is right.
Schwarz said he will start with the one-day economic blackout and March Amazon boycott to get people gathered and then expand to monthly boycotts of other businesses “that are really the biggest offenders within the system.” Schwarz said he is running the effort alone, but is looking for people to join him. A website, www.thepeoplesunionusa.com, also has information on the efforts.
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Target boycott coincides with Black History Month
A different boycott against Target is underway after civil rights activists in Minnesota encouraged consumers to not shop at the Minneapolis-based retailer. The boycott started Feb. 1 in response to the Target’s decision to phase out DEI initiatives. It is an indefinite boycott until Target changes its actions, said Nekima Levy Armstrong, a civil rights attorney and founder of the Racial Justice Network.
The DEI retreat “really felt like a slap in the face,” Levy Armstrong told USA TODAY.
“Target was a beloved community that seemed to build its model around embracing diversity and being intentionally inclusive of having Black brands on the shelves, having beautiful Black History Month displays. For them to essentially bow down to the mandates of the Trump administration was unacceptable,” she said.
The boycott coincides with Black History Month. Organizers, which include several other civil rights organizations in Minnesota, have also since encouraged consumers to support Black-owned brands in Target by buying directly from the businesses’ websites after some Black-owned businesses expressed concern about the boycott.
Levy Armstrong said the support of the boycott has been good, and she sees other boycotts planned against Target and other companies as “complementary.” Her groups’ efforts for now will be focused on Target, she said.
“People feel empowered in a moment in which they felt powerless and somewhat helpless,” she said.
More consumer boycotts planned
At least two other consumer boycotts are planned.
Comedian and actress Leslie Jones announced on her Instagram account planned boycotts and buying actions starting in February and continuing through the end of the year. That plan explained in the video starts and ends with encouraging purchases directly from Black-owned businesses and then planned boycotts for one to two months at a time against Walmart, Target and Amazon.
Pastor Jamal-Harrison Bryant, senior pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Georgia and an activist and author, has called on the faith community to start a 40-day fast from shopping at Target during Lent starting on March 5, which is Ash Wednesday. A website, www.targetfast.org, has also been created offering information.
Target and Amazon did not return messages seeking comment about potential boycotts. A Walmart spokesperson declined comment.
Boycotts can be successful, but for different reasons
Boycotts can be pretty effective, but not in the way that consumers think, said Brayden King, a professor of management and organizations at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
The boycotts create attention for the cause, including from the media, which “puts a negative spotlight on the companies they’re boycotting and that could in the long run have reputational consequences,” King told USA TODAY.
“What boycotts don’t seem to do is have much of an impact on consumer behavior,” King said.
Consumers can usually handle a boycott for a day, “but over longer periods of time, most boycotts don’t have any kind of impact on sales.”
That’s because consumer purchasing, especially for online shopping, “tends to occur in private where others can’t see or judge them.”
King said a boycott of Bud Light in 2023, sparked by conservative consumers upset that the beer maker had teamed up with a transgender influencer, was successful because of a couple key reasons.
People tend to consume beer in public, so they could be held accountable, King said. There also were easy substitutes of other beer brands that consumers participating in the boycott could choose instead.
For a boycott to be successful, organizers also have to figure out what success means: “Is it that customers can feel better about expressing their values, or is it intended to change corporate behavior?” said Gerald Davis, a professor of management and sociology at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.
A boycott needs a clear goal, a clear target group and an identifiable representative of that group who can negotiate with the target on their behalf, he said.
“Simply asking customers to stop buying a product to express disapproval is not likely to produce any recognizable change in what business does,” he said.
Consumers can express their voice through a boycott
Still, a boycott can be a positive way for consumers to express themselves through action, King said.
“Saying you’re going to boycott something does feel like you’re casting a vote that you hope makes a difference down the road,” he said. It is a way for people upset about the Trump administration’s actions or companies’ responses to DEI initiatives, “to convert grievances into action,” King said.
Too many protest actions can cause confusion
There are also several social media messages that outline other boycott efforts in different time frames against specific retailers. That is usually “one of the biggest difficulties activists face, which is they’re not just competing with all the other events and things that are happening with the world, but also competing with each other and for attention,” said King.
The most successful boycotts are ones where “there’s a lot of unity among the various strands of people who count themselves…in that camp,” he said.
DEI rollbacks:Trump’s anti-DEI orders worry some federal workers
Shopping in support of a business can also work
The Rev. Al Sharpton and the National Action Network have recently taken action at two Costco locations in New York City and Union, New Jersey to bring supporters to Costco to spend money in support of the company board of director’s actions to vote down an effort to drop DEI efforts.
National Action Network also said in a press release about the “buy-cott” efforts that it will lead “a strategic boycott in the next 90 days of two companies that have dropped their DEI commitments amid public pressure.” No details have been released.
This story has been updated to add new information.
