[IrishLake]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

But in the case of Exxon and BP, those boycotts have typically been in response to specific events -- oil spills and the response (or lack thereof) by the oil company. Local franchisees, who may have had the franchises for years if not decades before the oil spills, have nothing to do with the spills or the responses. They're not in a position to suddenly say "Oh, let me go to a different oil company right now." And as others have noted, the effect of a boycott in these instances will be felt entirely by the franchisee, not by BP or Exxon.

In my view, that makes them collateral damage, and I personally have an issue with that. Fine if others don't. But I'll admit it -- even though I don't usually buy from BP, I did when others were boycotting it after the Gulf spill. I didn't want to see local business be punished for things they didn't do and had no control over at all.

Originally Posted by KDCat

I see your point, but creating economic pressure on franchisees creates pressure on the corporation. Franchisees complain loudly when stuff like this happens. They yell at the parent corporation. The parent corporation responds to that stuff. They need to keep their franchisees happy.

Originally Posted by MysticCat

I see that point as well, though I'm not convinced it's always the case.

My point really is that these things aren't always as simple as they might seem. To me, there's a lot of gray in there. Laws of unintended consequences and all that.

In regards for the gasoline suppliers issue... here is my experience since I worked in that industry for so long.
Exxon/BP/Marathon doesn't give a shit if one local franchise is being boycotted because of corporate practices. They don't give a shit if 100 local franchises are being boycotted. They MIGHT give a shit if 1,000 franchises were boycotted... but by then, all of those local franchise owners have gone belly up. They can't afford to change affiliation. It's not as simple as changing the name on the sign. Most often local franchise owners make zero profit on gasoline sales. The price for a gallon of gas is determined by the market and Bob and Sue Smith that own the local BP down on the corner only make money off of sales made inside the store.

Here's some more food for thought and something I never realized until I did work at a BP bulk terminal. Did you know that all of the gas companies supply to each other? While I was at the BP terminal, I saw trucks from Shell, Sunoco, Marathon/Speedway, and ExxonMobil come and fill their tanker trailers with BP gas, as well as a local company that supplies several locally owned Exxon/Mobils and BPs (Lykins Oil), and trucks that supply gas to grocery store owned stations. So even though you say "I'm boycotting BP stations because of their unethical environmental practices" that gas you're filling up on at the Shell station or the local Kroger very well could have come from a BP bulk terminal, which is sent in from a BP owned refinery via underground pipeline. This is common practice and I witnessed the same thing several years later at a Marathon bulk terminal. Truck from 5 different gas companies filling up on Marathon fuel.

We're all getting fucked by all of the oil companies. Trust me. Want to boycott BP? Better boycott all of them and buy yourself a horse to get around on.

Originally Posted by AGDee

Oh! There is a local restaurant where we used to have our Cub Scout Pack Committee meetings. Every month we spent money on food, drinks and desserts while having our meeting. We tipped well. When soliciting donations for our Blue & Gold banquet, they were the only restaurant to say no. We stopped going there for our meetings. We decided to support businesses that supported us.

I think this is a worthy and wise boycott.

Originally Posted by shirley1929

I'm boycotting Temovate Cream (whatever the h*ll that is) because they're spamming this board right now...

For real.