I wanted to wrap my own head around the more recent boycott-worthy bad company behavior news and boycott calls, so I put together a comprehensive list. I don’t have alternatives to some of them yet, but hopefully this also helps your understanding of things!
Spotify – and recently doubled down on running ICE ads
Pandora
HBOMax
YouTube (Google)
One of Trump’s key benefits of the new ballroom is that its at “no cost” to the American taxpayer – and wow, look at all these companies ready to bend the knee and fund it!
Tech/Communications/Media: Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Meta Platforms (Facebook & Instagram), Hewlett Packard (HP), Micron Technology, T-Mobile, Comcast Corporation, and Palantir Technologies Inc. – Peter Thiel’s dystopian surveillance company.
Construction/Installation: Carrier (is providing free HVAC vs. monetary donations), Caterpillar Inc.
Bitcoin/Crypto/Blockchain: Coinbase, Ripple, Tether America
Everyone else:
Hard Rock International – owner of Hard Rock cafe
Lockheed Martin – defense contractor
NextEra Energy Inc. – energy company
Union Pacific Railroad – railroad company
Reynolds American – tobacco company
Altria Group Inc. – a “former” tobacco company
I wanted to dive a little deeper on where these donors were getting their money from.
Ties to Companies You Might Use:
Betty Wold Johnson Foundation – run by her sons, Christopher and Woody Johnson. Woody was the former UK ambassador under Trump’s first term. Their wealth comes from Johnson & Johnson – Christopher and Woody are great-grandsons of its founder, Robert Wood Johnson
J. Pepe and Emilia Fanjul – they own a sugar conglomerate, Florida Crystals Corp, which also owns ASR Group, who in turn owns Domino sugar and other brands.
Benjamin Leon Jr. – owns Leon Medical Centers in and around Miami and his father founded Clinica Asociacion Cubana, one of the first HMOs in the US (cool🙄). He’s slated to the next US ambassador to Spain.
Edward and Shari Glazer – what a fun couple. Edward is a real-estate mogul (First Allied Corporation), Shari runs an consulting agency on crypto and NFTs (Kalos Labs), and they own the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Paolo Tiramani – founded BOXABLE, a tiny-home manufacturer, with his son. They doubled their own salaries and apparently BOXABLE spending decisions are overseen by “a man accused of acting as an agent for the Iranian government and a woman who is romantically involved with the elder Tiramani.“
Financial Firms
Charles and Marissa Cascarilla – Charles is a crypto-bro. He’s the co-founder and CEO of a crypto company, Paxos Trust.
The Lutnick Family – Howard Lutnick is the Secretary of Commerce after making his money at Cantor Fitzgerald, a finance firm.
Stephen A. Schwarzmann – billionaire co-founder of Blackstone, an investment firm (not the same as Blackrock).
Konstantin Sokolov – founder of IJS Investments, a private equity firm.
Kelly Loeffler and Jeff Sprecher – another fun couple! Kelly Loeffler is the lead of the Small Business Administration and her husband Jeff Sprecher founded InterContinental Exchange (ICE, fun acronym!) which owns the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
Cameron & Tyler Winklevoss – if you haven’t seen The Social Network about the origins of Facebook (Meta), they were part of it. Their roles were played by Armie Hammer, who has his own issues.
Everyone Else
Adelson Family Foundation – funded by Miriam Adelson, wife to Sheldon Adelson (died in 2021). According to the foundation’s website, their primary purpose is to strengthen the State of Israel and the Jewish people.
Stefan E. Brodie – co-founded Purolite, a chemical manufacturer. Brodie’s a real winner – he was convicted of violating American sanctions on Cuba in the early 2000s.
Harold Hamm – founder of Continental Resources, a fossil fuel company that led the charge on hydraulic fracking.
The Laura & Isaac Perlmutter Foundation – Isaac Perlmutter sold Marvel to Disney in 2009, and helped shape Trump’s VA policies during his first term, despite never serving in the army, elected to public office, or held any public position.
50501 and other organizations are calling for a boycott of Home Depot over their silence on the ICE raids happening across their stores. On Saturday, November 1st multiple rallies/vigils at Home Depots are being held across the country to honor those who have been kidnapped by ICE. Find your local event here.
I’ve seen a lot of social media posts about an economic blackout (no shopping, no work, no restaurants, etc) for November 25th – December 2nd. Americans spent $41.1 BILLION dollars last Thanksgiving – Cyber Monday and for 2025 it’s expected to increase 6% to $43.1 billion. If we can reduce our holiday shopping/spending with the big corporations and shift what we are spending to smaller and local companies, that would have a HUGE impact.
However – if you were planning on shopping at a big corporation on Black Friday/etc and instead shift your purchases to outside of that time frame but still buy from them, it won’t matter much. Companies will look at their overall holiday purchases from November through December to determine if they’re actually losing sales. I would also encourage people to still shop at local businesses – they need support!
Music: Spotify alternatives and free music and audiobook options.
Streaming: First round up of good streaming companies, questionable smaller companies, a review of the big players (including Comcast & HBOMax), kids & Crunchyroll alternatives.
Physical Media: free, used & new options
Home Depot: I talked about Home Depot in one of my first articles in April for gardening supplies. If you need an alternative, I recommend Ace Hardware. Habitat for Humanity ReStores also have building materials.
What’s on my list to cover from recent news: a full de-Google series (Gmail, Drive, Search, YouTube, etc), cellphone carriers to provide alternatives to T-Mobile, social media alternatives (though I recommend UpScrolled in the meantime), and I’ll likely do a deeper dive on Home Depot alternatives.
Beyond this, I want to make sure you’re covered from a holiday shopping perspective! I will be covering kids toys in the next couple of weeks, but if you have any other concerns going into the holiday season please let me know.
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