• yarr@feddit.nl
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    2 days ago

    Hey everyone! Let’s break down why that viral campaign idea might not hit as hard as hoped. If we’re calling for a day to make companies feel the pain, here’s the thing—consumers can be pretty quick on their feet. People might just push their shopping a few days ahead instead of waiting.

    Think about it: if I was planning to buy something on February 28th, maybe I’ll just do my shopping on March 1st or even February 29th if that’s when the sale is happening. Companies are usually managing their finances monthly or quarterly, so one day’s dip in sales won’t make a huge difference. They’ve likely already accounted for those numbers in their budget.

    Plus, with all the online shopping and delivery options out there, people can buy what they need anytime, making it easy to avoid any specific “buying panic” on that targeted day. Companies might even use this time to up-sell or promote other products to make up for any lost sales.

    So, while the idea sounds powerful, it’s probably not going to cause the big change people are hoping for. We’ll just keep shopping as usual, and companies will keep humming along without much of a financial hiccup. And hey, maybe people will even forget about the whole thing after a week! This is nothing other than a “feel good” activity people can do, but it’s really not going to hurt any business in a significant way.

    If you REALLY want to have an effect, boycott a business over a long enough period that it shows up in their revenue reports. Of course, I expect “don’t buy gas for a year” to not be that feasible, so maybe the approach of limiting buying is just fundamentally flawed, especially with goods that you can’t live without, like gas or food.

    • Nougat@fedia.ioM
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      2 days ago

      As always: all efforts, great and small.

      Other people have pointed out, and I will echo: there are plenty of people who have not yet been moved to take any action, and a “symbolic” action is something as opposed to nothing. People who decide to take this symbolic action are going to be more easily moved to take more directly effective action in the future.

      Building a critical mass takes time. Providing people with easy opportunities to experience involvement now will increase the number of people willing to take on greater risks later.

      This is why we don’t gatekeep resistance.