I think you’re missing the point of this criticism.
People buy stuff, and then they use it. If they don’t use less, they won’t buy less, even if there’s a specific day where they choose not to buy anything. That day’s avoided purchases just get moved to another day, and the seller doesn’t feel any effect.
A real boycott takes money that would’ve been spent on a specific seller and takes it away forever. It’s a shift in purchase behavior to a competitor, or a shift in consumption behavior to not need to purchase that thing anymore.
As an extreme example, someone who boycotts Tesla every day for 5 years but still buys a Tesla once every 5 years is not effectively boycotting Tesla, even if that boycott covers 1825 days in a row.
Same with people who normally grocery shop on Friday, who shift their purchases to Saturday.
I would advocate for boycotting specific companies instead, and steering that money you would’ve spent to someone else (even a charity, so as to reduce one’s own consumption). The boycotts need to shift recipients of the money, not dates of when that money changes hands.
I think you’re missing the point of this criticism.
People buy stuff, and then they use it. If they don’t use less, they won’t buy less, even if there’s a specific day where they choose not to buy anything. That day’s avoided purchases just get moved to another day, and the seller doesn’t feel any effect.
A real boycott takes money that would’ve been spent on a specific seller and takes it away forever. It’s a shift in purchase behavior to a competitor, or a shift in consumption behavior to not need to purchase that thing anymore.
As an extreme example, someone who boycotts Tesla every day for 5 years but still buys a Tesla once every 5 years is not effectively boycotting Tesla, even if that boycott covers 1825 days in a row.
Same with people who normally grocery shop on Friday, who shift their purchases to Saturday.
I would advocate for boycotting specific companies instead, and steering that money you would’ve spent to someone else (even a charity, so as to reduce one’s own consumption). The boycotts need to shift recipients of the money, not dates of when that money changes hands.