In the 1950’s the worlds first full service gas stations appeared. When someone pulled up ta one of those stations they could get their gas tank filled, windows washed, oil checked, fan belts checked, and the air in their tires tested. With cars still being relatively new, they often had attendants simply waiting for someone to show up.

Customer service was a thing. Competition amongst businesses gave birth to new slogans and catch phrases designed to attract and keep clientele. Such as, “The customer is always right”. A companies reputation and to a large extent, solvency, weighed heavily on their customers being happy. The global population during the 1950’s was around 2.5 billion.

Many of us grew up with this concept in mind. That, as customers, we had a small bit of control in how we were treated, a way to protect ourselves from unscrupulous business practices. Boycotts were an efficient and effective means of the general public voicing their displeasure with business practice they encountered. Companies were careful not to upset their customer base.

On November 15th 2022 the global population reached the milestone of 8 billion people. Today, gas stations do their best to stock enough gas for the amount of cars that are lined up outside their stations. There is no such thing as full service gas stations. Not really. If you’re lucky, you may get a gas attendant to wash your windshield, if things aren’t busy. But then again, a lot of gas stations are simply self service.

Why? Because this isn’t the 1950’s anymore. There is going to be another car. As a matter of fact, I highly doubt most gas stations even care if you boycott their gas station. For every car that chooses to not get gas at their station they have a dozen lined up behind them that will. People need gas for their cars and for most people, they simply aren’t going to allow the politics of things affect their need to get the gas. Which is why I hold very little weight in the value of boycotts today and their supposed effects on some of these major corporations.

We recently have seen some major upsets with some brands. The latest Bud Light marketing fiasco featuring the Transgender spokesperson, Dylan Mulvaney, caused a marked drop in Bud Light sales. Been people throwin up memes up all over Facebook about how they are no longer going to drink that beer. Which is fine. But their distributors are sticking with them, because they know that the drop in sales will only be temporary. Anheuser-Busch is a monster company and they can handle the short term hit in sales. People don’t get it. Even if you had a million or two million boycott a company, sure the drop in sales would be unfortunate, but there would still be over 324 million people to market to in the U.S. . 

Fox News recently fired Tucker Carlson. Some say he left on his own accord. Either way it doesn’t matter, cause Fox News will be just fine without him. People all over up in arms over Tucker leaving Fox. Claiming it’ll be the end of Fox News because they’ll no longer be watching the News Channel. Forget about the conspiracy theories of it all. None of that matters. What matters, and the biggest point I’m attempting to make, is that we are currently in unchartered territory. Territory where our sheer volume of population has exceeded our relevance. Our outcry, our dismays, our voices of distain or disapproval mean less; and they will continue to mean less as the population grows. 

These are massive companies. Companies bigger than any that the world has ever known. Huge portfolios with massive Market share and an insane amount of assets.

You wonder why the government and major corporations don’t seem to care about you? It’s because they don’t. Why should they? Even if you and a million of your friends got together and decided a boycott, it wouldn’t amount to a fart in the wind in any permanence. 

But hey, you can still boycott. I’m not suggesting you can’t. I’m just saying that as of today, your efforts in boycotting to make your feelings known may end up similar to the boycotts of Levi’s, Target, Nike and Disney…all of which suffered a small drop in revenue but still remain just as solvent today.

Copyright©2023 Jacob C. Larson All Rights Reserved

***I don’t mean to be so doomsday. I just fail to see the value or marked results of some of the supposed boycotts that I’ve seen. It would appear that the only people of late that seem to truly suffer from the latest boycotts have been the consumers themselves. Consumers that in an effort to voice their displeasure end up simply going without a product or service they enjoy. The government doesn’t suffer; we do. The corporations don’t suffer; we do. That just seems to be the common theme. So what point is there in boycotting something unless there are MILLIONS willing to boycott it with you? 

****We need double digits, folks. We need tens of millions of people that are willing to give up a product or service. We need a massive response that dominates headlines for months. Then and only then, will we see marked changes in how our governments and corporations behave. The concept of actually having that seems laughable as I even write it. Considering the fact that it’s near impossible to get a dozen people in agreement to show up at the latest movie, let alone for something as marked as a cultural change. 

*****This is end game. Check Mate. We live under the guise of having a voice, that we matter; but in the scheme of things we don’t. We post signs claiming, “Every vote counts”, but politicians have known for a long time now that it doesn’t. Our only hope of surviving a global collective and group think is our continued striving for independence. Even then…the die has been cast. The Beast has risen.