By: Julie Kelemen
Many Goods users have been there: You have to make a major purchase. Now. It can’t wait. Maybe new tires or a dead dishwasher replacement or a company that has cheaper auto insurance. So, you turn to your trusty Goods Unite Us app to see whose political spending aligns with your values.
Bad news: No brand/company aligns with your values.
What’s a politically conscientious consumer to do? Hold your nose and choose a stinker?
Maybe. But don’t give up yet.
“Our recommendation is always to create market pressure to achieve whatever ends the consumer wants,” says Ian Woods, GUU’s Chief Operating Officer. “So in the case of industries that all [politically] donate in a way you don’t want, pick whichever firm is the least bad.”
That option of course isn’t ideal, but Woods recommends: “Tell the business why you picked them.” He also says, “Tell the brands you rejected why you did so. Tell others of your experience too.”
Some industries often blush beet red: Ones that secure and process raw materials (e.g. rubber, oil, mining) mostly funnel political dollars to Republican candidates and efforts. Look up oil companies and tire manufacturers and see. There’s more variety in the political leanings of business the further removed they are from hands-on raw materials work. For example, retail stores, entertainment and service-oriented businesses show a wider variety of political support that runs the full political spectrum from blue to red and even the rarer green rating given to those who spend no money in politics.
Woods, who has degrees in economics and business, says, “Why some industries all lean in one direction is an interesting question worth a series of blogs. The why is complicated, and being in a particular kind of company doesn’t necessarily cause them to lean a particular way.”
So how’s this play out in real life?
‘Twas the Sunday before Christmas 2024.
Next day a reporter would drive 8 hours or more…
Seriously: She’d soon drive from Michigan to her hometown, St. Louis, for the holidays. It’d be wise to get the car’s systems checked out. Make sure the six-year-old RAV4 was fit to set sail.
Most auto shops are closed Sundays. Wisconsin-based Blain’s Farm & Fleet is a regional chain of big box stores. Most are open Sundays, including their auto service departments. She’d used Farm & Fleet auto service shops for 20 years with no trouble.
But GUU had no listing for them. So, she emailed Goods Unite Us and asked them to add Farm & Fleet (which they’ve now done). And she risked it.
Then came news that was one part bad, one part good – old, worn tires. It would take unexpected time and dollars to remedy that, but best to know and remedy that before the trip. Made sense: Car had the same tires as when she bought it three years earlier.
The store sells seven tire brands. One has to align with my values, she thought. Each one entered on the GUU app leaned beet red. She chose a brand Consumer Reports recommended and resigned herself to politically tainted tires.
The trip to St. Louis and back passed without incident. Long afterward, she further researched a tire-buyer’s options and learned that despite the dozens of tire brands out there, most sold in the US are made by just three companies, and only one of those is headquartered in the US (Goodyear). Most of those dozens of brands are subsidiaries bought out by current the Big Three – Goodyear, Bridgestone and Michelin.
Meet today’s globalization. In this scenario, as in many where retail consumer goods are concerned, finding corporate political leanings feels like the experience of Hansel & Gretel lost in the forest with few breadcrumbs. Thankfully, there’s always something to be done.