Think It Over Thurs: Company loyalty

Today’s question isn’t completely homeschool or parenting-related, although it can be. I want to know about the reasons why you would change companies for any product or service, be it for parents or for anything else.

The reason I ask this is because I’m a pretty conscious shopper when it comes to finding out what my money supports. It’s almost impossible to buy things today without going against your values. For example, Hobby Lobby, Papa John’s, Domino’s and so many other huge chains support causes (such as denying birth control to employees or fighting gay marriage) that are opposite my values. I know that I don’t want the money I earn to go towards these causes, so I avoid spending money at these locations. The list seems to grow rather than shrink, however. I’m not sure if it’s because more companies are becoming conservative or because we are getting more information about companies, though I suspect the latter.

I have friends who say that you can’t stop companies or CEOs from supporting who they want and it is their right to do so, and that’s a good point. I will argue that you can stop them, though, because it’s happened with Target (gay marriage) and Loreal (animal testing) and even Girl Scouts cookies (palm oil). My point is that the cash register is where we cast our ballots every day, and I think that those ballots count even more than the ones we cast on Election Day.

So here’s a more specific question: knowing that ATT gets more than $10 million per year for giving the CIA our personal phone records, does it make you want to switch providers? What makes you want to leave a company, aside from crappy customer service?

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia