By Alice Shu and Edwin Kuo
This is a story about disappointment, bewilderment, and ultimately enlightenment. It begins with a simple shopping excursion to Urban Outfitters and a lunchtime conversation.
After a quick trip to Urban Outfitters, Alice joined Edwin for lunch. He was enjoying a bottle of Bolthouse Farms when she informed him this smoothie company was anti-LGBT rights, donating money towards Proposition 8 in California. Disappointed, he commented, “Well that’s unfortunate,” as he would now feel guilty about continuing to support this brand.
The next day, Edwin sent Alice a link about Urban Outfitters stealing designs from crafters and artists, and also financing a campaign against gay equality. Other retail stores that cater to more liberal and progressive consumers (Target, Whole Foods, and Trader Joes to name a few) are also guilty of such: donating to anti-LGBT campaigns, opposing universal health care, and not paying their employees a cost-of-living wage, respectively. On the other side of the corporate retail spectrum is Wal-Mart: a retailer founded on traditional/conservative values that has been accused of using sweatshop labor and putting local mom & pop stores out of business. Recently, the company has made significant steps towards sustainability by offering organic foodstuffs to its customers. Additionally, Wal-Mart is requiring their suppliers to begin following eco-friendly and sustainability practices.
This began a discussion about corporate transparency: should we, as patrons, be informed to where our money is going? It is up to the discretion of corporations, especially those privately held, to donate wherever and to whomever they please. Consumers should know what political alignments companies hold, particularly ones that market themselves as liberal and progressive to attract such an audience. Of course a company has the right to cater towards a specific market, but how would the typical Urban Outfitters customer react if they knew the truth behind the company? Does the truth matter? Would it matter one bit if retailers were more transparent about their political alignment and social agenda? Do people like you and I really want to make informed decisions about where we shop, in order to continue or discontinue our brand loyalty?
By staying in the dark about where their generated revenue from our wallets is going, companies allow themselves the flexibility to point towards the market that will make then the most money. Is this a sustainable business model for the 21st Century? Do we accept this deception? Ironically, Wal-Mart has emerged as the evil conservative Death Star company to one that is following a triple-bottom-line philosophy. Perhaps we should make it easier on ourselves and simply surrender and shop exclusively at Wal-Mart.
One Comment on "Is Knowledge Power and Do We Really Care?"
This isn’t truly about deception. I think it’s plainly visible for an interested consumer to find out this information as both the authors of this article did: by reading. None of these details are hidden; if they were, one could not find them out without much difficulty. And you both seem to be well informed. Private companies are like private individuals — without the requirement to disclose financial details. If you want to look at dysfunctional and possibly unethical practices, look no further than most privately-held fashion labels.
It’s fair to assume the general public is not interested, otherwise there would be more effort to “know your favorite brands” beyond the image. For example, AT&T, among other public companies, donates a sizable amount of money annually to the Republican Party. Should the AT&T iPhone users who are Democrats, Independents, or those just opposed to corporations donating to political parties drop their iPhone contract and probably pay the Termination Fee in protest? These are all questions for individuals to answer. And none of the facts are hidden from those who care to find out.
Truly, it is time consuming to really know what’s what. But I find it curious that Bolthouse is anti-gay and that it has countered its brand, company values or image. I hadn’t thought about them in any way but as a juice maker. And since I find their political view offensive, I’ll stop buying it.
But does the company care? Should it care that I disagree with them and my purchases are now nil? And how should Bolthouse tell us of their political views? Should they take out an ad in the NY Times or just put it in an annual report or just let news coverage tell the public like so many other details. there are groups like Move On and Color of Change and PIRG, to name a very few, that are dedicated to publicizing such details.
I just don’t think anything newly sinister is going on. It’s just business and politics mixing as it has been for decades.