You Want My Business? Don't Be a Jerk.

I've been holding on to this for a while, but I feel like I need to say something.

At heart, I'm a boycotter. When something about a business ticks me off, I take personal action. About ten years ago or so, someone gave me a gift card to Wal-Mart. I already didn't like their business model and the way they treat their employees, so my plan was to go in, buy some socks, and recover the cash. Well, of course they don't do things that way (to be fair, neither do most businesses, which is why I hate gift cards) and they wouldn't give me cash back on my socks. So since that time I've boycotted them.

The power of the purse is important, but I really doubt any of the businesses or establishments I've boycotted feel the direct impact of my withholding business. But it makes me feel better about not supporting something that troubles me on a deeper level.

And sometimes my boycotts lead to some personal level of sacrifice, which makes me feel better, too. There is a place in town that serves pretty good coffee, and a mean reuben. And they no longer receive my business. It bums me out because I enjoyed their service very much until I could no longer support them on a moral level.

During the school year this year, my wife and her Sunshines were out for a walk. I'll spare the details of where the walk took them, but they were on the property of a local store, headed to where they were going. No one was loitering, no one was stealing, no one was vandalizing. The owner of the store physically accosted one of the students when he wasn't doing anything wrong. Now mind you, sometimes these kids do something wrong. Sometimes they are not the best-behaved kids. But this time they were minding their own business, getting from point A to point B. And one was physically assaulted by a grown up who should be able to control himself.

Unfortunately no charges were pressed, so it's not really a matter of public record, and being too specific might be viewed as slander. I'd love to make it a public crusade, because grown-ups should act like grown-ups, and bullies should be put in their places. But it does make me feel better to put this out there, as a cautionary tale: you do things I don't like, you lose my business.