• KptnAutismus@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    SUPPORT. SMALL. BUSINESSES.

    you might not get very price competitive products, but these companies often still have the consumer in mind.

    small online shops, phone companies like fairphone (or even nokia), video streaming platforms like floatplane (dankpods is hilarious).

    voting with our wallets is pretty much all we can do.

    • jopepa@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Before you the only time I had heard people “say vote with your wallet”, were from right leaning family members who are now upset about “cancel culture”

      Even entertaining that cancel culture is a thing and not just a reductionist view of accountability in general, then what they’d be describing is voting with your dollar on a larger more organized scale.

      Pardon my tangent and I completely agree with you.

    • Cowbee [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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      11 months ago

      In addition to this, try to support co-operatives, unionized workplaces, and FOSS development! Even go out of your way to try to reject corporations as much as you can, reduce consumerism, and focus on local organization.

      All of these help Workers have more power and build up your community.

      • KptnAutismus@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        especially donate to FOSS devs whose software you’re using. even if it’s just a little bit. these people do it out of passion, and your donation will let them continue working on it.

        and definetely sign up for a worker’s union.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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        11 months ago

        Yeah, although I’m not sure why they’re calling Nokia a small business. They’re a publicly traded corporation and my searching tells me their revenue last year was $25 billion.

        • Mario_Dies.wav@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          11 months ago

          I was a bit surprised by that statement as well. When someone says “small business,” the first thing I think of is a mom and pop shop.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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            11 months ago

            I’m not sure about ‘online small business’ either. Most of the ones that are not actual corporations are selling via Amazon or eBay or Etsy, so you’re still supporting megacorporations. If you’re lucky, your town still has small businesses you can support with prices you can afford.

            And that last part is a big part of the problem. The person above says you might not get very price competitive products. When so many people live paycheck-to-paycheck, you have no choice but to get the most price competitive products.

            Consumers should not be shouldering the blame here.

            • Mario_Dies.wav@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              11 months ago

              I agree with you. Also, even small local businesses often support the systems that are at the root of the problem. I’m not going out of my way to shop at the local grocery store when the owners are actively harming my community by expressing and supporting all manner of bigotry.

              • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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                11 months ago

                At the farmers’ market in a nearby town, there’s a big to-do because a white supremacist farm opened a stall there and the farmers’ market is allowing it. It even resulted in a second farmers market forming. It’s ridiculous. They should kick the Nazis the fuck out of their farmers’ market.

                • Mario_Dies.wav@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                  11 months ago

                  It’s a really hard concept for some people that by inviting people like Nazis to the table, they are de facto excluding marginalized groups. For people not in one of these groups, I think it takes an effort to understand why that is.

                  • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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                    11 months ago

                    Around here, I feel like if you see someone dressed like they’re Mennonites (they dress like they’re Amish but use technology and the Amish aren’t traveling to downtown farmers’ markets), it’s probably a small farm.

            • KptnAutismus@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              i’m pretty much exclusively ordering stuff from “smaller” online shops that aren’t “mainstream”. i mainly find their products through an amazon link on duckduckgo, but order it on their website. it’s often way cheaper too.

              stuff like filament from esun’s store

              keychron keyboards on their own website instead of some reseller

              and occasionally a reseller, but then it’s usually otto, coolblue, notebooksbilliger, or similar websites. whichever have decent prices.

              buying stuff locally is literally impossible in most cases. many stores went insolvent long ago, and the ones still remaining have a 2x markup most of the time. if they even have it in stock.

              hobbyist shops might be possible to buy raw materials from, but (my niche of) PC accessories and 3d printing stuff ar hard to come by locally.

        • SonnyVabitch@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          I read it as

          small ones, or even bigger ones like Nokia

          So I think it’s not saying that Nokia is small, but that Nokia is not in the same category as the few big big corporations.

        • KptnAutismus@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          they’re very underrepresented in the phone market atm. the company behind it is huge, but the phones are very customer conscious.

          not a small business at all, but still.

    • chuckleslord@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Instant Pot. Great company, reliable products, going out of business because they didn’t fuck consumers. You can’t beat capitalism by playing the game. You have to break the game.