Dan Wilbur
Companies are people, my friends. And like people, some make honest mistakes. Others, however, are sociopaths who will do anything to get ahead in the world. The brands on this list deserve to be shunned for their dubious ethical choices.
Reddit is on top of which companies need to be shunned and at which you should still yell “shut up and take my money!” I’ve collected a number of people’s submissions and dug deep into why these businesses need to be chastised. Are they poisoning the water supply? Are they weirdly racist? Do they pay their employees enough? Do they try to destroy unions before they’re created? Yes. All of these things are true of Walmart. But, this isn’t about my opinion. It’s about the Internet’s opinion.
Here are the companies whose ethical behavior is costing them customers:
1. Ticketmaster
Submitted by Spaventoo. Over 26,000 people agree.
Ticketmaster (or “TicketBastard” according to many) has a monopoly on most concerts and sporting events. They team up with big arenas and other venues and set the ticket prices for the artists whether they like it or not.
Apparently, this led to bands like Pearl Jam testifying before Congress in 1994. They wanted to let their fans see them for a ticket price under $20, but Ticketmaster insisted on adding high service fees. Their exclusive 3-5 year contracts with big venues made it impossible to use any other ticket service if the band wanted to play a certain venue. Pearl Jam often set up their own stages out of town in the interest of their fans. Though the Department of Justice investigated the antitrust claims, Ticketmaster won, and we are living with the result. Don’t get me started on Stubhub.
2. Nestlé
Mmmm. Chocolate. And water. And… baby food? How big is this company?
Chocolate, in general, is a minefield when it comes to ethical corporate behavior. The beans have to come from a specific part of the world, and not every place is equal when it comes to fairness. For instance, The Ivory Coast makes 40% of its wealth from cocoa, but the average farmer gets 97 cents.
Then, Netlé pops in to get in on the game. You guessed it, they use child slaves. As if low pay and abuse of child labor, weren’t enough, the company also said “water” isn’t a human right and started bottling their own for profit. Hard to boycott them, however. They own a lot of different things.
2,000 people agree with OutsideSpring‘s post.
3. Wish
I was not familiar with this app until I read this Reddit post, but Vox reported on the bizarre discount shopping software. Mostly, it relies on what you click to generate more stuff to show you that you might like to purchase. Except, instead of showing you the best stuff based on your browsing history, it shows you adult diapers and discount butt plugs.
Where the unethical part comes in: they’re selling people dollar store-level crap and knockoffs, so it feels like a borderline scam. They also steal other artists’ designs and resell them in a cheaper, sadder form.
Submitted by thiqq_bell_peppers and 22,000 people agree it sucks.
4. Sinful Colors Nail Polish
“10+ years back my sister told me about how they took her friend’s nail art pictures and used them for marketing purposes. She asked them to either give her credit or take them down and they refused.”
–Different-Eggplant tipped us off and 6.4K people agree they suck.
Thievery is terrible, but wait until you find out that the nail polish is also tested on animals and not cruelty-free!
5. LuLaRoe
This fashion brand had to settle with Washington State for $4.75 million after a consumer protection lawsuit proved they were a pyramid scheme. The company convinced a ton of people to buy their products to sell to other people and overpromised by claiming some people had sold $150,000 of clothing in a single month. In the end, people paid around $20,000 of their own money for clothing they could not return. They suck.
Submitted by lil_nemo1 and 7,000 people agree.
6. Fashion Nova
“Fashion Nova is horrible. Fast fashion is a HUGE issue. They exploit workers overseas enduring horrible conditions for very little pay and they also significantly hurt the environment.”
–merlin1707 with 14.1K upvotes
7. Chiquita Bananas
“Chiquita Brands International because it’s the continuation of the infamous United Fruit Company. United Fruit Company is the company that engineered a massacre of striking workers in Colombia.”
–MurlocsNo1Stan added this info and 11,000 people agree.
If you didn’t know about this one, you’re not alone. I’m currently digesting on of their bananas as I write this. Not sure it’s worth it. The brand paid $1.7 million to a paramilitary death squad that killed union organizers in Columbia.
8. Facebook
Facebook touts 2.7 billion active users. I used it for promoting my free comedy shows and a few funny jokes. What you might not know (but probably do), however, is that it was also used to spread misinformation about everything from election fraud to vaccines to me being “happy” in my last relationship. It’s all a lie and they get carted before Congress all the time, and basically change nothing that doesn’t help their bottom line.
It’s a monopoly that promised to fix it’s frequent invasions of privacy, but never really changes.
Anonymous submission but we all agree. We’ll also keep using it.
9. Kylie Jenner
Forbes laughably called here a “self-made” billionaire (she’s a Kardashian), but one Reddit user had a lot more to say on the subject:
“Random one, but Kylie Jenner.
She exploited young fans by saying she didnt have fillers and looks like she has big lips from wearing lipstick and liner. Then sold Kylie lip kits to take advantage of self conscious girls wanting bigger lips, and seriously thinking that she hadn’t used filler.
She stole designs from smaller brands and used them for her own clothing, pretending her company made the designs.
Then her skincare is awful. Overpriced stuff that barely works, and the scrub will cause serious damage to your skin.
Another which some have commented on. She isn’t paying her workers in Bangladesh. She is taking advantage of desperate people in order to save money…when she is close to being a billionaire.
Overall she just exploits her fans for money. Nothing she does is actually as good as it is made out to be.
–DarkOfTheNight22 23K people agree
10. Lumber Liquidators
They use supposedly use endangered species of trees for their flooring. With a name like that, it has to be true. They also apparently, according to 60 Mintues, create toxic floors.
Thanks to SatanScotty we know now and 15.4 thousand people upvoted this calling out of a company.
11. The GAP
I will never forget when I was in the 4th grade, wearing a GAP kids tank top. A cool teenager told me that the GAP uses child labour and I just thought, “oh shit”. I’ve never bought anything from the GAP to this day.
–eholans and 1.7K people also know now
“For kids by kids” was the old Onion headline I believe. The company claims they may have unwittingly used child sweatshops.
12. Amazon
I’ve saved the best for last. In case you were unaware, Amazon workers all over the country are attempting to unionize over everything from racist hiring practices to not giving warehouse employees bathroom breaks, resulting in many workers peeing in water bottles at work.
Amazon knows about these various issues, including leaving an employee suffering from a heart attack to die on the floor, and rather than spend money to make working conditions better, they paid for anti-union Twitter accounts to speak out against unions. Anyway, same-day shipping is kinda cool. The solution is to fire all these people and replace them with drones. Then they can’t die while peeing in bottles.
Watch Nomadland and tell me it looks fun to work there.
