Are you thinking about braving the snow and taking advantage of those Black Friday shopping deals?
Be careful, because if you’re dedicated to animal rights, left-wing politics, income inequality, the environment, human rights or any other issue, holiday shopping (and regular shopping, for that matter) can be a political mine field.
Here’s a handy guide, based on a list compiled by Ethical Consumer and others, to make sure you’re not giving your hard-earned money to anyone you might think is evil.
Coffee
Before you even go shopping, you’re probably going to need coffee. But don’t get too excited about your tall, soy milk, peppermint mocha with no foam whipped cream and chocolate curls. Starbucks supposedly treats Ethiopian coffee farmers poorly and takes advantage of corporate tax breaks.
Clothing
Buying clothes for a family member or friend? Tread lightly.
If you’re buying new kicks, avoid Adidas, because they allegedly use kangaroo skin to make some of their shoes. But you should also probably avoid buying sneakers altogether — because, you know, slave labor.
Also avoid Burberry because it uses fur and H&M because it opened stores in Israel (oh, we’ll get to that in a minute).
You also need to boycott Gap, JCPenny, Kohl’s, Kmart, Lord and Taylor, Macy’s, New York and Company, Old Navy, Payless, Rack Room Shoes, Ross, Sears, Shoe Carnival, Target and of course Walmart.
Why? Mostly because these companies were open on Thanksgiving. And, of course, Walmart is Walmart.
Food
Hope you didn’t have cereal for breakfast — the minders recommend a boycott of Kellogg’s, which stands accused of using sugar from genetically modified plants.
Did you get hungry or thirsty while shopping for all those clothes? Best not to grab a Coke — according to its opponents, Coca-Cola has helped murder union officials and steal water. Don’t eat at Kentucky Fried Chicken because of animal cruelty. Don’t eat at Chick-fil-A, either, because of what the CEO thinks about homosexuality.
If you’re thinking of grabbing a snack while shopping, avoid Cadbury chocolate because they don’t pay enough in taxes for some progressives.
Sports equipment
Stay away from Dick’s Sporting Goods, Dunham’s Sports, Modell’s and Sports Authority. They stayed open on Thanksgiving.
Electronics
Don’t buy from Apple because of slave wages, Motorola because they provide service to the Israel Defense Forces, Nikon because it sells sights for rifles (which promotes hunting), or Nokia because it assisted Iran.
Entire populations
If you live in or shop from Alaska, Botswana, Canada, China, Israel or Japan, you should really just move. You’re cannot shop ethically in those places, because maybe you’ve hurt animals (Alaska, Canada and Japan), people (Botswana, China) or maybe you’re Israeli.
Whatever the reason, you’re not allowed to shop and no one’s allowed to shop from you. Just disappear, please.
Bottom line: If you want to hold the line on the causes you believe in, you should probably just never shop anywhere. You never know when someone at the top of a company might disagree with you in some way on some issue. If you’re the type to get so easily offended you’ll never shop at a store again, it’s probably better if you grow your own food and make your own clothes and other products.
