National Black Friday Boycott of Companies Enabling Trump’s Assault on Democracy, Now Through December 1.
Photo: weaintbuyingit. org
The We Ain’t Buying It campaign is calling for a national pause in purchasing from major corporations that are enabling the Trump administration. The targets of the campaign are Amazon, Home Depot, and Target. The campaign asks the following.
- Full Black Out: Don’t buy anything from Amazon, Home Depot or Target stores during this week. Use the time and money to connect with those you love, and rediscover what matters.
- Redirect Spending: Skip the companies undermining democracy. Shop small, local, or with businesses affirming our humanity.
- Join the Movement: Pledge to be a conscious consumer.
- Amplify: Spread the word. Share the message in conversation and online. Use and share the campaign’s Toolkit: Get the word out about this economic action to hit the billionaire’s pockets where it hurts.
The Targets
Amazon: Amazon holds a monopolistic position in the market, contributes to dangerous working conditions for its employees and drivers, and CEO Jeff Bezos has donated over $1 million to this administration.
Home Depot: Home Depot is allowing ICE agents to illegally detain and kidnap laborers from their stores. The laborers in our communities are not able to look for work safely.
Target: Target has rolled back their DEI initiatives, which included ending programs that help Black employees advance, cutting financial support for Black-Owned businesses, and removing LGBTQ+ products from their stores.
Rationale
The 50501 Movement writes about the effectiveness of boycotts:
Without you walking through their doors, clicking “add to cart,” or swiping a card, they don’t have a “holiday strategy.” They have a spreadsheet with a panic attack. No profits, bonus checks, soaring stock price or spare cash to funnel to politicians who think your rights are optional. And this five-day stretch? It’s not a cute shopping tradition.
This is the Super Bowl of their entire year.
Last year, the National Retail Federation expected about 186.9 million people to shop from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, the biggest turnout on record, and Adobe Analytics reported over $41 billion in online spending across those five days. Similar levels are expected again this year.
How Boycotts Work
Successful boycotts don’t just tap a company’s wallet. They go for reputation.
Brands run on trust.
And trust is what makes a mom pick one store over another, a grandpa renew a membership, a friend tells her sisters, “Don’t give them a dime.”
Recent research finds that consumer boycotts are no longer rare events, a 2025 review estimates that around 42% of multinational corporations and 54% of prominent brands have faced consumer boycott actions. Boycotts have become a normal, modern tool of public accountability.
So what separates boycotts that fizzle out from boycotts that force change?
- Clear target
One company. One reason. One simple demand.
Confusion is the enemy of momentum. (This is part of why we succeeded with Disney/Jimmy Kimmel, we had one collective objective) - Easy substitutes
If people can switch without suffering, participation elevates significantly.
The moment the alternative feels doable, the boycott becomes social. - Sustained pressure
One-day blackouts are warning shots. Long boycotts create risk markets can’t ignore. - Public visibility
Headlines, viral posts, neighbors talking, this is what makes executives nervous.
Reputational damage is a stock-price language they understand fluently.
Want a modern proof-of-concept?
The Bud Light boycott showed how this works: once people had an easy substitute, sales fell sharply, about a 26% drop in U.S. off-premise sales early in the boycott and the brand lost its #1 market position, falling behind Modelo and Michelob Ultra. Not because Bud Light stopped existing but because consumers stopped choosing it.
Read More
Black Friday and Boycotts (50501 on Substack)
Find a longer list of companies supporting Trump’s anti-democratic agenda and how they are doing it. Includes the following sections:
- The Ice Deportation Machine: Who’s Cashing Checks to Fly Deportations? (
- The Detention Profiteers: Who Gets Richer Every Time ICE Needs More Beds
- The Surveillance Tech Enablers: The Quiet Companies Making ICE Faster, Cheaper, and Harder to See.
- The Retailers Enabling Ice Raids: Where Raids Meet Your ReceiptsThe Buycott: Where Your Dollars Can Go
Read about the Starbucks Boycott (see also here, here, and here).
Find a Listing of active boycotts here.