Principled stand, or a pain in the neck?
South African consumers seem to have little that unites them sufficiently to stir effective action
My boycott of a local store after a blazing row with the owner is now inconveniencing me somewhat, and I wondered recently whether I could get around it without sacrificing my principles. I am not alone when it comes to convenience trumping pretty much everything. Take Frankie's ginger beer. In 2012 the Advertising Standards Authority ruled Woolworths had ripped off the branding of this small company. Woolworths said this was not the case, but after the ASA ruling it pulled its retro cold drink range from the shelves, reports at the time said. This came up recently at a family lunch as we drank Frankie's, and shook our heads in dismay at this corporate malfeasance, while tucking into food that included ingredients bought at Woolworths. Get my point? Woolworths has had its fair share of sticky situations that have raised the ire of the twitterati, in many cases for good reason. But it doesn't seem to have hurt its bottom line.The boycott in 2014 by the Palestine-solidarity campaign B...
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