Interesting

[dancerjodi]

Tisana and I were talking about this at Diesel last Thursday - the moral implications (or not?) of Curves:

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/magazine/articles/2005/06/19/sweating_with_the_enemy/

And Tisana, the organization I was trying to remember from being super vocal at the March last year was Operation Rescue . . .

Related, I never knew about the Dominos owner and his political leanings. Are there any other large companies in this boat (besides Coors, who the article mentions) that you're aware of?

Comments

[slickgothgurl.livejournal.com]

i found that there's a Curves right next to p's work. like, super convenient for me. but i will not join due to their anti-abortion stance. i tried to tell my sister and grannie about it, but they don't really care much. they go 4 times a week in their town. i guess it's all a matter of what you stand for/behind. just like i will never buy gilette products due to the fact that they continue to test their products on animals.

i knew about the dominoes owner as well as Coors. these two are a non-issue for p and i since we hate their pizza and beer ;) as for other companies, you can check out the buy blue (http://www.buyblue.org/rankedlist.php) site for the breakdown of red/blue companies and what they stand behind/support. curves, dominoes, and (surprisingly) bestbuy are all on the "red" company list.

[lachesis.livejournal.com]

I find it realy amusing that Starbucks is on the "blue" list, because so many people complain about them around here. :)

thanks for the link! interesting.

[slickgothgurl.livejournal.com]

i hate starbucks. what do people complain about?

you're welcome for the link. it's kind of old (came out during election time) but still useful. i'm just sad that Michaels crafts is on the "red" list. i love that crafty goodness!

[dancer.livejournal.com]

"i hate starbucks. what do people complain about?"

Them putting small mom and pop type places out of business. The same reason some complain about Wallmart and Home Depot :)

I'm amazed to see General Motors on the Red list. I think of them as very working class/detroit/hard hit by economic times (i.e. I'd guess them to be mroe blue than Red).

Now they just need to alphabetize that list for easier parusal :)

[slickgothgurl.livejournal.com]

oh yes, i agree. i don't like the fact that SB is taking over. and i also hate wal-mart with a passion. although i DID give in and go there when i visited my mom last month. we were able to stock up on 1.5 months of groceries for a mere $73!

GM doesn't surprise me much. seems like those places that are most hard hit are in the red zones. so it kind of makes sense. i mean, GM is cutting thousands of jobs while advertising "get your car at the employee discount price". so yeah, that doesn't surprise me that GM is in the red column.

[slickgothgurl.livejournal.com]

i should say i hate SB because i don't like their coffee...i don't like the taste :)

[nepenthedreams]

Yeah, Starbucks is great. They buy organic shade-grown fair-trade coffee much of the time (I was at one of the plantations that sells primarily to Starbucks last week), plus locally-made baked goods (I think), and they do a lot of recycling, plus the employees are treated fairly well.

I wonder how good or bad Target is?

[isolatory.livejournal.com]

I haven't purchased a Dominos pizza since 1991, the year I learned about their support of operation rescue.

I haven't missed it 1 bit.

This (http://www.snopes.com/business/alliance/curves.asp) says Carls Jr. is a big supporter too, but that chain doesn't have any franchises here AFAIK. Big in the Pacific NW though.

[canongrrl.livejournal.com]

I know MBNA gives tons of cash to republicans (something like 90% of their political contributions) and a lot of those that receive the cash are in the pocket of the religious right. Murdock and Fox (and direct TV) also typically support an anti woman/anti poor agenda...Wendy's used to give to lots of questionable charities, a la dominoes, but I don't know if thats still the case since Dave died. I'm ignoring everything I've read about Chik a Fil since I love their chicken.

There was a website that detailed who your corporation gives to...

on the flipside, Microsoft is pretty good, Abbott Labs, Starbucks....I need to check exactly who Target gives to, but I am pretty sure they are very good. Whole foods to an extent (they do have some questionable business practices), Shaw's is at least good with the quality of its products (they support sustainable fishing for example) and I beleive Home Depot is way better then Lowes as far as sustainable products and charitable giving go.

[julishka.livejournal.com]

wholefoods has questionable business practices? (i hadn't heard...) i do know they're known to treat their employees very very well.

i think the quality of shaws foods has plummeted since they came into the area. star was way way better.
but that's a discussion on an entirely different topic.

[canongrrl.livejournal.com]

re shaw's - I totally agree about it being less then Star, but as far as fish goes (and I don't buy fish there for other reasons) they at least try to buy from sustainable supplies (at least as far as Collapse by Jared Diamond goes). Still, I don't see myself ever buying fish from Shaw's.

And whole foods, I think the quality of Bread and Circus was way better. The big beefs with whole foods go with thier desire to say close the co op in central since it competes directly with them and the not so good ways they present some of their in house products (ie letting you think something is organic when it isn't). And they do have a high markup for the same produce as say a shaw's (they have very little organic produce there anymore, which was one of the main reasons I went there)

In general though, I like whole foods, I should have used better wording as some of it may be questionable, but on the whole, they are better then most supermarkets. Especially when it comes to community outreach and employees.

[julishka.livejournal.com]

the markup of wholefoods is huge. but wrt bread and circus vs. wholefoods, just remember that the signage change came way way after wholefoods bought them. b+c were wholefoods-owned at least 5, maybe 6 years before they changed their branding -- before the fresh pond store was built, even.

[canongrrl.livejournal.com]

good point. hmmm then I wonder when/why the organic produce began to disappear? Now I'm curious.

And the buyout was that long ago? I could have swore it was after the fresh pond store was open, not long after, but after.

[julishka.livejournal.com]

they don't sell organic anymore? wholefoods, that is? i'm confused. or if you're talking shaws, it could be that the change in organic regulations where everything has to be super separate changed things shaws-wide.

[canongrrl.livejournal.com]

whoefoods. and this predates the new regulations...over say the past 5 years, the amount of "convential" produce has crept up until now I'd say 85+% of the produce is convential (whatever that means). I know the new organic regulations came into affect a little bit ago, but even given that the drop off has been dramatic. Not to mention the confusing signage/story boarding of the local farmers (which, if they using local farmers, then losing the organic tag is ok, simply label the produce as locally grown and I'll be happy (since most local farmers can't afford the fees involved in calling themselves "organic" even if they are. Thank you W).

And if you read the back of some of their prepared stuff, its not looking all that whole and organic to me. Aside from their sausage...cause their meat and fish is first rate.

[slickgothgurl.livejournal.com]

i agree with the meat and fish comment. i can no longer buy meats from star/shaws/stop and shop. it's like eating jerky, it's so tough. wholefoods meats and fish are awesome. and i noticed the same thing about their produce. i mean, i can get the same nectarines at shaws for much cheaper. i should ask my fiance about the produce thing, since he works at the WF at symphony.

[canongrrl.livejournal.com]

when you find out, let me know as I'm very curious about that

[slickgothgurl.livejournal.com]

sure, no problem. i'll ask him tonight as he's at work right now.

[julishka.livejournal.com]

i've put in a question to my source at corporate. if he remembers (he's also a musician...you know how they are) to get back to me, he said he'd ask the produce buyer/manager guy there. he asked which wholefoods we were talking about (i mentioned our discussion in the abstract), but since i was thinking of fresh pond and your old abode, i didn't think to mention river street (i always forget about that one). which one do you go to?

[canongrrl.livejournal.com]

fresh pond, river street and prospect. But I think the same holds true for the two in Newton as well.

[julishka.livejournal.com]

maybe it was when star started wild harvest (which was all one thing before the separate stores separated and became wild oats)? it was their direct attempt to have a conventional store w/in the whole food store concept. so yeah, you got your organic this and that, your small farm this and that, but could also grab that bottle of Diet Coke or the basic frozen stuff or some campbells soup. honestly, i thought that concept rocked. was very sad when wild oats phased it out of the pre-existing stores such as the medford one.

now i have to do my shopping at three, maybe four different supermarkets - especially when i'm cooking for others: shaws, wf, w.oats, trader joes.

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

home depot is the walmart of hardware, and they drug test too. a lot of "won't shop there because of political stance folx" i know won't go near the place, and support local hardware chains.

pretty much any company that's got a [national] chain, is going to be doing something that someone doesn't like. battles are chosen one by one.

#

[canongrrl.livejournal.com]

all too true. I'm not sure how I feel about drug testing, but I know how I feel about sustainable goods, and that's something Lowe's isn't even paying lip service to. Having said that, yes places like Tags are my prefered places and I do try to shop at smaller stores when possible, but sometimes its very very hard (though I will never shop at a walmart/sams ever as they truly are the most evil chain around. I'm looking forward to the murdock/wal mart clash over dvds and I truly hope they destroy each other. But I digress :).

Hardware

[dancer.livejournal.com]

"Having said that, yes places like Tags are my prefered places and I do try to shop at smaller stores when possible, but sometimes its very very hard"

But I'm guessing Tags can't provide a truck bed full of drywall (or that type of thing). Home Depot has had great appeal to the do-it-your selfer due to convenience and price. At the same time they've put a lot of small hardware stores out of business. I can't tell you how many times I've wished Mass Hardware was still in business around the corner from us. They were expensive, and had awful customer service, but sometimes you just don't want to have to drive across the city for a bag of nails, you know?

Along these lines I'm reading an interesting book right now RE responsible consumerism . . . be on the lookout in my journal for a review soon :)

[jasonsmyr.livejournal.com]

The article presumes one thing.. you KNOW that curves has been giving money to anti-abortion groups..

I had no idea.. of course being male would not go to Curves.. but how many companies do you know the political stance of?

[dionysia.livejournal.com]

Well, the article did provide factual information about what organizations (namely pregnancy crisis centers) to which the Heavins have donated...

Or was that not your comment?

[jasonsmyr.livejournal.com]

the story starts off with this
if getting fit also means enriching a millionaire who donates to antiabortion groups, why is Curves sweeping across New England with the force of a blizzard? Thousands of Massachusetts women are facing the question of health versus choice. How will they reconcile the personal with the political?

What I ment was.. How many members of Curves know that the company the are 'giving' money to supports a cause that might be against their own personal choice in causes.

And in general.. how many people know about what causes a company they buy stuff from supports?

[tisana.livejournal.com]

True, it's mostly stuff you hear from friends who may be more of an activist than you are.

The right-wing does it too, of course, and I found myself horrified that they'd do that, then realized I was doing the same thing--actively not supporting those whose values I couldn't agree with. Boycott Ford (http://www.boycottford.com/boycottford.asp) exists because they supposedly support the "homosexual agenda"--now, had I not had that passed on to me, I wouldn't have started to respect Ford just a bit more...

[jasonsmyr.livejournal.com]

There is much bigger can-o-worms than just Curves supporting.. wonder if there should be some rules about public posting of corporate donations..

but would that even help.. I mean.. how many of those donations were given in name of Curves.. or just the private citizen that is the owner of the company..

it is frustratrating in general..

[julishka.livejournal.com]

if a company is publicly owned, they are required to have available their corporate tax returns. it is possible to look them up at various and sundry foundation libraries, wrt their corporate giving. i don't know how one goes about requesting them otherwise, as i've not done that (but have browsed through returns at a foundation library before).

annual reports touch on what they give, and other corporate papers have that information. usually, if you call a company and just ask, they'll tell you who/what charities or types of giving they support.

[dionysia.livejournal.com]

I know that the whole Curves controversy was pretty big in what snopes calls the 'inboxer outrage' phenomenon.

[deadwinter.livejournal.com]

This is why I can't give money to Dominos anymore, convenient and tasty as they are.

[canongrrl.livejournal.com]

tasty and dominoes should never be used in the same sentence. There are many many better pizzas out there. In fact I'm hard pressed to think of a worse pizza...maybe some microwave jobby...

Pino's should deliver to you. And if I recall, Pizza Ring was decent as well.

[deadwinter.livejournal.com]

I liked their Philly Cheesteak one...now please don't kill me.

I don't have a Pizza Ring nearby, I don't think. Now, the Pizza Ring on Western Ave in Cambridge was decent, no doubt.

And Pino's? I'll have to check that.

When I lived in Raleigh I developed a strange addiction to Papa Johns...should give that a shot sometime.

[canongrrl.livejournal.com]

I thought there was a pizza ring on the street with wolf's lighting...by your house, near the model bar or some such

[deadwinter.livejournal.com]

it was, tis gone now. Used to be a combination pizza/chilean fast food. It was good, but not as good as Cambridge's.

They got busted for taxes, I think. Now there is a new pizza place there.

Pinos

[dancer.livejournal.com]

There aren't a lot of them. Amazingly enough, there is one in Waltham (DW, its who we ordered from last year on our painting night - so you've probably tried them before - albeit after the pizza got cold and was sitting for a bit).

My favorite of theirs: Chicken bacon and ranch :)

[tisana.livejournal.com]

It's strange, I've used it as an excuse never to join, but the fact is Curves works for many women, and I'm not going to judge them for that being a priority. In fact, I could even respect their supporting a cause they believe in, if it wasn't one so lawless and potentially violent as Operation Rescue (unless I'm misinformed, they're the ones that try to injure abortion doctors). I can't get behind that.

I can't think of any others, but the comments have got some useful links.

[developer.livejournal.com]

I was bummed about the coors thing as they distribute two great beers that I no longer drink:

Killian's Irish Red and Blue Moon. Both are tasty cost effective micro-brew-esque beers.

People often don't realize that just because something doesn't say COORS or WALMART or DOMINOS right on the front it is still the same company.

[dancer.livejournal.com]

"People often don't realize that just because something doesn't say COORS or WALMART or DOMINOS right on the front it is still the same company."

Definitely! I was sad to hear some bad things about Old Navy's practices. Then I found out they were owned by the same company as the Gap (who I haven't purchased things from for years). No! They are the only store that's got jeans that fit my weird lower body :/

[slickgothgurl.livejournal.com]

gap, old navy, and banana republic are all the same company.

[julishka.livejournal.com]

yup, and gap is the corporate identity that the rest are subsidaries of/owned by/whatever. also add in to that mix, country road australia - if they even exist anymore?