'They've lost my trust': consumers shun companies as bosses kowtow to Trump
Source: The Guardian
‘They’ve lost my trust’: consumers shun companies as bosses kowtow to Trump
Americans are using their wallet to hurt where it matters – including during Friday’s planned ‘economic blackout’
Lauren Aratani in New York and Guardian community team
Fri 28 Feb 2025 11.00 GMT
Last modified on Fri 28 Feb 2025 14.58 GMT
In late January, Lauren Bedson did what many would likely find unthinkable: she cancelled her Amazon Prime membership. The catalyst was Donald Trump’s inauguration. Many more Americans are planning to make similar decisions this Friday.
Bedson made her move after seeing photos of Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder, sitting with other tech moguls and billionaires, including Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Google’s Sundar Pichai, just rows behind Trump at his inauguration.
“I just couldn’t stand to see them so cowardly,” Bedson, of Camas, Washington, told the Guardian. “I lived in Seattle for over a decade. I was a fan of Amazon for a long time, I think they have a good product. But I’m just so disgusted. I don’t want to give these billionaire oligarchs any more of my money.”
It’s a sentiment that many Americans have been feeling since Trump entered the White House. Companies and business leaders who were once passive or vocally critical of Trump are now trying to cozy up to him, leading consumers to question the values of the brands they used to trust. A recent Harris poll found that a quarter of American consumers have stopped shopping at their favorite stores because of shifting political stances.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2025/feb/28/trump-consumer-protests-companies
Alternate link: https://www.yahoo.com/news/ve-lost-trust-consumers-shun-110008169.html
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