JAMES FREEMAN: BOYCOTTING HOME DEPOT?
https://www.wsj.com/articles/boycotting-home-depot-11562960186
Seems like it’s getting easier every day to enrage a segment of politically active Americans. Witness the current effort to boycott Home Depot because of co-founder Bernie Marcus’ comments about President Donald Trump.
Boycotts are a great way to express customer displeasure and influence corporate decision-making. Such voluntary action by consumers to enforce market discipline is infinitely superior to government regulatory discipline, which is conducted in the name of consumers but inevitably reduces their freedom to make choices.
As for Home Depot, there’s nothing wrong with consumers deciding not to shop there. But in applying their new Marcus standard, such consumers may have trouble finding anywhere in America where they can shop. Here’s how Mr. Marcus triggered the latest political backlash against a U.S. business with a recent interview in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
In the course of describing how he plans to donate nearly all of his multi-billion-dollar fortune to charity—and also reflecting on the roughly $2 billion he’s already given to organizations concerned with the treatment of autism and traumatic brain injuries, among other causes—the Home Depot co-founder also mentioned that he planned to support President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign.
That was enough to light up social media with calls for shoppers to abandon Home Depot, even though Mr. Marcus hasn’t worked there in more than 15 years. It’s true that he remains a significant shareholder, but a closer look at his comments reveals that he was hardly offering an unqualified endorsement of Mr. Trump.
“He’s got a businessman’s common sense approach to most things,” said Mr. Marcus of the President, adding: “Now, do I agree with every move that he makes? No, I don’t. But the truth is he has produced more than anybody else. He has. If we look at this country, I would say that we are better off today than we were eight years ago or six years ago.”
In the Journal-Constitution interview, Mr. Marcus elaborated on Mr. Trump’s flaws: “I’ll tell you what he has not done well: His communication sucks. I mean he takes on every battle. He’s fighting. He does things he shouldn’t be doing. … As president of the United States, I’d rather him do things that are meaningful.”
Perhaps vindicating the Marcus critique while simultaneously coming to the defense of the Home Depot co-founder, Mr. Trump tweeted this week:
A truly great, patriotic & charitable man, Bernie Marcus, the co-founder of Home Depot who, at the age of 90, is coming under attack by the Radical Left Democrats with one of their often used weapons. They don’t want people to shop at those GREAT stores because he contributed….
….to your favorite President, me! These people are vicious and totally crazed, but remember, there are far more great people (“Deplorables”) in this country, than bad. Do to them what they do to you. Fight for Bernie Marcus and Home Depot!
To sum up, Mr. Marcus questioned the President’s communication skills and wisdom in choosing political fights while crediting him with enacting policies that have contributed to American prosperity. Good luck finding a home-improvement chain or any other kind of public company in the U.S. where at least some executives or shareholders don’t share this view. It’s more or less the consensus in American business.
Forget business. This is essentially the consensus among all U.S. voters who tend to express negative feelings about Mr. Trump personally but consistently give him a positive approval rating on his handling of economic policy.
Some of the angry activists this week were urging shoppers to visit Home Depot rival Lowe’s. But if it’s the Marcus financial support of the President’s campaign that really irks the boycott crowd, they may be disappointed to learn that people affiliated with Lowe’s also write checks to Republicans.
The Journal-Constitution notes that in Georgia, where Home Depot is based, a number of Democrats aren’t on board with the boycott:
“The whole reason for the boycott off the top is stupid. There are thousands of employees around the country who could be hurt by this,” said state Sen. Elena Parent, D-Atlanta.
Nationwide, perhaps Americans are less polarized and more tolerant than a consumer of social media might think. Judging by the results of the latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, Americans are getting more tolerant, for example, of our duly-elected President. In just the last month, the percentage of registered voters saying that Congress has enough evidence to begin impeachment hearings has fallen to 21% from 27%.
Pro-impeachment shoppers are going to have trouble finding a hardware store where everyone agrees with them.
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