By Mandy TaheriShareNewsweek is a Trust Project memberA coalition of groups, including 50501, is calling for a boycott of three major retailers during the peak holiday shopping stretch, as part of the "We Ain't Buying It" campaign from Thanksgiving through Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
The boycott targets companies that "We Ain't Buying It" says are reportedly “enabling this administration,” which it does not support.
"We want to ensure that we have clear targets for people, because this is about consumer power, it's not about guilt. If you want to buy something, buy locally! But not at these companies," Glo Sahay, a spokesperson for 50501, told Newsweek.
Why It Matters
Since President Donald Trump returned to office in January, protesters have held hundreds of demonstrations nationwide and launched boycotts of companies they say support his agenda, who donated to his inaugural fund, or scaled back diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies, among other initiatives.
Many of the protests and campaigns have been organized by the group "50 Protests, 50 States, One Movement," also known as 50501.
Adobe Analytics reported that consumers spent more than $41 billion online from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday last year. Nearly 200 million Americans shopped at some point during Thanksgiving weekend last year.
Boycotts are a form of protest that involves putting financial pressure on individuals or organizations and have contributed to progressive social change throughout history.
What Is the ‘We Ain't Buying It’ Protest?
The boycott campaign, which extends from November 27 to December 1, asks participants not to purchase anything from three major retailers in a “full black out.” It encourages people to “skip the companies undermining democracy. Shop small, local, or with businesses affirming our humanity.”
The campaign is an "economic action and solidarity campaign designed to defend democracy and reclaim community power."
What Retailers are Being Protested?
The campaign is boycotting Target, Amazon, and Home Depot, each for separate reasons related to the Trump administration. "We chose these three companies as a collective of leaders coming from many organizations," Sahay told Newsweek.
Sahay also noted, "this is about consumer power. The economic impact will be clear enough when we see people keeping their money in their wallets."
Newsweek reached out to the retailers for comment via email on Sunday.
A coalition of groups is boycotting retailer and grocery chain Target over rolling "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.”
Trump has directed the government to move away and roll back DEI efforts, including through executive orders. Target followed suit, facing backlash and boycotts over its decision to roll back several DEI initiatives earlier this year, and its market share price has fallen significantly since the beginning of the year.
A spokesperson for Target told Newsweek in a statement: "With over 400,000 team members and a footprint in all 50 states, Target has a long-standing commitment to creating growth and opportunity for all. We work every day to unlock potential and create lasting impact by empowering entrepreneurs, supporting small businesses, uplifting our team members and strengthening the 2,000+ communities we operate in."
The boycott also includes mega online retailer Amazon, which the campaign says “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.”
Bezos also owns The Washington Post, which broke with its longtime practice of endorsing presidential candidates when it declined to back anyone in last year's election, a move the Washington Post Guild said was directed by Bezos.
Bezos bought the paper in 2013, and the newsroom has undergone major shifts since Trump returned to office in January, including an overhaul of the opinion section.
...When it comes to Home Depot, the coalition wrote on its website: “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.”
The chain has rejected claims that it has coordinated with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) following several worksite raids at the stores.
In response to an X user writing that Home Depot had cooperated with ICE and “allowed them to work out of their parking lots,” the company wrote last week: “This is untrue – we aren't coordinating with ICE.”
A spokesperson for Home Depot told Newsweek for a previous related story that they “aren’t notified that immigration enforcement activities are going to happen,” and that they “aren’t involved in the operations."
However, the allegation has led to growing calls to boycott the home improvement retailer, with protests staged at Home Depots in cities such as Chicago and Charlotte, North Carolina, where immigration agents have been active.
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