On Feb. 28, an economic blackout took place across the United States, urging people to abstain from any financial purchases for 24 hours. The blackout was initiated and spread online via social media by The People’s Union USA, a grassroots coalition working towards economic, corporate and governmental reform.
The blackout, future iterations of which will follow in coming weeks, takes place amid highly controversial economic policies from the Trump administration. These policies, including delayed but planned 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico, are intensifying concerns about raised product prices among consumers.
John Schwarz, the founder of The People’s Union, called the blackout a chance to “make history” and “remind them [corporations] who really holds the power” in a Feb. 27 Instagram post. He mentioned the global potential for the movement, stating that, “people in… different countries are standing in solidarity with us.”
The People’s Union did not respond to The Wire’s request for comment on the blackout.
Whitman students and professors alike had plenty to say about the matter. Many appreciated the idea of an economic blackout in theory.
In an email to The Wire on behalf of leadership from Whitman’s Economics Club, first-year Peter Hanford expressed approval of the movement.
“I think the show of force is effective[;] after all, consumers are a very important part of the economy,” Hanford said.
Hollon Parker Professor of Economics and Business, Denise Hazlett, pointed out the ability of an economic boycott to make consumers more aware of their purchasing habits.
“I think it’s not a bad idea to ask people to reflect for a day,” Hazlett said. “A day spent thinking about reducing, reusing and repurposing can help us start changing our habits.”
Visiting Assistant Professor of Politics Ian Walling acknowledged the potential of The People’s Union’s aim with the blackout.
“Their clear goal was that it [the blackout] would be symbolic enough to generate enough attention that people would see, ‘Oh, there is latent power here that we could use collectively later on,’” Walling said.
However, the broad consensus on the blackout reflected its dubious raw impact. Recent data from the days following the blackout suggests that Amazon’s sales increased slightly on Feb. 28. Other large retail companies such as Walmart and Target experienced negligible decreases in sales.
Assistant Professor of Economics Jason Ralston qualified these results.
“It’s… really hard to say that a change in sales on the 28th was due to a boycott or not[.] [T]here are too many factors at play that aren’t being accounted for,” Ralston said in an email to The Wire.
Indeed, a whole host of potential factors could explain the downturn in sales for many retail corporations on Feb. 28. These include economic ones, like market fluctuations, that change the value of financial assets and in turn affect prices. Seasonal factors are also at play. For example, the post-holiday period sets in by February, leading to a natural shopping regression from peak December rates. Even something as seemingly simple as cold weather can keep would-be consumers indoors and reduce consumption.
According to Walling, these results — or lack thereof — are nevertheless indicative of the inability of short-term economic protests like blackouts to effect concrete economic change.
“A blackout… is almost entirely pointless. It is a functional non-act. …You’re not bankrupting Amazon by skipping a day of shopping, and… if you didn’t shop at Amazon on Friday, you just shopped on a Saturday,” Walling said.
Walling explained three criteria that make a boycott effective as a type of protest.
“They identify an actor whose behavior could change in a way they would like, they make it legible to that actor what change they want and they hold that boycott for long enough to put meaningful pressure on the target. A one-day boycott doesn’t do any of that,” Walling said.
For smaller businesses, the impact of the blackout is unclear. Theoretically, they could benefit profit-wise from the shift of emphasis away from large companies. According to Ralston, however, they stand to be most affected by blackouts.
“The businesses most likely to be impacted are those on the margins — just barely taking in enough money to cover costs. Those aren’t likely to be large retailers,” Ralston said.
When it comes down to it, economic protests often suffer from a lack of cohesion, as Walling attested to.
“…in an econ[omic] boycott like this, no one who participates in it knows if anyone else is, so they don’t get a sense of how big the movement really is,” Walling said.
Walling elaborated on the flaws specific to the Feb. 28 boycott.
“The People’s Union[‘s]… demands are vague and broad, and the purpose of this blackout was not particularly well conveyed on social media. People were told it was largely to show the power of the people and the economy, which is a very loose target. None of the businesses who lost business that day know what behavior to change to prevent people from doing this in the future,” Walling said. “Politics is about the exercise of power to compel changes in behavior. I don’t think this does that.”
Furthermore, the Feb. 28 blackout was hindered just by virtue of taking place online.
“Online organizing is terrible compared to in-person organizing — infinitely less effective at building the relationships that are sustained and effective in the long-term,” Walling said.
No matter its shortcomings, the blackout demonstrates the contentious consumer-corporate relationship that continues to shape the national economy. Short of launching a revolutionary economic movement that puts corporations on notice, there are still ways for consumers to make an impact — particularly through sustainable consumption.
“Doubling down on understanding where and who makes the things you are buying is important,” said Hanford.
In addition, Walling stressed the importance of intentional focus on a specific part of production to achieve change.
“…it’s better to save your quiver for the most part — not to spend too much time trying to source all your products. …[instead], think about, ‘Okay, if I have a problem with this particular production process, is there a link in that chain I can hit? Is there an actor I can strike? Who do I need to talk to to change this?’” Walling said.
Ultimately, Walling believes it will take more than anger for consumers to create the economic change they want to see.
“…it’s a difficult kind of anger to organize… effective political action means identifying relevant actors who can change their behavior in ways that are good for you,” Walling said. “…the difficulty for consumers is that things like prices are determined at so many places that identifying a specific actor who can change that for you is hard.”
Difficult as organizing may be, some consumers are certainly going to keep at it. Additional blackouts —some scheduled across weeks or even months — have been planned and aim to target one retailer at a time. In particular, Schwarz and The People’s Union are following up the Feb. 28 blackout with a week-long boycott of Amazon beginning Friday, March 14. As these protests continue to unfold, monitoring their effectiveness will prove a key metric in broader assessments of the current consumer relationship to the economy.
