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Systemic issues of unethical business practices?

Do the business ethics of an establishment affect your purchase decision ?

  • issues that may concern a company's principles and business ethics in its labor management (unfair labor practices, discrimination, etc.), social responsibility (donations to the poor, scholarship grants, etc), marketing ethics (attack ads, s3x in advertising, subliminal messgs, false advertisings, etc), production ethics (animal testing, pollution/environmental considerations, etc) Or do you usually buy/patronize products without any regard to the abovementioned? Honest opinions are highly appreciated. Thanks.

  • Answer:

    This type of consumer consideration is only practiced in well-developed nations such as Japan, the EU and the USA. In countries such as the Philippines, consumers are less likely to apply such a mindset for the following reasons: 1. The popularity or "patokness" of most products marketed to pinoys is primarily based on cosmetic appeal, price point and, most of all, availability. If only one brand of milk is sold in the small barangay you live in, you're pretty much stuck with that brand regardless of quality or the business practices of the manufacturer; 2. The ethical practices and initiatives of most local companies are not published. Most consumers due to extreme poverty will consider any product that is priced low enough to meet their very tight budgetary constraints, which is a short list. Heck, most Filipinos are not even aware of the dangers of some product's toxicity to their own children. In short, largely no.

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I buy Hapee toothpaste of Lamoiyan Corp, because they help employ disable people.

guRl

right after the exxon valdez incident lots of people tore their exxon credit cards but i doubt if it affected exxon's bottom line. for consumer activists the things you mentioned are very important but for the average consumers they hardly care. personally the only businesses i wont patronize anymore are those that have treated me rudely.

RHEA

If I was given a chance/informed of the malpractices of a certain company or manufacturer, that easily turns me off. Your question reminds me of a company who was filed a case in court by a group of environment activists about the company's dumping of toxic wastes in a river adjacent to their factory. I was never an environment geek, but their irresponsibility left a deep mark in my mind, and until now, I always prefer to buy products from their competitors. Most people will do the same thing, if they will only be given a chance and a choice as well as enough resources.

queenie

Yes all those things matter but how often do you have that info?

jd

the good profile of the company is a major factor in the appeal of the product. if the company is taking care of its personnel, you can be assured that they will give you the best in their products.

re.vilo

of course that is one of the factor that affected my decisions, but I have other considerations too like price and the quality of the product, when all things are equal, I go with the company with good principles I always send UNICEF cards, not because I like their designs, but I like them helping poor children

BATMANia

no. i really don't. i am a consumer and it's the job of these establishments to give me choices. besides, if i'm going to buy something, i don't bother to research information for every one of its company's business ethics. the only reason why i should patronize a product is because i believe in it... period. Nike's Indonesian sweat shops are highly publicized, and yet i still buy Nike. GAP has a sweat shop in Cavite (where i've met some of its workers) but i would still buy GAP if it suits my style. SM Malls have had a number of unfair labor practices over the years and yet i still go to SM. a lot of American products and services attack their competitors because it's normal to do so over there. there are particular unethical business ethics that a lot of establishments may or may not be known for, but it hardly affects my purchase decision. however, i won't believe Ronald McDonald if he says Jollibee's milk comes from China and has melamine. i know i'm smart enough not to be fooled and believe everything that establishments or scammers come up with. utak lang katapat niyan.

Papa Alpha Oscar

If someone is selling something that I want to buy, what do I care if they eat dog meat for breakfast or believe in the tooth fairy. I worry only about my own life. I don't really care what everybody else is doing and I certainly don't try to take on social manipulation through my massive purchasing power. Let WalMart and China handle that stuff. Do you honestly think you can change the behavior of an entire company or corporation by demanding they change in order to earn your business? Get real. How do you feel about those businesses that insist you load their software (adware) before you can buy from them online? Lets see who changes first.

A.W.

No. Most of these business ethics are not known to the consumer when they buy at the store. It is usually the price and quality, store accessibility and the way you are treated that will matter most. During these hard economic times, would you as a shopper, go to a mall far away from your location, whose prices are the same as the one near your place just because of the above-mentioned factors? I do not think so.

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