The Power of Voting With Your Dollars

This week, we did our grocery shopping at Safeway with a list in hand. We managed to stay $5 under budget for the week, and the leftover cash was immediately sent to our emergency fund. I meant it when I said in the last post that we were saying goodbye to Walmart. It felt right as we were checking out with our groceries and ended up chatting with one of the workers.

I delightedly told my teen we were under budget, and the worker chimed in. She said, “That’s good—most people struggle with that.” I told her that we use all the coupons we can find and don’t shop at Walmart because it’s inconvenient for us. As I mentioned, it’s quite a ways from us. She said she doesn’t shop there either and can’t really stand it, but her daughter does. She prefers WinCo, which, as I mentioned in the previous post, is a store we like too. Unfortunately, it’s even farther than Walmart for us, so we’re sticking to Safeway and, on rare occasions, Fred Meyer and Target.

It was nice to not feel alone in our decision about where we’re choosing to vote with our dollars. Recently, I’ve seen many people online announcing their boycotts of companies that don’t align with their values. Sometimes, there’s pushback from commenters saying those dollars won’t be missed because others will continue to shop there. However, what these commenters fail to understand is that we, the public, vote with our dollars. Even if others shop there, individuals are still choosing not to put their money into establishments they no longer trust or support.

If more people understood this, real change could happen. But so many fall into the trap of thinking their dollars don’t matter, believing the establishments hold all the power. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Once every four years, we get to vote for the highest power, but every single day, we vote with where we spend our dollars. That matters in the grand scheme of things.

Walmart may not miss my individual spending, but if more people vote with their dollars elsewhere, it will force them to address people’s concerns. Even if not enough people boycott, there’s personal validation in sticking to what you believe in and value. So many people walk around burdened with the weight of the world because they don’t realize how much power they have, especially for themselves.

I feel better now that we’ve aligned our shopping habits with our personal beliefs. What everyone else chooses to do is their business. I vote where I think it matters, and that’s all the control I have.