People who mock ethical stances by businesses are just afraid of change, the boss of Tony’s Chocolonely has said.
Douglas Lamont, chief executive at the chocolatier, which campaigns against slavery and forced labour in the chocolate industry, hit out at critics of the shift towards social purpose and green policies in business.
This is indeed the purpose of a market economy. Do whatever the hell you like. Then see who is interested. If the people are not interested well then, that’s just one of those bright ideas that didn’t work, isn’t it?
The point is here that sure, you should try ethical business etc. As long as you accept that verdict of the market on the idea.
You do have a point Tim.
What I care about is if the chocolate tastes good and how much it costs.
But I’ve pointed out before that I’m a selfish bastard.
Saw the video of the boss of Wickes calling anyone who doesn’t agree with his getting the company to push LGBTQ ideas, bigots.
Won’t be buying anything from there again then.
You’d have thought these cunts would’ve learned something from Gerald Ratner…….
…..or from the woke ridiculousness of Anheuser Busch and that little twat Mulvaney.
Any flavour of Budweiser is like sex on the beach – fucking close to water.
Is there a market for chocolate actually made by slaves ?
What could it be called ? “Roots” ?
This Wickes farrago has created a slew of memes on the Interwebs, mostly based around the Two Ronnies sketch.
“Plug, rubber.”
“What for ? Bath? Sink ?”
“Butt”
/applause for Ottokring
I read somewhere online that Wickes own Toolstation, which would have been a bit of a problem for me, as I use them all the time. Fortunately its not true, Toolstation is owned by Travis Perkins, who did also own Wickes, but Wickes was demerged into a separate business in 2021.
Ahhh…
Thanks Jim
That is why my local Toolstation moved into theur own shop. Before they were in Wickes.
Given Wickes’s customer base is basically builders and DIYer blokes, one wouldn’t have thought its the sort of demographic who are going to respond positively to LBGT wokery.
Jim – this story has this in common with the Bud Lite farrago. Like the Bud Lite campaign woman, the Wickes bloke is ashamed of the demographic that drives his sales and wishes to “improve” them.
There’s something about the name Screwfix that might make this a logical alternative retailer for “bigots”.
It’s not enough to be passively Anti-Communist, we must be actively Anti-Communist.
It will be interesting if shareholders start during managers for loss of shareholder value. Talk of this in the states.
Addolff – Burgers?
Otto – LOL
Jim – Does Wickes do Trade? The kind of guys who work in shorts tend to be *somewhat* socially liberal, on account of also being hedonistic cash-in-hand libertines.
(Not every British tradesman is into recreational drugs, hookers and preserving HMRC’s innocence. Just most of them.)
They ain’t woke though, and their politics tend towards conspiracy theories as opposed to homosexual denunciations of your own customers.
I’m not buying anything called Chocoloney. Reminds me of those Harry Enfield “I Saw You Coming” sketch and I don’t want to be associated with those sort of people, even if it’s very good chocolate.
BoM4 – “chocoloney” sounds like it’d be unpleasantly nutty.
” Does Wickes do Trade”
Its a sort of halfway house. Not a Jewsons or Travis Perkins, which are just trade, and operate mostly via credit accounts, and not a B&Q which is domestic cash sales only. You can have a credit account at Wickes, but it also has tills for the general public to come in and buy DIY stuff. Small scale builder/handymen would have Wickes accounts.
If Dr. Johnson were alive today, he’d have to update his maxim: accusing your opponents of being “afraid of change” is the last resort of the modern-day scoundrel.
Sam – in Clown World, the people who come into your shop to buy an extractor fan for the toilet are your “opponents”
Jim – thanks, be interested to see if this gets traction. My guess is that now is not a good time to piss off any section of the customer base, it’s not like people are flush with cash.
If this was 1994, the guy would already be gone.
Also, in 1994, “ethical” meant not bulldozing tropical rainforests or training chimpanzees to fly tactical fighter jets.
In 2023, “ethical” means perverted strangers persuading your daughter to get her teetus deletus and grow a beard.
But why do bigots dislike “change”?
Tony’s Chocolonely have, of course, entered into a relationship with that famously ethical company Brewdog, the one dogged by harassment and bullying claims and which raised money from small investors before telling them that they basically can’t ever cash out
Certainly not the worst set of figures I’ve ever seen. Well over £100m sales in the year to September 2021.
Note that I said figures. The annual report, all 106 pages of it, makes me suspect their best seller is called Larks Vomit. There is a geographical analysis but it really can’t be arsed to read it as all the in your face text illustrations, slogans and pieties were giving me a headache.
Their ESG rating must be off the scale.
Flatcap – Brewdog is beer for “men” who buy craft beard oil and think “misgendering” is real.
It’s Remain: The Pisswater.
I use beard oil. No idea if it’s “craft”, but it stops my beard squeaking. Nothing more irritating than a squeaky beard.
One might think that Wickes ought to be, um, gagging to re-acquire Toolstation.
Ah Wickes. They’re never having my custom again. Not because they’re woke, but because they are just plain CRAP.
Shop needed new stairlights. EUSSR has banned fluorescents, so I’ve had to buy LED units. Which required all new wiring. Which I’ve spent this afternoon doing. With two LED units bought from Wickes last week. these things.
BOTH OF WHICH ARE ALREADY BROKEN.
The first one, the fixing brackets have broken. WTfuckingH? What on *EARTH* light fitting is not itself screwed to the wall/ceiling, but has dinkly little brackets that are screwed to the wall, that the unit then clips into – destroying the clips in the process.
The second one after lighting up once is now just plain dead. There’s power all the way to the end of the feed all the way up to the pluggy thing that plugs into it, but the unit itself is dead.
Well, sorry Mr Wickes, I am just plain never setting foot in your stores again. This is on top of not having any MCBs, not having grey waste pipe, not having loads of stuff that you think “I’ll not go to B&Q, I’ll go to a proper hardware store”.
If any businesses are afraid of change, they can give it to me. Especially the £2 coins. I’m not afraid of them.
And now Bud Lite are offering a climate neutral beer. No bubbles perhaps?
Dr K. A. Rogers @ 4.46, I had an email exchange with some bird from Budweiser a year or two ago regarding the claim on the box that the stuff is made using “100% renewable energy”.
Me: Hi Xxxxxxx, many thanks again for the quick reply and link to the info page. But, how do you power your operations when the wind isn’t blowing and / or at night? Do you shut down until there is enough renewable power available?
Bud bird:”The electricity gets stored rather than being directly connected to the wind turbines”.
Me:Hi Xxxxxxx, many thanks again for taking the time to reply.
Your last response also doesn’t answer the crux of my question (it also makes no sense either): Is Budweiser brewed using only renewable energy or do you use non renewables in the brewing process during periods when the wind isn’t blowing?
Bud bird: Crickets……………..
Right up there with “You’re never alone with a Strand”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjBHUQEiTPw
Has he put the choc in colon?