Bo Albertus, a school principal in Denmark, finds the Spanish raisins he now snacks on less tasty than his favorite Sun-Maid ones from California. There is no perfect substitute for Heinz tomato soup, a staple in his pantry. And he misses Pepsi Max.
But as long as President Trump pursues policies that Mr. Albertus, 57, believes put Europe’s economy and security at risk, he will boycott these and other U.S. products. He is one of a growing number of Europeans, Canadians and others who are forgoing American goods to show their anguish and dismay at Mr. Trump’s treatment of longtime allies.
“I felt a sense of powerlessness,” said Mr. Albertus, who is an administrator of a Danish Facebook group dedicated to boycotting American goods that has 90,000 members. “We all feel that we are doing something,” he added. “We are acting on our frustration.”
The strongest momentum behind such consumer action appears to be in countries that Mr. Trump has directly antagonized, like Denmark, whose territory of Greenland he has threatened to take, and Canada, which he has repeatedly said should become America’s 51st state.
But as Mr. Trump embraces President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and imposes tariffs on European goods, groups dedicated to boycotting U.S. goods and swapping tips on local alternatives have popped up in several European countries.
In a Swedish Facebook group with over 80,000 members, users ask for tips on buying non-American laptops, dog food and toothpaste. Members of a French group sing the praises of European laundry detergents and smartphone apps, and debate whether Cognac or Scotch whisky is the better alternative to bourbon.
There are also detailed discussion threads about what exactly constitutes an “American” product — does Coca-Cola manufactured in Europe count, or ice cream from Ben & Jerry’s, now owned by the British company Unilever? — that illustrate how boycotts in an era of globalized commerce are far from straightforward. But the groups are mostly a place for anxious Europeans and others to share stories and vent about their opposition to U.S. policies.
Majken Jensen, 49, a coordinator for a government agency in Copenhagen, acknowledged that many millions of people buy U.S. products worldwide, and boycotts by some consumers in a few countries may not make a huge difference, at first. Still, she has stopped buying Oreos and Heinz ketchup, and has swapped Estée Lauder night serum for a local brand, Beauté Pacifique.
“I’m not even a drop in the ocean,” she said. “But that’s my little way to protest.”
Ms. Jensen emphasized that her decision to stop buying U.S. goods was in opposition to the Trump administration, not the American people. “We want our friends back,” she said.
The backlash has led some stores to implement changes that make it easier for customers to identify local products. Canada’s largest grocery chain, Loblaw, is using a “T” symbol to denote U.S.-made products that are more expensive because of retaliatory tariffs Canada recently put in place. In Denmark, the grocery store chains Netto, Bilka and Fotex added stars to the price tags of European goods after customers requested clearer labeling, their parent company said.
Elisabeth Braw, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, said that social media and the interconnected global economy gave consumers more of a voice than ever before.
“America has done many questionable things over the years,” she said, “but I don’t think even the Vietnam War could have triggered a campaign like this, simply because social media was not available.”
Business leaders are aware of the potential costs. Beyond Meat, the plant-based food company with headquarters in California, warned in its latest financial report that it could lose customers internationally because of “anti-American sentiment.”
Michael Medline, the chief executive of Canada’s second-biggest supermarket company, Empire, said this month that the company’s sales of U.S. products were “rapidly dropping” because of a growing demand for non-American products. That decline will continue as the company sources more products from countries other than the United States, the company said, as Canada’s retaliatory tariffs make U.S. goods more expensive to import.
The Swiss chocolate maker, Lindt, said this month that in Canada, it would start selling chocolate made in Europe rather than the United States, both to avoid tariffs and to reduce the risk of a consumer backlash.
One of the hardest-hit American brands abroad may be the electric carmaker Tesla, whose chief executive, Elon Musk, has become a key figure in Mr. Trump’s administration. He has also promoted far-right parties in Europe on X, the social media platform he owns. In Germany, Europe’s largest market for electric vehicles, sales of Tesla cars fell 76 percent in February compared with a year earlier, according to the German Association of the Automotive Industry.
Boycotts have hit the digital world, too, with consumers saying they have canceled subscriptions to Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video and other streaming services — even though substitutes with similar offerings were not easy to find. Mr. Albertus subscribed to Viaplay, a Swedish streaming service, where he recently started watching “Monk.” “It’s an American series, but life isn’t perfect,” he said.
Mads Mouritzen, who began the Danish Facebook group, said he had deleted his accounts on Airbnb and Hotels.com, and had stopped using Google and Microsoft Office. (He justified his use of Facebook, based in California, as a platform for the group because it was the easiest way to reach the most people.)
“It’s very important to say we still like the Americans, we still like the country,” he said. “There’s a current situation that we don’t like, and there’s a current administration we don’t like.”
Mr. Mouritzen, a 57-year-old janitor, said he hoped relations between the United States and Europe would eventually get back to where they were. But if that takes time, Mr. Mouritzen is prepared: He has a stockpile of 12 bottles of American-made Tabasco hot sauce, the one thing he can’t live without, purchased just before he started the boycott.
Content Source: www.nytimes.com