I do what I can to avoid megacorp products, because I hate them almost as much as they hate me. It really is virtually impossible though. Still, I do my best. If everyone cut their megacorp consumption by just 10%, that would mean the megacorps' profits reduce by 10%, which would mean the death of most if not all of them.
Walmart raked in $572 billion dollars last year, with a net income of $13.6 billion. Reduce that revenue by 10% and their net income is now negative $43 billion, which wipes out almost 20% of their total assets. Five years of that and Walmart would be dead.
People don't realize how much power the average consumer has by simply not consuming. The real trick is to get people to listen.
Your math is a bit off, but overall your heart is in the right place.
If you buy a $20 item from Wallmart, they don't make $20 in profits. They make $2 in profits, and $18 in product delivery and expenses. The reason they drive small businesses out of business is they can operate on such thin margins for a long time. So cutting their revenue by 10% really would only cut their profits by 1%, if the above example were accurate, and I think that is more or less their margins give or take a couple cents.
It still has a strong impact, though. As per your example, you'd halve their profits with a mere 10% reduction, which while not putting them out of business, would get their board of directors on the asses of everyone with any level of decision-making power.
I do what I can to avoid megacorp products, because I hate them almost as much as they hate me. It really is virtually impossible though. Still, I do my best. If everyone cut their megacorp consumption by just 10%, that would mean the megacorps' profits reduce by 10%, which would mean the death of most if not all of them.
Walmart raked in $572 billion dollars last year, with a net income of $13.6 billion. Reduce that revenue by 10% and their net income is now negative $43 billion, which wipes out almost 20% of their total assets. Five years of that and Walmart would be dead.
People don't realize how much power the average consumer has by simply not consuming. The real trick is to get people to listen.
Your math is a bit off, but overall your heart is in the right place.
If you buy a $20 item from Wallmart, they don't make $20 in profits. They make $2 in profits, and $18 in product delivery and expenses. The reason they drive small businesses out of business is they can operate on such thin margins for a long time. So cutting their revenue by 10% really would only cut their profits by 1%, if the above example were accurate, and I think that is more or less their margins give or take a couple cents.
It still has a strong impact, though. As per your example, you'd halve their profits with a mere 10% reduction, which while not putting them out of business, would get their board of directors on the asses of everyone with any level of decision-making power.