An effort to encourage U.S. consumers to participate in a day of protest by not spending money Friday has picked up momentum online, with thousands of people across social media saying they plan to take part in the “economic blackout.”
Started roughly a month ago by John Schwarz, a Chicago-area meditation and mindfulness educator, the idea has taken off on social media, where searches for the term surface hundreds of posts of people sharing screenshots of infographics and encouraging others to participate in the protest. Google’s search data shows queries for “economic blackout” have surged in recent days.
“Don’t buy stuff on February 28,” author Stephen King posted on Bluesky. “Money’s the only thing these d—- understand.”
Actors John Leguizamo and Bette Midler have shared similar sentiments in recent days to their social media accounts.
The call to action, or inaction in this case, comes as the prices of essentials such as groceries continue to rise, the housing market remains frozen and U.S. credit card debt has reached a record high. Adding to those woes, a closely followed consumer confidence report recently logged its sharpest decline since August 2021.
Schwarz, who didn’t respond to requests for comment, also recently created a website for the protest effort — The People’s Union USA — to essentially unionize working-class people across the country.
In several videos posted online, Schwarz has said his campaign is a nonpartisan attempt at economic resistance against corporate greed, political corruption and economic exploitation.
As part of the protest effort, Schwarz is asking shoppers to halt all nonessential purchases online and in stores. If people must spend, he said, they should funnel their dollars to only small and local businesses. He is also urging people to take the day off from work if possible.
Since he began promoting the idea of a 24-hour economic blackout, Schwarz has gained hundreds of thousands of new followers across TikTok and Instagram, according to the social media analytics website Social Blade.
“This is not just a protest. This is our warning shot. For too long, corporations have treated the American people like an endless source of profit,” Schwarz said in a video Monday. “They raise prices because they can. They pay workers the bare minimum while raking in record profits. They also lobby politicians to keep the system rigged in their favor. But what is it they fear the most? It’s us.”
Economic analyst Mark Hamrick said he has observed a growing public awareness of wealth and income inequality, driven by what he called “the financialization of the economy, where essentially the interests of shareholders are prioritized over the interests of stakeholders.”
Still, retail analyst Neil Saunders said translating online traction into action could prove difficult.
“It may gain enough support to have a small impact on the day itself, but in the scheme of all the spending that goes on in the US economy it’s unlikely that it will create a huge hole,” Saunders wrote in an email, adding that many consumers will most likely only defer their spending to the following day.
After the initial 24-hour blackout, The People’s Union has scheduled additional weeklong boycotts of specific companies throughout the year, targeting Amazon, Nestlé, Walmart, General Mills, Target and McDonald’s. Another general 24-hour economic blackout is also scheduled for April 18.
Representatives for Amazon, Nestlé, Walmart, General Mills, Target and McDonald’s didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday.
The online movement has echoes of the Occupy Wall Street movement that broke out in 2011, a culmination of public discontent and distrust in corporations after the 2008 economic recession. The scheduled inaction, however, is a contrast to the Occupy movement, which had protesters flooding the streets for months to mobilize against economic inequality and corporate corruption.
Schwarz’s campaign insists it isn’t political, and it doesn’t explicitly mention widespread cuts to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives — which have ramped up in the wake of rhetoric from conservative pundits and recent directives from the Trump administration. Still, many online have called for the more targeted boycott of brands that have slashed their DEI efforts.
Several political organizations have added their support to Friday’s planned blackout, specifically citing the rollback of DEI initiatives. (Such initiatives, which typically include policies geared toward ensuring fair treatment of people from different backgrounds, have become a cultural flashpoint as the Trump administration describes them as “discriminatory” and anti-merit.)
“We encourage members to avoid buying anything that day unless it’s from a small, local business,” the Colorado League of Women Voters said on Instagram. “Especially avoid large companies that are rolling back or eliminating their DEI programs, including Target, Walmart, McDonald’s and Amazon.”
Major companies such as Walmart, Lowe’s, Ford and Toyota were among the first to dial back their DEI programs late last year, particularly after social media-driven campaigns by influencers like Robby Starbuck, who reported last week that PepsiCo was one of the latest to follow suit.
Companies across the country had pledged sweeping support for diversity efforts after the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in 2020 initiated a national social justice movement. But President Donald Trump has issued a slew of executive orders against DEI in his first weeks in office, some of which have faced legal hurdles as civil rights organizations sued and a federal judge blocked his administration from terminating DEI-related grants.
Last month, Target also said it will end its three-year DEI goals, stop reports to external diversity-focused groups like the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index and end a program focused on carrying more products from Black- or other minority-owned businesses.
The move drew immediate calls for a boycott as shoppers urged one another to switch to Costco, which is among the companies that have expressed intentions to continue their diversity efforts. The comments on Target’s latest social media videos have been filled with mentions of Costco as users reply that they’re “[w]atching this while eating a Costco hot dog” or that they’d “rather shop at Costco!”
The boycott Friday coincides with the ongoing “Latino Freeze” movement, which similarly describes itself as a nonpartisan grassroots effort “advocating that everyday purchases be made with American businesses that support the Latino community.” Its website describes it as a response to the erosion of DEI efforts in a variety of industries, as well as the “growing fear and marginalization of our immigrant communities” as the Trump administration cracks down on immigration.
The Latino Freeze campaign urges people to shop only for essentials and avoid major purchases while supporting local businesses or businesses that support DEI and immigrant communities. It provides lists of major retailers that have demonstrated commitments to DEI, as well as lists of those that have scaled back on such initiatives.
“We encourage all consumers to explore the information provided and make their own informed decisions about which companies align with their values and priorities,” the movement says on its website. “The choice to support or engage with any company is entirely up to the individual consumer.”
Hamrick, the economic analyst, said any visible impact from large-scale boycott campaigns would most likely require more consistency — which is difficult to achieve when many people in the United States depend on chain corporations for their daily purchases.
“If there were more substantial and sustained movement toward buying local, targeting privately owned businesses, that could gain some momentum,” Hamrick said. “One of the challenges is there aren’t many choices out there. In other words, how many entities can you do business with that fit this description over a long period of time? And the answer is there aren’t many.”