Power In Business (Part 4): Consumers

Thus far, this series has focused on people who are in some way a member of a company or directly affiliated with its policies, either as an employer or employee, or someone representing an employee to employers as part of a union.  There is no such thing as a business without at least one employer and one employee, and unions are collective bargaining groups which employees could form or join.  Because of this, employers, non-unionized employees, and unionized employees all have a certain kind of power.  Still, another group must be present and active in order for there to be any company to hire people or any need for workers in the first place: consumers are a vital part of business because if there is no one able or willing to pay for a company's product or service, there is nothing to keep the business running.

It is not that consumers are more vital to a business than employers or employees.  All three of these groups are necessary for a business to avoid closing down permanently, so to remove one is to destroy the social foundation of business altogether.  Unions, as I have already clarified, are necessary to protect workers from current exploitation or to offer a better chance of resisting/preventing it in the future, as they are not necessities for business to open or function at a basic level, even if they can be used to amplify the power of employees to gain or keep pay at a livable or deserved level, among other things.  Consumers, the people who actually make purchases that provide companies with revenue, are the only group external to a company (though employees can act as consumers for their own companies) that is required for business.

Like how employers and employees have their own respective power to make a business thrive or to exploit and harm each other, consumers have power.  Just as a business would die if all employees left and refused to return, given that there was no one willing to replace them--and indeed, letting predatory workplaces die in this way might be the only thing that makes egoistic employers care about not oppressing workers--a business would not be able to continue if consumers stopped making purchases.  It would not even take a total absence of consumer spending, but just enough so that companies cannot make profit or at least break even after all expenses are paid.  Whether they realize or lean into this fact, consumers have immense power, the power to contribute to the prosperity or downfall of any company, from the most miniscule small businesses to the largest megacorporations.

The reasons why people might stop buying from a company are diverse.  Some consumers might stop because of a boycott over real or perceived philosophical problems with a company, others because they lose interest in what a company offers or forget about something they wished to purchase, and still others because they no longer have the financial resources to spare.  The most important of these is the power to genuinely hurt a company's "bottom line" if it it guilty of heinous actions, though it does not logically follow from spending money on something that a person knows about or supports (even if they do know) the worldview driving the company.  This is a crucial distinction to make because abstaining from all economic contributions to a company's success is not necessarily the same as being a just person or vice versa.

Regardless of how aware they are of this or how they act in light of it, the power of consumers is as much a part of business as that of employers and employees, and it is a power that many consumers seem to ignore or take for granted.  If a current client or other kind of buyer wants to oppose a company for legitimate injustices, they can always refrain from making more purchases that enrich the company, or more likely just those at the top of the corporate hierarchy.  This almost always would have only a very small impact if one random consumer was to stop purchasing, but like how employees who come together for unions can accomplish more as a group than its members could alone, the effect is greatly increased when numerous consumers stop buying.  There is little consumers can actually do beyond this to fight a company besides just looking to reason to at least understand logical truths about business that do not depend on greed or preference, but even just doing either of these ensures that at least one person does not live for consumerism or moral apathy.