Reply #26: Not really "media", but I think one could challenge Costco's policy of favoring right wing books... [View All]

[cascadiance]

They obviously are having big quantities of "overstock" books dumped on them by well-heeled right wingers that are trying to pump the rating of the many right wing authors they stock so much crap from (Hannity,Beck,Palin) and on so many right wing topics too.

I rarely see anything close to progressive political books there on the shelves. I think I saw a stack of "Fair Game" books when the movie came out earlier this year. And on one rare occasion I astonishingly found ONE copy of Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine" in paperback that almost looked like it was planted there instead of being sold. And we get a few about some "moderate" Democrats from a historical perspective like Obama (though the anti-Obama books far outnumber any that are pro-Obama). And in a town like Portland with the largest Costco in America in Hillsboro, you'd expect just a FEW copies of Thom Hartmann's books here? Especially when he's released a few new ones or revisions just in the last year that have been very relavent?

I think if we launched a petition campaign to the company and noted that many of us progressives like Costco for its otherwise very progressive treatment of its employees, etc. and are a significant portion of their customer base that avoids places like WalMart in favor of Costco. Say that they have a FLAWED book buying policy that doesn't provide books that a significant portion of their customer base wants. If this got enough publicity, perhaps they'd feel pressure (where many other companies like WalMart wouldn't) to start increasing offerings of books that we like as well, not just stacks of unsold crap that the overstockers force on them that contribute to the dumbing down of our people.

I think this is a consumer battle that we have some leverage with and can win, if we play our cards right! Books are a portion of the big media landscape that has been so warped by corporate America. If we can dent the fringes (like books at Costco), perhaps we can get that much more of the public to ask for more diversity in other areas of media like television and radio, if they start seeing more diversity represented on the book counters they walk by and browse as well.

Perhaps if Costco doesn't respond well to start with, we can threaten to up the ante and join force with those boycotting Bolthouse farms products (that Costco sells heavily) that the gay community are protesting with Bolthouse corporate leadership contributing to anti-gay funds, etc. If that also gets publicity, that might lead to some publicity that they'd want to avoid.