A similar wave of resistance against American-made products is rippling through Canada and Denmark. This backlash is exacerbated by American economic policy and political rhetoric. The movement is fast becoming a powerful idea among a much more diverse movement. Canadian Armed Forces veterans and Danish citizens are already actively exchanging U.S. products for European and local farm goods.
One of the most visible leaders of this boycott is Bo Albertus, an outspoken school principal from Denmark. Frustrated by President Trump’s tariffs—especially how he was doing it—and his overall approach to the U.S.’s closest trading partners, Albertus decided to act. He unsubscribed from every major American streaming service including Netflix, Disney Plus and Apple TV. For one thing, I can’t change the American political system, Albertus admitted. I can vote with my credit card, in a clear manifestation of how individual consumer preferences are the pure embodiment of my political ideology.
And by the way, Albertus is the administrator for a Facebook group that’s calling for an extensive boycott of U.S. goods. This group has earned a membership of over 90,000 members who regularly post recommendations for local substitutes for US-made products. You’ll even find Canadian alternatives for shoes and lawnmowers among the recommended replacements. These alternatives have become popular choices for those U.S. consumers wishing to avoid U.S. brands.
The sentiment driving the movement is indicative of overwhelming sentiment all over Denmark. On the ground in Copenhagen, the owner of a grocery store has already started taking American products off her shelves. Today, she doesn’t carry products such as Cheetos chips and Hershey’s chocolate. Christiansen was pleased to see that the boycott is giving people the opportunity to take their anger over Trump’s policies and hateful speech and do something productive with it. “I think it’s more for the Danish people to feel good that they are doing something,” she explained.
The boycott isn’t simply a grassroots effort — it has gained traction with large retail players, too. Collaborative and creative communication Denmark’s Salling Group, the country’s largest grocery store operator, introduced a new price label. This label includes a black star to denote European brands. This campaign is designed to support local businesses by raising awareness of the boycott’s importance.
Even with this increasing and broad-based movement, experts warn of disappointing economic fallout. Douglas Irwin, a professor of economics at Dartmouth College, said he’s not convinced such boycotts work in the long run. Whether consumer boycotts will hurt the MLB’s bottom line, it’s hard to tell. In particular, it is inordinately difficult to get a sense of how much they stand to harm US trade. He pointed out that previous divestment movements have been transient and failed to achieve meaningful change.
Ethan Frisch, a business owner hurt by the boycott, offered his own response. “The [U.S.] economy is tanking all on its own. Businesses like mine are suffering under these punitive boycotts,” he said. Most importantly, he focused in on the idea that external factors too commonly eclipse the power of consumer choice.
That’s why Sasha Ivanov, founder of startup Maple Scan, launched a new mobile application last month that helps Canadian consumers find U.S. products’ Canadian-made alternatives. The idea has already proven popular on the app, with 100,000 downloads. The app is designed to make it easier for consumers to spoil foreign businesses instead of American employers.
Even as the movement builds momentum, it is symptomatic of a broader and deeper American public discontent with America’s foreign policy and economic predilections. Albertus remarked on the collective nature of this effort: “It’s a movement that is quite a lot bigger than just our little country, so it all adds up.”
Although most of these participants considering this boycott see it as an expression of their dissatisfaction, the future ramifications are unknown. Observers from Irwin to the International Institute for Sustainable Development warn against thinking that fearless individual consumer action alone will shake up America’s trade relationship enough. “In the past, boycotts have not lasted long and have not achieved much,” he noted.