I’m feeling grumpy this morning, so this is a good list to tackle today.
1. Uber
If there’s a poster child for everything that is wrong with startup culture, it has to be Uber, doesn’t it? Their CEO was a garbage truck of a man who referred to this company as “Boober” because, well, use your imagination. Surprisingly, their corporate culture is sexist as hell. They don’t pay their drivers. They evade regulators by booking them to phantom cars. They try to bully cities into providing them special exemptions from regulations so they will have a competitive advantage over cabs, and when they fail, they leave the cities and claim to have been “forced” out. They’re a terrible, terrible company and, frankly, I’d rather walk than use Uber.
2. Hobby Lobby
Hobby Lobby went to the Supreme Court to fight for their right not to provide mandated birth control coverage for their employees, based on their strong religious convictions. Hobby Lobby invests in birth control due to their much stronger conviction in making bags of money. I’ve seldom felt less welcome in a store, so I’ll do them the favor of avoiding their business.
3. Chick-fil-A
You probably all know this one.
4. Papa John’s
Even if there weren’t a dozen better options for cheap pizza delivery, Papa John’s has a terrible record on employee benefits and wages. Papa John himself blames his company’s poor sales on…protests against police killing black people. Even if they sold a decent pie, no thank you.
5. Urban Outfitters
I’m not exactly in their core demographic anymore, but they still belong on this list. The big problem with Urban Outfitters is that they shamelessly rip off their designs from individuals. Screw them. I’ll buy the same thing on Etsy, even if its more expensive.
Bonus: Walmart (sort of)
I bet you expected to see Walmart on this list, didn’t you? I don’t like shopping there, but in extreme situations, I will. I hate their business model, I hate what they do to local business, there is no shopping experience that’s less pleasant, and they have a history of abusing the living daylights out of their employees. But…they actually pay their employees better than many retailers now. I don’t like doing business with them, but there are cases in which I will.